A Note from the Editor
- Issue 1:
- The Goddess by Jes Sweat
- Conversations with Jack by TheCroakingFrog
- Must write poems or I will scream by Jane Harvey
- Untitled Poem by Frances de Larminat
Abstract 1 (daily reprieve)
by
Amelia Francesca
I have a wonderful and wise friend who shared with me a phrase that she has learned to integrate into her life. Her advice to me is always seemingly seven steps ahead of where I am spiritually. She told me to stay with It — whatever “It” is — until the work becomes the joy.
There is a responsibility we have in all areas of our lives to allow the work to become the joy when it comes to caring for ourselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally, intimately, politically, physically and aesthetically.
We are, for better or worse, spiritual beings living a material existence — we are dealing with and in matter. And yet, I continue to find it difficult to expand on our materiality, by developing ways to circumvent the steps needed to reproduce ourselves. We can’t abandon the material.
What if we could think of acts, as small as washing dishes or cleansing our face as a devotional? To think a little more openly about finding joy and serenity in our daily lives? The magic of everyday acts offers us an opportunity to reflect on ourselves as we carry on about the day.
In an era that manufactures a feeling of total desperation to do, we lost touch with the natural pace of things: of ourselves, of the frequency of our own environment and our outer world, of which we are participating with—even if left unattended.
I encourage you to take a moment, whenever you can — whenever it occurs to you — take it!
Gift yourself the presence of expansion as you engage in your daily reprieve. You’re allowed to dilate in your daily practices. Sometimes there are truffles of knowledge waiting for you within the practice of folding your linens while listening to the cars push rain around on the street.
I want to invite you to begin thinking of reproductive labor as a devotional practice of the 3D, of the materiality in your life.
Often, we are suggested to think of abstraction as something imprecise, blurred. I’d like to offer a differing view: abstraction allows for us to see more closely the myriad of possibility within a system.
I like to think of a prism. If or when we become too singular in our thinking (over processed, group thought, societal or interpersonal pressures) we really only see one angle of the prism.
When we zoom out, we begin to see the overall system and additionally wonder where the source of light is coming from (more on that next time). In this way, we can allow for more possibilities to come through, more flexibility in seeing.