My mess is your house.
Adventures in the wild.
A cartoon
A thought
I’m spending the last few days of my sabbatical cleaning up some piles of builders’ rubbish. It is slow work because my rubbish has become other creatures’ homes. Each piece has to be lifted carefully to allow the frogs, cockroaches, centipedes and other unnamed critters to relocate. It is also slow because I pause frequently to look in awe at these amazing friends who cohabit with me. We even had to build a new, special, smaller pile of corrugated iron to rehouse three sleepy Cunninghams skinks.
I’m finding a message of possibility in my mess. Nature is resilient, adaptable and opportunistic, if we give her a chance, healing is so possible.
Glimmers and sparks*
My glimmers for today are:
Organising with some friends to meet once a week on Zoom in a women’s circle for cups of tea, chats and mutual support. I’m delighted to have these beautiful people in my life more regularly.
Cup of tea by the lake on a crisp morning, watching the birds paddle and loiter about. After my tea, I spent 10 minutes picking up plastic confetti (really, plastic confetti?!? WTF?) someone had left from a lakeside party - just glinty enough for a bird or a fish to try. In my new world order, I did this focussing on my love for the birds and this being an act of love for my more than human friends rather than raging at the selfish, lazy person who had done the littering - Mmmm, I’m a work in progress!
School holidays are here! Two and half weeks with no external force dictating my schedule - Yay!
Li’l bean is your reminder to pause and ask: What are your glimmers for today?
From your friend and your small, steadfast companion,
*Drawing Li’l Bean helped me navigate out of a period of depression in 2023. A good friend 13, 595km away, helped, too, through a ritual of swapping daily glimmers via text.
A glimmer is a tiny spark of hope, enthusiasm or joy that lifts your heart. By helping me find three glimmers each day, she gently helped me see the joy and beauty already around me.
I’d like to share this practice with you and invite you to reflect on your glimmers for the day when you read this. Think of Li’l Bean as a reminder to notice the glimmers and sparks in your life. We’d love it if you would like to share your glimmers in the comments or by hitting reply (if you don’t like sharing publicly).
A little glimmer for me this week was a recent 10km walk to the Mundaring Weir & back. Even though we’re supposed to be in the depths of winter here in Perth, the ground was littered with tiny pink flowers. Monarch butterflies drifted on the breeze, but one had obviously drifted across the road & met an untimely demise with a vehicle. I couldn’t leave the beautiful thing there on the road to get pulverised, so I picked it up and placed it in amongst some of those pink flowers.
Such a weightless, insubstantial little creature, and yet such beauty and inspiration 🦋
Rage, rage at the thoughtless plastic confettiers!