all i’m missing is sir david attenborough

a friend and i have been doing a lot of talking lately, and one of the themes that’s come up again and again in our conversations has been transformation & the rhythms to it, the way that sometimes you have to curl up quietly and wait things out that seem to scream for action, and other times the only thing to do is leap crazy-fast into flight. another theme that has come up time & time again, as we work our way through struggles and stillnesses, is the importance of ritual & how hard it is to find and create and follow-through-with in the worlds we inhabit.

a week or so ago she set me a challenge, because she’s that sort of a soul, & setting other people onto paths is part of what she does. “find a corner of your space and make a shrine,” she said, “and theme it with butterflies. but not just butterfly-butterflies: butterflies at all their stages, caterpillars, cocoons… and water,” she added, “make sure there’s water in the shrine. in a blue glass. near a window.” i rather had to fake the window (see if you can find it), because putting actual water in an actual glass by the actual window in my room would be to put it directly in the path of all 3 cats, and it would not be in the glass for long!

but here, for the girl on the ladder in the white fedora blowing bubbles, is my
*~*butterfly shrine*~*.

i’m going to refrain from describing the details of the work i’ve been doing on this all week instead of working on my dissertation–there’s a bit of a materials-list in the first picture’s caption–and i’m also, at least for now, going to refrain from launching into the huge long list of nouns that different items in this compilation represent. the coolest thing about it, though, only kinda shows up in the pictures: it’s got motion. there’s enough air moving in my place that the things on strings really spin, and the branches and the caterpillars aren’t always quite where i left them, and from any slightly different angle, the elements in relation to each other tell different tales. my one brag is i’m proudest of the painted lady on the wall & the 2 fliers–drawn freehand, thankyouverymuch. i can’t so much move the hand now, after accidentally spending all day on this, but it was worth it.

happy father’s day to all the daddies on my flist, and all the daddies who made all the people on my flist fantabulous (already sent the smooches to my own)!!!