Autumn leaves. Yes, it does. It leaves to make way for winter. Winter couldn't come if the trees didn't shake their colors off to make room for snow instead. But I was so in love with autumn this year that I actually felt a bolt of depression when the last leaf fell. I feared that I would grow resentful of winter, and its leafless, more barren landscape, and end up wishing I lived somewhere where the leaves stayed neatly on the trees, thank you very much.
But I forgot about the negative space! The negative space which is in art and in life, and which plays off the "positive" space - like empty space in music or taking a breath between words. The wonderful patterns that branches make when they don't have leaves, the worlds of shapes that live between the branches and the sky. Not to mention the shadows, oh the delightful shadows! How could I have forgotten this?
A friend reminded me recently - as I was lamenting my inability to get going on several projects (including, oh, earning an income again) - that winter is not a time for growing, for starting new things. It's a time for drawing inwards, holding onto what one already has. Then I found a note I wrote to myself (when? on a bus? in a doctor's office? i couldn't remember), that said basically the same thing: "Don't do more. Do more with what you have."
I can't think of a better sentiment to start the winter season with, especially this particular winter season. Hence my return to this blog after a brief absence. Yes, I have time on my hands, and yes, I'd rather be blogging right now than buying Christmas presents for people who don't need another single "thing" (ever, for the rest of their lives - I certainly don't) - except, maybe, that most elusive non-thing, the negative space, the space between the branches - or should I simply call it - breathing room?
3 comments:
Very nice post!For me, winter is a time to regroup and be cozy. It is a time to take all the things I've learned in life and let them simmer. It is a time for walks in nature, the cold rain (or snow), when everyone else is inside. It is a time of embracing the darkness...for we can't have light without the dark. It is also a time for kittens...
One of my favorite quotes lately is: "It is the space where there is nothing that is useful." I guess pragmatically it doesn't work so well (can we live on nothing??) but in relation to my 21st century urban lifestyle it is truer than I care to admit!
Thanks for your comments and also for that quote, Jill. It's interesting how it can be read in two ways.
I am definitely thinking a lot about what is "useful" these days, having spent most of my life trying to be useful in some way to other people, to society, or whatever. Usually there is some action involved when trying to be "useful" - but could silence, or non-action be useful as well, in certain situations? (i think over the holidays, with in-laws, yes!)
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