Last week I was at a North Carolina woodfire conference where my job was to listen; to be part of the ecosystem of the clay world. Now back in the garden in the ecosystem of my home I am able to bury myself in the lush green leaves of kale and pick my favorite garlicscapes. I toggle between garden and studio attempting to be witness to the season.

Sanctuary

Suppose it’s easy to slip
into another’s green skin,
bury yourself in leaves

and wait for a breaking,
a breaking open, a breaking
out. I have, before, been

tricked into believing
I could be both an I
and the world. The great eye

of the world is both gaze
and gloss. To be swallowed
by being seen. A dream.

To be made whole
by being not a witness,
but witnessed.

–Ada Limon, Sanctuary, in “The Hurting Kind”
published by Milkweed Editions