the days leading up to easter have especially beautiful to me this year. i have felt held by the sweetness of that spring gathering ritual in a mother's life: the easter basket. this year it's a small wooden bunny, a stacking rainbow, a book, and a ukulele, nestled together in play silks i dyed myself. all well- and thoughtfully made things for him to discover with his mind and hands, all things our family will use and treasure for many years.
i have been aching to work with my hands of late, and francis adores the play silks we use in his music class each week. i love how they can be anything, anything! the steam of a rolling train. soup to stir in a bowl. grass to feed sheep. costumes. flags of a ship or a parade. truly, what minds can imagine, play silks can become. making our very own set has been such a joy for me to labor over these past few days, from reading about the simple, natural dyeing process and what plant matter yields which color, to awaiting white silks in the post and trodding that sacred ground where patience and time meet earth's offerings and my own two hands.
working with turmeric and beets and black beans, hibiscus and chlorophyll and kale -- holding jarfuls of color up to the light -- dipping, rinsing, considering, drying, perhaps dipping again -- always finding a job for my eager boy's hands...the process was one i hope he forever sees and knows me by: curious ideas made manifest, rhythms of my hands, movements of my body at work in the kitchen and over our table, sacred columns of light, a mother's joyful handiwork, a mother always, ever, seeking lessons and meaning, a mother lost in joy of being alive.
and what i have sought and gathered like a spring bouquet, these bright days of easter week: the threads of god's love and grace and eternity i see and experience, every day, in my motherhood. how the ritual of repurposing plants and watching silks drink color and and noticing the change in the tree just beyond the window is itself a lesson in new life -- is, holy and wholly, a poem of rebirth.
Alexa, I so appreciate the ways in which you're fully immersing yourself in your motherhood and basking in all that it bestows. You've shown me that all of my brightest hopes and wishes for my own potential motherhood are, indeed, very real possibilities. I'm continually grateful that you've offered as much of yourself as you have, here on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering, do you think you'd be at all interested in film photography? I have no idea if it's something you've had any experience with. I, personally, find myself utterly enchanted by the entire process of film, and I imagine you'd be completely taken with it as well. I've collected a number of film cameras over the years and I'd be more than happy to pass one along to you, if you'd like! Please let me know what you think. I'm not sure what kind of camera you're using for digital photography, but this one's a Nikon 35mm slr. If it happens that you have a Nikon as well then I'm pretty sure that any lenses you have would be interchangeable and could be used with this camera, too!