Saturday, September 15, 2012

family is where you find it


while attempting to make some sort of order from the chaos in my studio, pulling together clovage (salvaged cloth) into workable "families", i realized that the idea of family is always forefront in our culture's mind. be it the often televised political organizations seeking to put forth their ideas of what a family "should" be, or a simple family of like-colored cloth salvaged from old clothes or purchased from stiff new bolts at the local quilt shop.

as i make my rounds through favorite blogs, and adventure to previously unfamiliar (un-family-ar) blogs, i frequently see family references. from jude's frequent jaunts to her mom's house to annnie's poignant remembrance of her beautiful mother (i still can't stop the tears from gathering in the corner of my eyes).

coyote toe bones in ancient tibetan begging bowl

i have been thinking a lot about bones and frameworks lately as a rather large group of very talented people have embarked upon jude's latest adventure, spirit cloth diaries. jude has been talking about "filters" and we have each turned our respective eye toward determining our own personal filters...either for working within the context of her workshop, or even beyond into the filters we use in our own work. our homes. our lives. while i have many discernible filters in my artwork, i am currently focusing on bones in the sense that they are the framework upon which our bodies are hung, and thereby our lives and interactions with others and their frameworks. their bones.

when contemplated from this vantage, i found that i frequently voice thoughts about being "without family" here under the big sky. having moved here ten years ago. a few years later finding myself alone. without the partner whose vision was shared for a time. whose bones once shared the framework of our lives with my bones. found myself thinking in terms of "consoling myself" with "at least" having my "fur-family". but i do myself, and my many loved ones, a great disservice with this direction of thought. for families are created and nurtured and grown. not limited to blood relations. or even distance. family is where you find it. not only where you were born.

my born family resides nearly a thousand miles away in idaho. further in washington and further still in southern california for siblings. but they are never further away than a few seconds of digital button touching. but families extend even beyond this. dear friends who live across the country are also merely a call away. other dear friends live closer to home and are seen throughout the week. and my wondrously talented and creative family of friends here on this blog are never more than a keystroke away.

all of these blessings that are my family of friends and relations hang upon the framework...bones...of time and space. it is a great family that stretches its branches deep into space and provides shelter and warmth for these bones upon which my body and life hang.

...i am humbled by the blessings you all provide. and full of gratitude.

namaste'

11 comments:

  1. Hi Joe...Your thoughts are so heartwarming...I'm grateful that you take the time to share them with us all...a touchstone of important things to remember...

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  2. ..."creative family of friends" I love that and feeling the same without knowing what to call this group of friends.
    A wonderful post Joe...and spot on.

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  3. Beautiful post, Joe.... I have a thing for bones. The wisdom of our ancestors lives in our bones, so say many indigenous peoples, I like to think of them so close and their stories carried forward in my blood and bones. I wonder about the medicine of coyote toe bones mixing with a Tibetan begging bowl, that is one interesting combination!

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    1. the navajo believe that coyote accompanied the first man and woman into into the entrance of the material world and that the coyote brought the seeds of life so as to sew new growth upon the new world.

      the shoshoni believed the coyote as an indication of an ending. the sighting of the coyote was said to bring natural shifts in balance, causing an end (which, of course, simply makes way for new beginnings, and so on). essentially, the coyote is like a "way-maker" of new direction as it went about its symbolic role of representing the cycle of life/death in nature.

      i think both of these views reside harmoniously in the tibetan begging bowl seeing as the life (or at least source of food) of the monks were dependent upon the begging bowl. also, the begging bowl is a symbol of the buddha's teachings on non-attachment, which fits very well with some of the lessons of the trickster aspect of coyote (not taking ourselves too seriously lest we create suffering and loss).

      just a few thoughts to contemplate...

      namaste'

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    2. hi joe. your comments about coyote have been very enlightening for me. I work with a tarot pack called 'greenwood tarot', which are images of animals and mythic characters from the traditions in western woods. The Knight of Stones is an image of a wolf, walking on snow, and underground is a pictish image of wolf, very stylised. This card is beautiful, though 'cold', and I often ponder on its meaning. Though wolf isn't coyote, it is part of the same family. The next time I get this card in a reading, I'll remember what you said about endings and new beginnings, and try to relate it to the reading. It's helped me make sense of that card. Despite working with these cards for decades, some of them still hold back their meanings; some cards are more opaque than others, and this is one of them! Thank you for your words. Jan

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    3. unlike coyote, wolf is not a trickster. wolf walks beside us to remind us of the lessons we're here to learn. wolf tries to show us our innate ability to *sense*...to *see*...spiritual undercurrents and lessons. so, in this respect, wolf can help with similar issues of beginnings and endings...though with a greater degree of regality for in many native american traditions, wolf is considered to be the highest spiritual teacher in the kingdom, even above hawk and eagle.

      i would be curious about your judgement of the card as being "beautiful, though cold"...only from the standpoint of being careful not to allow one's attachment to labels and value judgements to cloud one's understanding of the archetypal symbolism of the card. cold can be preserving as well as deadly. clarifying as well as inhibiting. bringing a crisp, clearness of thought and allowing a well-honed focus...even while hindering one's ability to move quickly and decisively. in this dualistic reality, all things can be seen as either or. the real trick is to let go of these judgements and to simply allow them to be the illusions that they are. without grasping at labels and judgements.

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    4. I've always loved the story of the coyote and how "he" loves to dance.... I can't remember all of it, but the part that I love most is when the coyote goes into the corn field on a breezy full moon night and dances all night with the lovely people. In the morning, folks are looking sideways at the coyote for "his" craziness, cause the townsfolk didn't see the "people. But the coyote is drunk with gratitude for dancing all night with the corn people. Magic is everywhere, if we choose to see it... that's what I get from it.

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  4. Very poignant post Joe ... lovely to be part of such a wonderful blogging community, many special friendships.

    Hope you are over your food poisoning.

    I love your stacked shirts, wouldnt mind getting my scissors into them!

    See you at Judes.

    Jacky xox

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    1. ah...so wonderful to have you as a part of this family!

      i've moved beyond the food poisoning and kicking my butt in gear once again. ha!

      anytime you are around, feel free to get your scissors into any stack of clovage i have laying about! there truly is more than enough to go around!

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  5. So beautifully spoken...I think "family" can be those we hold close and dear in our hearts...an unbroken circle.
    Family can be friends we meet a long the way.

    <3

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    1. yes. even those who never quite become friends, but still play an integral role in our lives! family is truly a living entity!

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