“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
Matsuo Basho
Light in the Garden of Movement
I love the uncomfortable place I am in. I love the mystery of not knowing how I’ll get to the next pose. I love that I could choose to neglect the garden of movement but that I choose to inhabit the uncomfortable mystery of watering seeds, flexing with the weeds, and waiting to see what wonders flourish. I love the sounds of nearby gardeners working on their own mysteries. Their movement nourishes my own. Their occasional glances over at my garden scatter sunlight on my pursuit.
The Weight of Flight
When there is nostalgia for touching
anything at all
There is coming down for prayer
and wishing you were here
To kneel before this
The one question, the next verse
The Heart of The Heel, Part II: Recycling Life Thematics
Then, as life will often have it, love entered, and the most crucial pivot of all landed her due north of her dreamed-of destination, in the heart of the heel. And just like that - the house expands. The work of being at home is now a lifelong project that involves the ongoing practice of take-off, landing, longing, and embracing the air space in between that allows for, and demands, a durable infrastructure of love.
The Heart (and The Tart) of The Heel, Part I: Evoking The Magic of Puglia
While probing the Pugliese playground with her two young, sunlit daughters in tow, Hilaree evokes the magic, the color, and very often, the humor of her adoptive habitat on the Italian Adriatic through her photography and storytelling, and the through the turning of local fruits and fixings into art: @tartoftheheel.
The Wanting Space (Revised)
Miles of trekking above the timberline to stockpile a vision
Tuned me in to the fertile valley of the deep,
Seasoned the endurance of my heart space,
And led me to this blooming meadow
Ognissanti
I'm not ready for immersion but the feeling of these damp steps beneath me will become a perennial part of my being. I lift heavy hands to mouth thinking only about breaking suddenly into from veganism to vegetarianism. I taste nothing new. The sensation of being relinquished and forgotten here, deep in the fall, will stay with me for years.
ogni passo
step together
step anyway
step for you
step for her
step for hope
step forward.
Here’s to a year of movement-
Live every step for what it is.
Happy Transition!
Somewhere Deep: Overcoming The Edge (Part 1)
All at once, I was bathing in a thermal breeze,
Warming numbness with newness,
Drunk on the swirling color
That still rises from somewhere deep
Flurries of carnal exhaust took the shape of nothing
And the color of everything
Into the Backdrop
In the partial shade or light we could sit there
Could we sit there? Guarded by the color still hanging on?
In sun-pierced red and yellow:
Me on one side, you on the other.
We could forget about the tightrope and explore the light and dark of in between.
This Wanting Space
What exploded in chaotic color
Now has a devoted space on the walls.
Visitors stop to wonder at it,
Connecting with its forms and blushing tone
Oxygen to Embers
Knowing nothing is what keeps the furnace kindled
Receiving barely enough fuel to maintain a glow
Oxygen to embers
your withdrawal opens up the perfect cleavage for combustion
The more you remove yourself
The brighter the coals