Bounty

Here, in the time of nature’s bounty, it is easy to sit in gratitude.

The first of August is Lammas or Lughnasa, the first of the harvest festivals in the wheel of the year. It marks the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, and the time of the year when we begin to notice the light slipping. Sunsets are coming earlier, sunrises later. And yet, it is the time when the cornucopia of the earth is overflowing.

I have often found gratitude practices a little forced. The concept has always felt a bit transactional. Perhaps this is because the idea of the gratitude practices seems to be offered as a balm to all manner of ills. Depressed? Make a gratitude list. Stuck in a scarcity mindset? Practice gratitude. Twisted ankle? Try saying thank you. (JK, I’m being facetious.) But there is a sort of implicit (at times explicit) suggestion that if you want something to change, be thankful for what you have and then you’ll get your wish, as though gratitude is a sort of genie in a lamp.

And yet—the act of noticing, appreciating and expressing this appreciation is a beautiful, sacred act of reciprocity with our universe. What if noticing the bounty and calling attention to it was enough? What if it wasn’t meant to solve anything, but simply be a loving practice? What if we let go of the idea that by doing so we will be fixing, but instead considered it moment of expressing love for our lives and the world around us?

The noticing puts us in an abundance mindset, rather than one of scarcity. This mindset is one of the levers that allows creativity to flow.

 One of the myths around creativity is this idea of the One Great Idea. I’ve heard this more often than not: what if I’m a one-hit wonder? What if this one poem/song/painting is all I’ve got in the creative tank? 

My experience is that the more we cultivate creativity in small ways, the more creative we are. Creativity begets creativity. I think maybe gratitude works the same way. When we are simply grateful for a few things each day, the bounty of our gratitude increases. It does not make our depression go away, or make thousands of dollars appear in our bank accounts, but it shifts something.

This month, when the bounty of nature is in full force in the northern hemisphere, we are simply recognizing it. Noticing it, playing with it, appreciating it, sitting in wonder of it.

this month’s open studio session will be tuesday august 23, 7-8 PM.

scroll down for the zoom link.