The spaces that hold us
With so much time at home this past year, I've developed an even greater reverence for what surrounds me. It's the space that holds it all, my memories and my unfolding experience. Every minute of every day it makes the space for me to live into.
Living so far away from my permanent home and my things I’ve also been reminded of what I miss - my books, photo albums, records, special objects, art - items with soul. They are the keepers of my memories, heartbreaks, joys and I like to think they hold the clues to my future. They remind me of where I've come from, who I am and what I love. These objects are temporary containers for the infinite. Like a prayer holds a blessing.
There is one precious object that has travelled with me these past four years up the length of the world and through four different homes living amongst other people's things. It's the bucket I drop down into the well of my experience whenever I need a moment outside of time.
I made this little ceramic cup during a time of deep devotion and creative flow. It reminds me of a time spent imagining and learning how to make useful things more beautiful than they needed to be. There's a reverence in knowing the provenance of what you make use of, knowing the earth from which the clay came and then drinking from it. To know this is to understand the importance of both its function and its potential to hold so much more.
This year, our spaces like our bodies have had to hold and accommodate so much more of us. They've felt cramped, at capacity, that they could not possibly accommodate one more drop of noise, frustration, compromise, boredom, loneliness or despair. And yet they could and they continue to do so. They always seem to make room. To breathe with us and somehow hold our vastness within their walls.
I'm feeling immense gratitude for all of the spaces that have held me this past year including this little cup that holds so much more than my morning coffee. Every sip continues to be a homecoming, a glimpse of a life. It meets me where I am and prepares the ground for me to expand into the world. It says to me every day, ‘the soul in me sees the soul in you’.
Do you have something, an object, a piece of music, an image, a poem, anything close to your heart that speaks to you in this way? I'd love to know. In the meantime, here is a little love poem that I wrote for my little cup -
With much love, Amanda