The Comfort Jar

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. – Henry David Thoreau

Hi,

Getting to this late, so a very brief comfort moment.

Things today that made the hard things softer – News of a vaccine in the pipeline; the shiny eyes of students sharing the things they made; coming home to a clean kitchen; a hero’s welcome from my dogs; a brownie as big as a fish-tank.

I’d love to hear anything that brought you comfort today?

xxBeth

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”― John Muir

Whilst still in this new horizon mode, John Muir’s quote seemed a nice fit.

A few fun facts about John Muir – he was was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America (and a few more things).

This other line of his struck a chord while thinking of these days of restricted movement – ‘I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast-rooted, they travel about as far as we do.’

xxBeth

“History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.”
– Seamus Heaney. Tweeted by Joe Biden.

When I was small, I saw a documentary about an Olympian swimmer. There was footage of her as a young girl, religiously doing her laps alone in a long pool. In many of the images, she was wearing a wool jumper as she swam. That’s how she always trained. And on her competition days, she would remove the jumper. And swim.

Which came back to me today. Welcome back to breathing full breaths.

xx Beth

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“I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” ― Abraham Lincoln

Hi Folks,

How are you holding up?

How about some fun facts about a famously kind president: Abraham Lincoln had two goats (Nanny and Nanko), two dogs (Jip and Fido) two horses, a rabbit, a pet turkey (thanks to a Christmas dinner intervention by his son) and two cats, Tabby and Dixie – the latter, Lincoln once remarked ‘is smarter than my whole cabinet.’

Which made me smile.

It’s almost over.

‘I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons’ –Will Rogers

xx Beth

“And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.”– Virginia Woolf

Hi Folks,

I’ll try not to talk about the election. Instead, some words about trees (so quiet, so still, so non-partisan) as an antidote to stressful times.

A good few trees here in Dublin are still wearing their autumn best. I found myself, in a ragged state this morning, pausing a bit longer than usual in front of one of my favourites, and today read that Henry David Thoreau said, “I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.” While reading up on him, I came across some details of his political activism which might be new to those who know him most as a nature writer –  Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist whose philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of notable figures such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

All that time staring at trees was clearly his medicine.

I’ll sign off with an earlier Martin Luther: “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” ― Martin Luther

xxB

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson

Hi … Ok, most of the planet is chewing their nails down to their elbows. Jesuschristalmighty. I’ve been googling ‘quotes to soothe anxiety/aid in patience/ease nerve-shredding dread.’ This Tennyson one was the best I could do.

Best just chant, There will come a time when election results and pandemics and howling isolation will be but wisps of memory. It’s helping me, in the meantime, to feel in good company. And to hear the pitches of the CNN newscasters go down even half an octave.

Hold tight. It will be happier. At some stage, no matter what.

xxB

 “The Zen master Ikkyu was once asked to write a distillation of the highest wisdom. He wrote only one word: Attention. The visitor was displeased. “Is that all?” So Ikkyu obliged him. Two words now. Attention. Attention.” 

To help, the zen teachers say, ‘Notice three things with your eyes, three sounds with your ears, three sensations with your body.’

Low hum of fluorescent light. Mask like sailcloth – the breath a visible thing. Droplets inside a water-bottle – a full window reflected in every drop.

It’s Election Day. I hope you’re all holding up ok. I for one, didn’t sleep a wink. We need the deep breaths. Any of your own plumb lines to the present moment you’d care to share?

xxB

“We consider the artist is a special sort of person. It is more likely that each of us is a special sort of artist. – Elsa Gidlow (1898-1986)

Hi Folks,

This quote reminds me of the barista who shapes the foam in my cappuccino into a little cat or the window washer who spreads big foamy swirls and then clears them into spotless glass. The sandwich maker who puts a sticker on every paper bag. There are books on the art of tidying, cooking, driving, gardening, conversation, pickle-making.

I remember a chap coming to repair a Venetian blind. He opened his tool box, lifted each piece of plastic brick-a-brack and carefully checked it before assembling the thing with the attention of a Japanese tea master. Once repaired, he fanned the edges of the blind as though he was stroking a pet. To this day, I look at Venetian blinds as sculptures.

xxBeth

Hi Folks,

I’m resurrecting daily comfort jar posts for the next three weeks to coincide with a lovely collaboration with a group of artists/writers for an online exhibition for the Bangkok Biennale. Here’s a link in case anyone wants to see the great range of work in the pavilion:https://cloud9pavilion.weebly.com. My posts here will be both my contribution to the Biennale and hopefully even a drip of an antidote to the anxiety swirling around these days. This upcoming election mid-pandemic has me broken out in hives.

So without further ado: for three weeks, this post will contain ‘some good things.’ Good thing for today – most auspiciously, I just read about a chap in Brooklyn, NYC who recently  started a project called ‘Free Letters for Friends Feeling Blue.’ Brandon Woolf a professor at NYU,  has set himself up on a sidewalk, beside a mailbox, with a manual typewriter and a stack of stamped envelopes. He is calling the table ‘The Console’ and is offering to type up letters for passersby in a nod to the tradition of sending letters of condolence. People wait patiently for a go. So far, he has typed and posted more than 50 letters.

So, if any of you want to share a good thing, maybe these posts could be a little reliquary for them. I’ll be adding in some quotes and images which I hope might give you a lift. Until tomorrow.

xxBeth