CREATIVE INSPIRATION

November is Evening Month

I have yet to watch or listen to a news program since November 6, save for weather reports. Florida escaped late-season storm Sara in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, although she will send rains our way in the coming days. There are people still skeptical that earth’s climate is evolving warmer. There are people who believe the earth is flat.

People see what they want to see, reach conclusions they already expect, and tend to believe what they want to believe. These biases have been well researched and proven. Our biases lead us unwittingly to our truths. Do you know the biased sources of your truths?

The Evening is Tranquil and Dawn is a Thousand Miles Away
by Charles Wright

The mares go down for their evening feed
				               into the meadow grass
Two pine trees sway the invisible wind—
				               some sway, some don’t sway.
The heart of the world lies open, leached and ticking with sunlight
For just a minute or so.
The mares have their heads on the ground,
			the trees have their heads on the blue sky.
Two ravens circle and twist.
	On the borders of heaven, the river flows clear a bit longer.
 
     * * * * *

When I read the title of this poem, I knew that this was what I had felt but was unable to put into words during the past couple of weeks. The poet is speaking truths about my world that I could not articulate. In this poem, Wright tells us that some are swayed by the invisible wind like unseen truth, some are not. Some are grounded, others have their heads in the sky. November (yes, this very month) is the evening of our 2024. It will be 2025 soon, and the coming darkness will envelop us all. And for just a minute or so (it’s not too late, but soon will be), Wright says, our hearts—still ticking with sunlight—lie open. Do we know that there is still more to be seen? he seems to say. Will we look? And then will we believe what we see?

Feeling without words, I have been painting. Last week, I experimented with creating grays by mixing complementary colors. With just yellow and purple, black and white, I painted some abstract landscapes. It is a way of having a conversation with my environment, while listening and looking.

This is a big reason why I paint and why I write. It is a way of laying my heart open, of seeing into the clear flowing river for the appearance of a previously invisible truth to make itself known. The reveal.

Truth I did not expect to see.

Wishing you the evening afterglow of sunny days. Let your heart fill with light, and it may guide you even through the darkest days ahead.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for accompanying me this week. I value your presence, your readership, and your comments. Celeste

One more thing to think about:

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