Fall Equinox, 2017
Today is the official first day of autumn! The arc of the sun begins to shift toward the south and the birds and butterflies are already migrating.
To mark the season, here are words from the venerable Mary Oliver:
Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness
Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out
to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do
if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on
though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.
— MARY OLIVER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author, most recently, of “Swan: Poems and Prose Poems”
My friend and creative co-conspirator, Lauren Kindle, is working on a wonderful new project this fall called ‘Intentional Loitering.’ A sample of her recent work is shown above. She’s forgoing her to-do list for a bit in an effort to encourage “curious and shy” new ideas for her paintings. You can read her recent blog about it here. The author George Saunders talks about something similar in this podcast.
Along the lines of art projects, I received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts to show my paper quilt project at the Nurture Nature Center in Easton, PA, in spring 2018. (Yay!)
As is always true, the writing (in this case of the grant application) helped me hone what I’m really doing with this project. I’ve retitled it “Seams” and you can read about my new vision here.
One of the women inspiring the project is Jenn Rossmann, a professor of Mechanical Engineering and a gifted writer. For your reading pleasure, here’s a recent short story by Jenn.
Speaking of writerly things, I’ll be presenting my book two more times in 2017, here and here.
And I’m working on my second novel. I use a Pinterest board as a visual for the writing. Thought you might be interested in checking it out here.
I leave you with this recent picture of a monarch in our yard. A few are still around before they migrate south to the overwintering grounds they have never been to before. They’ll find them, somehow.
Here’s to wonder and mystery.
Thanks for reading.
xoxo,
Kate
P.S. The photo of the monarch butterfly above was taken by my talented husband, David. Here we are together:
