Jan 2022

Sometimes I want to speak about a feeling before I have found the words for it.

Something around me catches my attention. I feel close to it, moved by it, or unexpectedly aware of my place beside it. Then comes the desire to share what has happened.

I reach for words such as connection, belonging, presence.

They are important words within my practice. Yet each encounter has its own quality, and I want to remain attentive to that particularity. The feeling beside the neem tree differs from the feeling of looking into a flower. Both matter.

Painting gives me another way to stay with these differences.

A line, a colour or an interval can allow an experience to develop before I decide what to call it. I can follow what is happening and discover where it leads.

I want my writing to allow that patience too.

Some thoughts need to remain close to their beginnings for a while.