What is Grounding You Lately?

March has been a month of contrasts. In one 24-hour period, my area experienced record high temperatures followed the next day by two inches of snow. I delight in the emerging flowers, then hope they will weather the falling overnight temperatures.

I welcome the lengthening days and have begun to clear the garden beds to get ready for planting.

Amid a season of change, I’ve also been leaning into creative practices for grounding.

Working on my book proposal is in the stage of editing, clarifying, and tedious checking of quotes and footnotes.

It’s creative work but not the generative and experimental kind I crave.

Since most of the work is done on the computer, you might be surprised to know that my tables are a mess of supplies and projects. Working with my hands grounds me to keep going with the editing.

The news in the world feels hard too - creative practices ground me in the moment and allow me to remember my sense of agency.

In March I’ve been drawing our dog, Java, each day. There is a community challenge called the 100 day project that began in February with an invitation to choose a creative act and do it each day for 100 days.

I loved the way the project organizers encouraged something simple and do-able that would be easy to work into a daily routine. I originally intended to have a special book for all my drawings but ended up just adding them to my journal, something I already spend time with each morning.

I love the way this practice adds a wordless task to my mornings. Looking and mark making brings me into the present moment for a meditative pause. Java has handled the added responsibility of being a model well and you will notice most of my drawings are of him napping, his favorite activity.

I’ve been crocheting some new animals and learning new skills along the way. Last week I made two snails. I wanted the spirals on the shells to be opposites so that when they fit together, they would be mirror images of each other. The easiest way to reverse a spiral was to crochet left-handed (I am right-handed). Slowly and deliberately, I learned to crochet with my left hand. It gave me a new appreciation for a task I have become able to do with ease and speed and hopefully sparked some new connections in my brain too!

I’ve been drawing and carving octopuses. It is a fun challenge to fit all the arms onto the block and to choose how they overlap and wind together. I printed my first octopus in my printing class and plan to try the smaller ones on cards at home.

Here is the first octopus I printed:

My printing class was on a short break, and I noticed how much I missed gathering in creative community.

Work on my proposal means it’s been longer than usual between newsletters too. I’ve missed this community and would love to hear what practices are grounding you in this season.

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I’ll end with a few more photos of new emergence in the garden and the wise words of Maxine Hong Kingston illustrated in my Mother Trees Series.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and being part of creative community through this newsletter.

With a grateful heart,

Kathryn