Alchemic Cross Pollination

“The most wondrous thing about these seeds is that, when they first fall into the fallow ground of the mind, we have no sense of what they will bloom into years, decades, and selves later, what alchemic cross-pollination will take place between them and other seeds in the dark underground of consciousness where we become who we are.”

Maria Popova, The Fairy Tale Tree

The Marginalian

Papaya Leaves

We neglected the compost this year and a massive papaya plant has emerged. Since they won’t survive the winter I’m collecting as many as possible for art materials.

This is actually one of the smaller leaves.

I’m having trouble finding a book large enough to press them in. Maybe a I can try some large boards and a weight? I want to preserve as many as possible.

Organisms as Mentors & Everyday Mystery

The On Being podcast is BACK and I am loving it!

These two episodes were amazing.

Janine Benyus Biomimicry, an Operating Manual for Earthlings on natural organisms as mentors and peers… learning from them rather than about them.

And Rick Rubin Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative. I have SO MANY quotes from this one because I listened while parked in the car while Davy napped:

  • “The real practice of the artist is a way of being in the world.”

  • “It’s hard for me to finish projects because I always see the possibilities of what else we could try and I want to try everything…”

  • “What I came to realize is that there is a time for this open play. And it’s in those first two parts of the process, the seed phase… and experimenting.”

  • “By working with sensitive artists, we resonate together in that we’re feeling things that not everybody else is feeling.”

  • “There is no connection between the amount of time invested and how good something is.”

  • “The sustainable part of the practice is: start with things that are easy to do.”