July Reflections
Answering the call to relate to the more than human world and the rituals that go along with that...
Hello Dear Readers, thank you so much for being here. My posts have become more infrequent. I find myself feeling generally overwhelmed these days by the many voices and words coming out of these little boxed-in screens, and stepping away from technology as much as I can has been really good for my sense of well-being and mental health. A wonderful friend of mine, Izzy, has taken over my social media management these past couple of months, and to not have to think about that as much or have instagram on my phone to constantly addictively check has been HUGE for my nervous system and sense of calm. Recently I had the realization that I am coming out of a 7-8 year constant hustle mode. As many of you who work for yourselves or are professional full-time artists know, it takes a lot to keep a business floating. It takes even more if you want it to bring in sustainable financial support. For the most part, I really enjoy piecing together all of the ways I support my family financially. Martha Beck talks about an ‘economic ecosystem’. Instead of having just one income stream, having a few different streams that can support one another and take the load off of just having one.
Over the past several years, I’ve felt really proud of the ways I have pieced these streams together. I create original paintings that I sell either in person or on my website. I create high quality giclee prints that I sell through my online shop regularly. I sell my work at markets and fairs, especially during the holiday seasons. And, I teach classes, mainly in person and occasionally online. I also take on commissions from time to time. And, most generously and gratefully, some of you pay for a yearly subscription here to read my words and get some extra perks because of it. All of these individual roads create a map that sustains me financially and creatively. I am so grateful to be able to pursue each of these ways of making money, and do so on my own terms.
That being said, my energy has felt lower in the production/painting side of artist life. While my husband and pup and I have been exploring living more rurally, I find myself desiring more time outside connecting with the trees and plants then I do sitting in a studio space painting. As I have also mentioned, I am in two herbalism programs at the moment and finding the study deeply inspiring and taking a lot of my attention and interest. I’ve been outside gathering flowers like wild bee balm and calendula and yarrow for making infused oils and teas with. I have big plans for this next moon cycle (full moon today!) to create some herbal medicines alongside her waxing and waning until the next full moon. Orienting myself to the natural cycles of nature has been incredibly nourishing and a remembering deeper than I could have known. My body wants to move slow. My normal city routine of keeping myself busy all day long doesn’t feel right out in this sanctuary of peaceful bird song and deep rolling hills. I find myself distracted by looking at the spiderwebs created overnight in the low wet grass. I have a million photos taken on my phone of wild plants to be ID’d later on wifi to find out what is growing around me. I feel I am being asked to partake in the more than human world more than ever. How does my sense of relating and connecting expand to grow wider into what is alive. The plants, the beings, the animals that live all around me. It is quite an invitation and I don’t want to look back at this special time and see that I tried to fill it with all of my old human-centric ways of being and relating. I am being asked to strip myself away from the culture that I am used to. How do I let the rituals of nature and magic form my days? How do I listen to my dreams and imagine a daily life that includes honoring the simple and basic and profound signs of breathing beauty all around me?
I have quite a few daily and weekly rituals now out here in the rural mountains that orient more to a sense of relating to the magic around me, without a need for any outcome. It is just a way of being, that feels nourishing in a different way. And, I am finding more play and expansiveness and release of some old patterning in it all. A few of the daily ways I connect with the more than human world:
I pour my first sip of coffee on the ground outside every single morning, and I say ‘thank you’ and ‘good morning’ to the land as I do. I feel the ripple of thanks reciprocated in my body every day. I was inspired to do this by reading Braiding Sweetgrass.
I write morning pages and often end up writing about my dreams from the night before. Having this practice has been the biggest support system for me over the past decade plus. I cannot recommend it enough.
I have an outdoor altar that I tend and go to to sing, to feel the trees, to talk to the land, to meditate.
After dinner every evening I walk my dog with my husband and we watch the fireflies rise up like twinkling lights from the green hillsides. It never gets old.
I walk or jog along the bull pasture river running very close to where we live. This is my favorite road to move on, huge cliffside rocks and trees and eagles and a very beautiful and powerful flowing river to listen to as I move alongside it.
I sing. I sing a lot now. It’s something I used to love to do as a kid and in general I was very immersed in a lot of musical hobbies, but as I got older and school got more narrowing in its creative opportunities, I had to give up chorus and orchestra in order to have space to explore visual arts. What would the world look like if creative arts were the dominant classes to choose from in our public school systems?
I immerse myself in the vast beautiful world of plants. I visit them, I pet them, I harvest them. I think about them a lot, I dream with them every night. I am in love with this honeymoon stage of my path as an herbalist, and am here for it in all of the ways the plants want to come through to me.
Favorite River Running spot
While I continue to explore these new daily ways of orienting myself to the world, I am taking the rest of July and August to really step away from screens and immerse myself in the summer bounty growing around me. It is a gift to get this time out in such a beautiful part of the world, and I want to really allow myself to soak into the late summer sun as much as possible. I am hoping that the break away from screens and often stiff feeling to-do’s will provide me with some new inspiration and ways to engage with you all when I return.
I’ll still be painting, teaching, and sharing when I feel called to do so. But I think it’s potent medicine in this destructive and chaotic feeling time to reorient ourselves to our own deep truths. And for right now mine is asking to honor the slowness and the discovery.
Thank you so much for reading these words, especially as I feel myself in a place of transformation and how I share my creative expression is changing with that too.
I do have a few pieces of inspiration and events to share with you all this month, which you can find below!
Current Musings and Inspirations…
Watercolor Workshop! I am SO excited to announce that I will be teaching a watercolor workshop at Two Stones Farm at the end of the month! Please come join Lindsey and Duane and I as we gather on their farm to witness all of the glorious foods and grains they grow, and get to paint some of the bounty together while enjoying a farm-to-table lunch afterwards. Pick your own blueberries in the afternoon! This class is a great value which includes all of your painting materials, refreshments and lunch. Claim your spot here.
Two Stones Farmers Duane and Lindsey I’m excited to partner with Anima Mundi, one of my very favorite herbal apothecaries, as an affiliate to offer a discount on all of their products. Use the code Molly15 to take 15% off any order.
AnimaMundi Schisandra Rose Tonic It’s been so wonderful to partner with Summer Supper Somm and attend a few of the dinners being hosted around the east coast this summer, offering silent auctions of my artwork with proceeds benefitting RVASCAN. Check out the events that are happening that still have a few tickets available here!
Summer Supper Somm Poster Art, also available as a giclee print Really enjoying Asia Suler’s new podcast, and especially love this episode about finding a plant ally.
Thank you for taking the time to read my words and subscribe to this little corner of the internet. I don’t think I am the only person feeling overwhelmed by content and a plethora of voices these days, and it means a LOT to me that you take the time to hear mine. Wishing you peaceful, relaxing, slow summer days ahead.
Om shanti!
Thank you for sharing