Collections 1: looking is a kind of loving
Hi there! Welcome to the first in my bi-weekly emails, where I talk about people & objects I love, what I’m reading & learning, and some of the roots of my coaching practice. I come from a lineage where looking is a kind of loving, and loving is everything.
I'm so glad you're here.
Here are some things I've been looking at lately:
1. This leaf from my begonia plant. I love begonia plants because they thrive almost anywhere - in water, in soil, in the sun, together, alone, in the dim places. I wonder, what parts of you love growing, no matter the conditions?
2. This blue and white shell reminds me of the portuguese pottery from my dad's family. I love the ways we find the same kinds of things beautiful as our ancestors did.
3. In December, I sat by the creek and asked the trees, "What am I supposed to be doing?" and I leaned back and set my hand down on this rock. (I learned this questions practice from Jen Lemen - and I've been thinking about this post from Jen over the past few weeks.) Having the rock on my desk has been a reminder to move slower, rest more, think of time in rock terms. What parts of you are longing to move slow these days?
4. This pink rock has one smooth side and one rough. Something I think about is, we're taught on one hand by christian heteropatriarchy to try and sand down, cut off, or hide our rough edges, and on the other to sometimes kind of coercively & forcefully love ourselves, no matter how we're actually feeling about our rough edges. And I wonder, if you didn't have to hate or love your roughness and softness, but could just be with it, how would that feel?
5. I found this piece of slate in Rock Creek in DC during a clay grief workshop that Alex Bell and Jen Lemen led in 2019. It reminds me that making space for my grief is necessary and ordinary. (Alex makes incredible ceramics and every time I look at them something eases in me. Who makes things that you love to look at? Have you told them lately?)
6. Ah, shells. The late parts of winter and summer always leave me feeling a little raw, a little unprotected. I wonder, are you letting go of things, too, these days? How does it feel?
Sending you love from the river,
Kali
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Kali Boehle-Silva
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