Return to Source
I write from my desk, facing lime and chestnut trees under a bright but cloudy sky. It’s a fine day, not quite muggy and not quite fresh. August beckons me to put down my tools, however convivial, and gaze at the horizon with loved ones. Yet I have at least a week’s worth of book edits to do, drawings to make and classes to plan, so I will stay here with the laptop, the ochres and the pen and ink, until the work is done.
Since the age of four, my life has revolved around the English academic term system, with time off at Easter, Christmas and for the month of August. Both my and my teacher’s T’ai Chi schools followed these term times, as it fitted best with students who had family commitments. The last two years I worked a little at Easter and in August, and regretted the lack of a full month off anywhere in the year. Now that writing is a large part of my working life, I am attempting to find new ways to honour my commitments to what must be done but also to begin to find a new rhythm where relationships, time in nature and quiet practice are given a bit more space.
This August you’ll still receive my weekly posts, but like this one, they may be a few hours later than usual on a Monday. There won’t be any ‘essay weeks’, but instead I hope you’ll enjoy my planned summer smörgåsbord of films, creative writing, cultural recommendations and photographs of the abundant wild nature of my coastal home.
We’ll start with two close-ups of the seemingly ordinary wild flowers of the South West Coast Path which delighted me this week.
For paying subscribers, you’ll find the recording of Saturday’s Heartwork movement class to watch. Thanks to the 15 folks who came along to the live session on Saturday, it was a joy to share John Kells’ beautiful Front Heart Salutations with you. We had a half hour hang-out (unrecorded) afterwards with great questions and remarks from everyone. The next session will be in September, date TBC, but likely to be 4pm UK time on Saturday 14th. We’ll review the Front Heart Salutation and add depth: visualisation, energetic intent and time for individual corrections. Then we will learn the bare bones of the Back Heart Salutation.
Heartwork sessions will always be findable in my archive by searching ‘Heartwork’ or ‘movement classes’. This session has some extra instructions on how to practice if you are a wheelchair user, chair-bound, or need to practice the movements without steps, for balance or pain reasons.
If you can’t afford a subscription, reply to this email and I will comp you 6 months for free so that you can do the chi kung and Heartwork.
I hugely appreciate all of you who pay to subscribe to this Substack. It makes it possible for me to share what I’ve been studying all these years more widely, and allows me to pursue my art and writing. A thousand thanks to you.
This week’s good thing: Kae Tempest’s On Connection. This short book made it’s way home with me from 141 Community last week on the recommendation of dear
and will make its way back again by post today, as I can see it has important notes in it in the handwriting of (also) dear . It was a much needed quick reset, a dive into sincere engagement with art and life from someone who knows the ups and downs of both very well. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you have even one creative bone in your body. If it were a tonic, I’d say it was fresh elderberries, steeped in apple cider vinegar, topped up with a spoonful of fine honey from a friend’s hive. Down it and feel better, ready to reach for the mic, the pen, the trowel, or the dance partner’s hand again…Wishing you rest and hearty work in just the right proportion that makes you feel most fully alive.