wild simplicity

Wisteria & Sunshine has opened its doors again, after a hiatus of many months. Some of those months were spent in reflection, inner work, plumbing the depths…whatever it may be called. And one of the questions I asked myself during that time was “What are you meant to be doing in the world?” It was a real….relief and a pleasure, when continuing on with Wisteria & Sunshine came back to me as one of the many answers to that question.

As I’ve been creating images phrases to use on its pages and here and there in this webby world, I’ve deepened my devotion to these two, which I put together a few years ago and have been living with ever since…Wild Simplicity.

It is the heart of pretty much everything I try to Do and what I hope, eventually, I can spend more time in Being. I wrote this post at Wisteria & Sunshine last year to try to pin it down in words. Today is the first time, I believe, that I’ve shared something in it’s entirety from our private gathering. Behind its viney walls, it is easier to be open…to write about things in an unguarded way. But part of this Rosehip journey is to be more fully what we are, yes? So here is one of the seeds within me that I am ready to share, with its potential to grow many a rose, if only I let it go…

Sept. 6th, 2013

I wonder if you have found the joy and ease of Wild Simplicity yet? I have tried to describe it here, now and then, as…

Keeping the Earth in mind in our lives in a daily way for its own sake and allowing it to bring us some of what we are seeking.

and

Finding simplicity in your life by looking towards or considering the Earth and Nature in the choices you make day to day.

What if feels like is to see yet another shopping center being built in a field you used to enjoy, and know that you needn’t wander the fluorescently -lit aisles of the cookie-cutter stores there because you have learned how to find most of what you need (and want) inside of you…or amongst what you already possess…or from shops and people more in line with the ways you are trying to care for yourself and the earth and all of its creatures, human and otherwise. So when your minimal errands are done, you can get home early, with time to read or lay in the grass or fill yourself up in a real way…not the aimless looking for something to buy that used to take up too much of your time and mind…

…or wanting hair that curls in that wavy way you’ve seen here and there and finding yourself frazzled by all of the choices and gadgets when you go to research it online…and then thinking to turn away from the screen and the dilemmas of hunks of plastic that might end up in a landfill and wondering about the working conditions of the people in China who manufactured the hunks of plastic…to consider another approach. And discovering that damp hair twisted and clipped in loose bundles all over your head gives you same look, and even garners compliments in rest-area bathrooms when you are brave enough to keep it in the bundles (so your hair will look it freshest and shiniest and waviest when you arrive in a few hours) on your way to a lovely gathering…

…or seeing some moon-time* things on the store shelf and realizing that you haven’t had to buy them for months now…ever since you were caught unawares, moon-time basket empty, and instead of rushing out to the store, thought about other possibilities. A pretty, old flannel sheet and some scissors and a half an hour or so and you had your basket filled with an assortment of cloths to serve every need and and new little thread of connection with both your fore-mothers and in the way your feminine rhythms and your daily ones interweave….

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon;

The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers…”

Yes, Mr. Wordsworth, yes…but we have the hope of becoming more in tune. It is a life-long journey, imperfectly done. Yet, I feel deeply that we women, in our domestic realms and beyond, with our gentle but passionate influence, can be the pipers, leading ourselves and those around us towards lives of more harmony, and therefore, more peace.

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*the word I’ve used for my menstrual period ever since reading Clan of the Cave Bear decades ago.*