re: glow embodied craft

I am cultivating garments, as they are a living second skin that touches the breath of our first skin. The pulse of each stitch invites an experience that is integrated with perpetual presence. I recognize that the capacity of the present moment is infinite. I seek to open up space for a being to step in to recognize their inherent integrity. The garment becomes a portal and by live streaming this process I open further portals for others to interweave our presen(ce/ts) together.  

This need to unravel and reweave is driving my work. Weaving can be a great analogy since I’m working with fibers. I am not weaving very dense material however I am weaving thoughts through the stitches. I am weaving stitches through my presen(ce/ts). (In conversation) I question systems that govern: cosmic systems, mythological systems, and systems of policy. What is a thought, what is spoken, what remains in the ethers and what gets pulled through? How does our physical reality – how do the illusions of the minds perception get pulled through the ethers and manifest an even denser form?

I then question cycles of matter and energy in plants and life and trees and rocks, animals and waterways. What patterns flow and what patterns stagnate? What systems flow and what systems stagnate? What systems stagnate patterns? From growing the cotton to the dyeing process, it can take an estimated 20,000 litres of water to make just one pair of jeans and one t-shirt (Oxfam). What patterns flow systems? How do we navigate through these thoughts? How is this navigation actually cultivation? How do we cultivate our web? How does our web cultivate us?

“… the claim of “universality” in exclusive negative and exclusionary terms […] to understand how the assertion of universality can be proleptic and performative, conjuring a reality that does not yet exist, and holding out the possibility for a convergence of cultural horizons that have not yet met. (Butler, 1999: xviii)” (Nayak)

I picture multiple webs – people with two completely different webs of associations. Perhaps they have very few connecting points: they are standing on the same rock and they are exchanging air yet they don’t speak the same language – or even language within language. This could be the beginning of the dance of weaving in that of itself. This living dance cannot be repeated when each web is a garden of its own tender. Here I recognize multiplicities of peoples that exist and their need to create their own sovereign connections, webs.

Originally I wanted to feel completely autonomous with the materials I was present with. I then realized that tending materials evoked a relationship beyond my self. I became an agent of presence. I noticed how qualities of the emergent garment opened up space for an integrated identity – an accumulation of perpetual presence. I relate this presence with Spirit or this spark of vitality. It recognizes integrity – recognizing the wholeness that is in the present moment. It is founding the present moment. The moment that we disassociate from the present moment is when we become fragmented. We can think about this presence as “I am here now” – but what is the origin of that presence? What is surrounding this presence? What is present with this presence? White fashion (capitalist, patriarchal, supremacist, racist, colonial) culture depends on the enslavement of people of hues doing the work – of laboring garments, of growing plants, of making products, of exploiting environments. In the conversations where whiteness says “I will be present” does it forget and numb how all of the surroundings became because it is in fact void of substance? How can void be present? Is it a void of presence? How have we avoided our ability to cycle energy? If voiding is to release, is voiding energy essential to recycle? How personal can we make garbage? Who and what define garbage? Is garbage simply accumulated neglect and fragmentation of presence? What patents stagnate recycling? 84 percent of clothing ends up in landfills (Brown). Globally we produce 13 million tons of textile waste each year, 95 percent of which could be reused or recycled (The Pretty Planeteer). The materials that I am working with have been labeled as Polyester and Rayon. These are not luxurious by definition, yet they are valuable simply because they exist. How do I cultivate relation with them to enhance the qualities they present?

I ask – as people of hues – how are we continuing to depend on oppressive systems? What are we doing to transform the presen(ce/ts) that surrounds us while recognizing how we are interconnected – recognizing how we are interwoven – and remembering how to cultivate the gardens of our spirit? These shifts ask to be done through policy – yet to manifest wholeness as integrity, to be pulled through the ethers of thought and emotion, needn’t we be present through the process? To be present with this act of shifting – unraveling – reweaving as presen(ce/ts) flows through us. There is policy of systems and there is policy of our minds and beings – what constitutes the subconscious of our minds? How does this breathe? How does this speak? How do we cultivate our presen(ce/ts)?  

The garments are almost like a refabricated identity based out of a wholeness that is found in the present moment. The distinction is that the fabrications are alive.

Bibliography

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami “Teachings of Lord Chaitanya” International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 1968, First Edition, 61 Second Avenue, New York City, N.Y. 10003, U.S.A

Brown, Rachel “The Environmental Crisis Caused By Textile Waste” January 8, 2021, cited on May 18, 2021, https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/textile-waste-environmental-crisis

Curry, Patrick [edited by]. “Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium.” Ashgate Publishing, 2010, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN. 

Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Felix. “a thousand plateaus capitalism and schizophrenia.” Translation and Foreword by Brian Massumi, Seventeenth Printing, The University of Minnesota Press, 2018, 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520.

Karuna Productions “The Joy of Devotion – Full Documentary” March 8, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N34WvWwv1E

Latour, Bruno. “Reassembling the Social An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory: Introduction: How to Resume the Task of Tracing Associations.” Oxford University Press, 2005, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP.

MacLeod, Sharon Paice. “Celtic Cosmology and the Otherworld: Mythic Origins, Sovereignty and Liminality.” McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2018, Jefferson, North Carolina.

Nayak, Suryia, “Race, Gender, and the Activism of Black Feminist Theory Working with Audre Lorde.” Concepts for critical psychology: disciplinary boundaries re-thought. Series editor: Ian Parker, Routledge, 2015, 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA.

Oxfam Online Shop, “Are Your Jeans Drinking Up the World’s Water?” June 15, 2019, https://oxfamapps.org.uk/shop-blog/sustainable-fashion/post-about-sustainable-fashion/

The Pretty Planeteer “How Much Waste Does the Fashion Industry Produce?” cited on May 18, 2021, https://theprettyplaneteer.com/fashion-industry-waste/

Rosa, Hartmut. “Resonance A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World.” Translated by James C. Wagner, Reprinted English Edition, Polity Press, 2019, 65 Bridge Street, Cambridge CB21UR, UK.

Sadhguru. “Is It Possible To Levitate? Sadhguru Answers.” July 24, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSyUIhsOt8o&list=WL&index=3&t=4s

Scott, E.L. “WEEKLY | Art Channeling for April 19-25 | Intuitive Self-Select.” April 18, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf6UFIOHRQY 

Tavangar, Anisa “Slow Factory Foundation: Open Education: Fashion and Spirituality.” March 11, 2021, https://vimeo.com/522548318

Young, Ayana, Nkem Ndefo On The Body As Compass, Episode 227, For The Wild, March 24, 2021, https://forthewild.world/listen/nkem-ndefo-on-the-body-as-compass-227

conscious matters

As I learn to trust and develop my intuition, I notice how my human relationships develop as well as my more than human relationships. I am taking the time to resonate in wonderment. I wonder, does history only repeat itself when the wounds of the past fester and go unacknowledged?

Embodiment speaks of how we carry our body, how we feel in our body, how we move in our body, and how we relate to this body—our first skin—our existence. Our second skin—clothing adds another layer of embodiment, of relation and energetic movement. Embodiment is intuitive awareness. Empowerment comes with awareness.

In Fashionopolis Dana Thomas says: “Clothes are our initial and most basic tool of communication. They convey our social and economic status, our occupation, our ambition, our self-worth. They can empower us, imbue us with sensuality. They can reveal our respect, or our disregard, for convention. “Vain trifles as they seem” Virginia Woolf wrote in Orlando, “clothes… change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” This dynamic relation between our view and the world’s view of us is a living narrative. Commercial projections interact with ones creativity and imagination. The narratives of trends have become exhausted by the saturation of fast fashion. It is as if the profit driven fast fashion is the fabricated manifestation of imperialism and delusional supremacy. A long time in the stitching.

“The end expression of imperialism is climate change” says Dr. Rupa Myra. The sustainable mode of expression is lived authenticity. This cannot be bought. Not even with distressed denim. Authenticity is the embodied story. I would like to acknowledge the story of pre-distressed denim – a genuine and authentic story in and of it self. A story embodied by products of mass creation speaks of the resilient factory workers; of the consumers who want a taste of authenticity yet are still buying into the pre-made stories of the media instead of creating their own; and of the exponential linear organization models.

When we read between the threads, the truth of the matter speaks clearly. We hear through the channel we are tuned to.

When I think of exhaustive resource extraction from the earth, I think of the wars. I think of the essence of those resources and the stories that they embody. As we meet these materials in our every day lives as consumers, what do the materials say? How do we relate to what we consume and what we throw away?

“Every day, billions of people buy clothes with nary a thought—not even a twinge of remorse—about the consequences of those purchases. “ says Thomas. People may not have or express conscious awareness of the impact of their purchases. Even if they do, there are spectrums of responses to this awareness. Purchases are made in many ways such as need, occasion, expression, and ‘therapy’. Is the proclaimed therapeutic act of consumer purchasing attempting to fill a void that clothes will never be able to fill? The void will always be the void – an essential aspect of existential cycles. It is through acceptance, self-love, and the tenacity to listen to our intuition that we cultivate nourishment. Each of us may discover this essence through our own journeys.

Option: Dyeing Used Garments With Natural Materials

If waste is a by-product of consumption, these two ritualistic narratives are reciprocal in nature. Dyeing with earth matter is a conscious matter. It is a choice we can make in this climate to cultivate this reciprocity. To me earth dyeing embraces life as a journey and transforms with the cycles. Like micro ego deaths with every excretion turned compost for the garden. It is a dance through the aethers, with each other, with the more than human world. It is a transformation through the void of letting go and embracing the mystery. It is then the embodiment of our journey.

Citation

Dr. Rupa Myra. Homebound: Decentralizing the Power of Healing with Dr. RUPA MARYA /169. From The Wild podcast April 10, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcl9Qku5CpM  39:30

Dana Thomas. Fashionopolis 2019. 5-8 Hardwich Street London ECTR 4RG UK. Head of Zeus Ltd. Pg 3

live stream crafting ritual

fellow crafters, sewers, painters, writers, poets, imaginators, makers, and remakers are welcome to tune in and be present with a ritual of play, humming, processing, and cultivating presence in our minds.

monday 3pm-6pm

tuesday 3pm-6pm

wednesday 3pm-6pm

thursday 3pm-6pm

friday 3pm-6pm

enter here

pacific standard time | Spring 2021

notice: we will resume streaming live upon further notice

reglow’s positionality acknowledgement, delusional white supremacy, and religious spiritual journeying

[single quotation marks denote a fragment of identity emerging through rhizomatic networks of languages]

whiteness is empty, has no sustenance or truth of identity outside of itself that is vital. the delusion is that it is supreme. the reality is that we are deeply interconnected through layers of multiplicity.

in cultivating roots of identity beyond supremacy ‘we’ tend to healing from being an oppressed oppressor at degrees of intersections, beyond whiteness, beyond the chasm of colonialism, and inward towards heart intelligence.

who am ‘i' if  ‘i' am not white?

how do ‘i' respond to the delusion of whiteness and dismantle the real oppression it causes?

how do ‘i' cultivate identity outside of whiteness?

who are ‘my’ indigenous ancestors pre-colonization if not also my ancestral lands and how do ‘we’ cultivate relationship?

‘my’ ancestors are from what english language currently calls sweden, the netherlands, ireland [Eire], spain, and america. ‘i' am made up of layers of time and matter in these places and regions, and the peoples who were birthed from these places and regions. ‘i' carry their memories in ‘my’ body, the memories of ancestors, places, and regions. as ‘i' carry these memories in ‘my’ body, they come alive, are acknowledged, and processed when ‘i’ journey through realms of ‘my’ imagination. this is a way for ‘me’ to cultivate identity beyond whiteness. after roots were severed, they make way to grow back. this is the craft of reglow.

‘i' believe that my separate self is an illusion and that we are interconnected through source(s) and in the multiverse of experience beyond space and time.

how do ‘i' uplift and center people of hues as ‘we’ are interconnected?

how do ‘we’ hold central space for [marginalized] multiplicity and harmonize?

in queerness

this blog post has been influenced by the work of:

Sonya Renee Taylor

Rachel Ricketts

A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Deleuze and Guattari

“and” [review of deleuze and race] by Peter Kulchyski

Whiteness is Not an Ancestor: Essays on Life and Lineage by white Women. by Lisa B. Iversen

& more

synthesize being collection

This work addresses layers of relationship between imagination and reflection.

Layers are the texture, pattern, weave, and connection. The layers I refer to are poetic, neurological, systemic, biological, and manufactured. The layers exist in narratives of the past and future and meet in the present materialized reality. By engaging all of my senses, I have been centered in ecosophy. I have approached this work by surrendering to a journey. I have produced work inside regenerative space. I have called this space a Living Design Studio. In this I have activated sacred, playful, creative, emotional, mindful, intuitive, and material engagement. Activating this space has re-contextualized systems of labor, waste, design, consumption, mind, imagination, and resources.

I have used my body as a vessel to alchemize the microcosm that I engage with. I have been deconstructing and reflecting through the dance of creativity. I have intuited the movement of my body through the intelligence of my heart. 

The egg is a womb space that has represented my microcosm, which carries a pattern of the macrocosm. I have seen the microcosm inside of this egg as a reflection of the macrocosm of the universe and my orientation within that. From a metaphysical perspective here, the microcosm and macrocosm could be related to anything and everything beyond space and time depending on what is being addressed.

The materials in these works have related to the processing of my being through their literal names, essential qualities, scales, and densities. The egg has appeared throughout the work; symbolizing contextualized presence, as listed materials, and as the creative capacity of being.

The collection is currently in process.

To engage, we have recycled patch sewing kits and you can join our live streams to join our crafting journey through the fibers.

self love

This week I have been focused on self-love as planetary healing and responding to deterrents from this. In presence, what does the role of voice play? In presence, what does the role of consciousness play? In presence, what does the role of listening play? How do we create change that does not lead back to the initial state of oppression and separation?

I have found that the source of motivation must be Love otherwise the source of pain perpetuates itself. I am using ‘Love’ in an expansive way – one that speaks to the energy of everything: Source, Tao, Chi, God, Life, Death, Birth, Dreams, and Cycles.

When I empathize; the neurons in my body mirror that which I am present with. The present state alters with consciousness. Therefore I literally have the agency to generate feelings of wellness within myself based on what I focus on.

Perhaps the issue of separation is like a forest maze deep within the collective psyche, and the source of vitality is like the water that keeps the forest alive and ever changing.

In the film Gabbeh, I saw a story of the ethereal spiritual realm weaving reality through dreams, art, expression, and a state of being in community where mind and matter are one.

This week I listened to Isha Judd talk about love-consciousness. She talks about living from the heart instead of the mind. She talks about ideas and how they grow and that when we attach to an idea and identify with it is where we loose our true nature of being Love.

This week I listened to Claudia Castro Luna: Washington State Poet Laureate at The Evergreen State College. She said, “art and beauty belong to no one, it is boundless and each one of us is capable of creating it”.

I spoke with a friend about cultural appropriation, art, and consumer culture. It left me questioning how emotions of shame, doubt, fear, and manipulation block the ability to create with Love. How do we reconnect with the source of Love in our-self and for our-self so that we actually have the capacity to respond with Love?

The act of reconnecting to myself, to forgiving and Loving myself is an act of stretching my imagination, and being open to new perspectives. It has been about shifting perspective, about digging into my subconscious and reaffirming my Love for myself, and being in this Love at every moment. I am beginning to be able to notice when I step out of this and give my power away to other people, when I step into their projections and begin to believe false narratives about myself. The truth is that only I can create my narrative. One moment of experience can happen and there are infinite ways to describe this in words, symbols, and interpretations based on what I am focusing on. My empowerment comes from being aware of this. What to focus on is my choice. I choose to Love. This way of being allows me to have healthy boundaries and to have the capacity to Love others. We are all connected. In this connection I only have control of how I respond to my-self and my own awareness. When I Love my-self I am also Loving the things outside of me through the fact that we are connected.

primordial marbles

Discovering story within:

There is a whispering deep within my heart and being. It speaks when I listen. It speaks when I ask. It speaks my language – a pattern of my dreams – an unlocking of Source’s guidance.

“What is the context?” I ask my inner voice

“The context is love.”

All matter, all light waves and sound waves were streaming from the channel tuned to Reglow. This story exists beyond linear time. The past and future meet in the present field of energy.

When my experiential construct had dead-ended, the question was why. Why tell a story? To express love? Acceptance? The illusion of reality?. Sitting at a computer in the library, I envisioned myself going to Mercury (known to be the planet of communication) and presenting a bag of marbles. The avatar of Mercury, Hermes accepted my gift and showed me a red book with a glowing title “Phoenix”.

The legend of the Phoenix as I have heard:

A bird becomes enflamed, turns to ashes, and rises from its own ashes.

The Phoenix legend has been represented in a spectrum of places throughout recorded “his-story”. Nigg speaks to the diversity of this legend:

“The bird’s cultural development is thus very problematic. It could not be otherwise for a unique mythical figure whose sex is variously said to be asexual, male, female, and bisexual; whose attested home ranges from Arabia, India, and Ethiopia to an earthly paradise, Eden, Elysium, or Paradise itself; whose recorded life spans include 100, 300, 340, 450, 500, 540, 1000, 1461, and 12,954 years; who dies of old age or by fire; and who is reborn from the ashes, often from a worm nourished by flesh or bone. Such are part of the enigmatic Phoenix’s cultural history beyond the timeline jumble of names and behind the bird’s twenty-first-century presence.” Xvi Nigg

Here, Nigg is alluding to an enigma, not just one account of a story. The quote speaks to how all of these accounts together co-create the enigma.  This speaks to the living story and stories being subjective experiences. An origin of experience came from experience, which came from an experience, which came from an experience, etc. There is currently no recording of the origin of experience except for in living story, which is subjective to experience.

Giving meaning to my story of the Phoenix:

The mystical function of the burning self is the epitome of transformation. When everything crumbles, it is dark. Nothing means anything. Everything means nothing. This is the moment right before birthing into infinite wonder. The Phoenix rises above the crises, destruction, shame, oppression, broken dreams and expectations. The life once stagnated is turned into nutrients for the soil. When rising above the loss, new horizons appear. The creation from this place is unwavering love.

A poem from my experience:

Phoenix

Internal flame burning

Singing of renewal

Listening to forgive

Memories echo breath into the flame

Reflecting oceans in parallel horizons

Through tuning combustion dissolves

Perspective takes flight

Perspiration drips

Naturally revealing distortion

Telling the language of multi - ages

The phoenix to me represents the choice of self-renewal. The story reveals an avenue beyond fear and blame. When my heart hurts and I begin to spiral into the suffering of holding onto oppression and victimization, I can open the door into wonder. Inside this wonder, I open the door into deeper wonder, deeper and deeper I go into the mystery. Here the dance and balance continue to synthesize.

In my search for meaning I am discovering that it is up to me to create my own meaning of life experience. Even words can be meaningless unless we feel their potency. The Phoenix is a story of balancing physical and conceptual matters above and below and restoring equilibrium – an aspect to the collective consciousness – an aspect of resiliency.

References:

Nigg, Joseph. The Phoenix. The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

copyright landfill

The practice of mending and repurposing are ancient tools for reflection and of practical use throughout history. Reglow is an art of repurposing used garments whilst cultivating inner radiance. The style has come full circle when we turn to embrace our authenticity, our story, and the materials that journey with us.

 “The hardest thing is to believe ones self and yet there’s really nothing else” - Meade

We shine. 
We cast shadows. 
Shadow and light dance like ether and void. 
We glow. 
Each a part of the all.

The way that I experience story is a non-linear experience. It is by cultivating my relationship to the seemingly mundane that I celebrate and the story emerges.
“If there were maps of the invisible realm of the powers that are greater than human, what would those maps look like? There wouldn’t be a unified map, of course, because there is no single minded order to mythtime.” Kane 61
Our current awareness itself is like the map of now for our individual regenerative journeys. These stories and myths manifest like fibers that weave together as physicality. The patterns weave together like the clouds of our dreams, like the rivers our spirits flow, like the trees that whisper wisdom, like the soil that births, like the copyright landfill.
“Whatever space is chosen for stories, everyone who listens well help to create the story.” Mellon 9
When we listen to these stories, we have a choice in how we receive them. When I listen through my heart, semantics fall away and the present speaks.

In essence we are unified. 
In story we imagine. 
In song we radiate. 
In dance we transform. 

Kane, Sean. Wisdom of the Mythtellers. Broadview Press, 1998
“Re-creating the world with Michael Meade. ND3448” New Dimensions Radio Podcast 08/09/2019, https://player.fm/series/new-dimensions-1250062/re-creating-the-world-michael-meade-nd3448 
Mellon, Nancy. Healing Storytelling. Hawthorn Press, 2019

daily recycled art channelings

expanding in communication

I am expressing my understanding of what is true for me at this moment. I welcome dissonance is an opportunity to expand awareness.

We are our living stories. Our bodies carry the stories of our ancestors. Whether verbalized, articulated or not, we embody them. When we learn to accept them is where the transformation begins and where we may heal our pain. It is not the stories that change, but our perspective of them. How do we see ourselves in our lives? Where do we carry the emotion of hatred and fear of our own stories? Where do we carry the remembrance of love? What story are we acting out at every moment?

“Because a people co evolve with their habitat, because they walk the paths their ancestors walked, myth telling assumes that the stories already exist in nature, waiting to be overheard by humans who will listen for them… Such stories have a semi-wild existence; they are just barely domesticated and so are free to enact the patterns of the natural world… The definition directs us towards an emotional and philosophical language of co-evolution with nature, a language that allows all life, not just human life, to participate in the ecology of the earth.” Kane 33

Since landfill sites are an accumulation of stagnancy in our global ecosystem, I wonder about the garbage. I wonder about the stories that are held in the womb of landfill. I wonder how they will be through the Great Turning in micro and macro ways.

I don’t believe that outdoors are “nature” and indoors are “human made”. For when humans ARE nature, what we make is also nature (even if we name it garbage and neglect it). In my experience mythos and logos are not separated in dual forms and written text is just as much a living co creator of my reality as an object, plant, and animal. 

From The Activists Tao Te Ching by William Martin:

“55. The Nature of Things

Whatever is forced into existence

will soon fade away.

What is allowed to arise

of its own inherent nature

will remain and prosper.

Therefore, when our work arises

from our own true nature,

we are flexible, yet indestructible;

adaptable, yet powerful;

able to work all day, yet not grow fatigued.”

Kane, Sean. Wisdom of the Mythtellers. Ontario, Broadview Press, 1998.

Martin, William. The Activists Tao Te Ching. Novato, New World Library, 2016.

reorienting communication

How may these words come into resonance with the internal voice, body, and environment of the reader? I invite you to read aloud if you like.

There are layers of collective narratives that weave their way through and shape the tapestry of our personal narratives. However, “The stories endlessly repeated by the scribes of Empire become the stories most believed”… “As truth-tellers reach a wider audience, the myths of Empire become harder to maintain”. (David Korten, The Great Turning From Empire to Earth Community: Yes! a Journal of Positive Futures p. 17). The language of existence is beyond that of any definition or symbol. The mystery meets the known: “Whenever we slip beneath the abstract assumptions of the modern world, we find ourselves drawn into relationship with a diversity as inscrutable and unfathomable as ourselves” (David Abram, foreword xiii the moon in the well). This awareness of wonder is not something we grasp, yet may share in experience. Currently, with the infinite reach technology and open source information seems to extend, it is orienting to ground into the context of our own physical bodies and how we experience language. “Digital culture is inherently global”…“the culture of the (physical) book is inherently cosmopolitan”…“oral culture is inherently local in its orientation” (David Abram, POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication 2009 pg. 94-95). Much like words, the process of materializing comes to life by the essence in which it was made apparent. “From the ancestral point of view, tools made from natural materials, such as Maui’s bone fishhook and Coyote’s flint knife, emanate character and purpose. A carving tool might be so full of its own sort of personhood that the carver refers to it as “he” or “she”. (Erica Meade, Intro, The Moon in the Well pg. 14). Language can be like tools that shape the flow of energy. From policy to roadways, consumption to landfills, and emotional articulation to perception, we shape the flow only to the depth of our relationship with our local environment. “For like any living being, earth’s metabolism depends upon the integrated functioning of many different organs, or ecosystems… so the planetary metabolism is thrown into disarray when each region is compelled to behave like every other region – when diverse places and cultures are forced to operate according to a single, mechanical logic, as interchangeable parts of an undifferentiated, homogenous sphere.” (David Abram, POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication 2009 pg. 92). Restoring relation begins with the inspiration to do so.