27 March 2020
My four-leggeds are so much company and solace, even more than usual, right now.
Make art about the comfort of critters, about what animal companions bring to our lives, especially in times of stress.
19 February 2019
Took me a long time, a lifetime, to learn to do this.
Make art about asking for help.
12 September 2017
Make art about leaving your comfort zone.
13 September 2017
Make art about what you want to leave behind.
26 July 2017
The world is in so much pain right now, so much anger, so much fear. If I am not mindful, that collective despair will weigh down on my back, settle ’round my shoulders like a yoke, until it chokes me, and I am become part of the problem, rather than doing what I think I should–choosing light, choosing peace, choosing Love–doing all that I can to be a force for compassion and Love in this world. So I have to make sure that I care for myself, body and spirit. I personally seek solace in the natural world, in my garden.
It reminds me, daily, that we are made not from our successes, but from the narrative of learning embodied in failure, every lush, red tomato now the product of years on my knees, learning, lessons gifted by seeds that did not germinate, rain that did not fall, soil that wasn’t ready, woodlings that wandered in and ate the fruit, reminders of my rent being due, for sharing this space.
Reward, and humility, in equal share, mistakes and losses, the cost of carelessness, the reminder that I own no space alone in my time on this planet, reside always in the garden. But even more, for me, in that small space, dwells possibility. Even in the darkest winter months, I imagine what will come, with spring. I find solace in the garden’s persistent gift, the imagining of an unimaginable future.
Make art about where you find solace.
5 April 2017
My company this morning ❤
Make art about the comfort of wild things.
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
Recent Comments