I’m sitting here wondering if I should write about basket weaving, gymnastics, wind up radios or stressed out trees?
All of these things have been significant to me this month and each of them link together in my mind. Maybe my inability to decide which to prioritise for these newsletter ramblings will feel a little bit familiar to some of you?
ALL of it is interesting in equal measure all at the same time, deciding where to prioritise my focus is the challenge. Luckily for me this is a choice I can make, my curiosity is an aspect of myself that I can celebrate, can embrace, and can contain. I can allow myself to sink into the hypnotic mantra of 'over over under' that accompanies my novice basket weave (French Rand if you’re interested!) and I can dwell in that place with a gentle focus on the rhythm of this creation. In this moment I feel lucky, my mind does not fizz, jump, drag me away from the effort of bending the willow and toward another interesting task.
I draw a parallel from the qualities of the withy to the incredible young people I observed practicing their acro-gymnastics this week. I can stay present with the task in hand and also reflect on how the willow and the gymnast need nurture, care, time to grow, to become strong; patience to bend and not snap. Both are vulnerable if not treated with care.
I am able to hold both in mind and stay active and on task. As my fingers feel the strain of carefully creating the base of a yet uncategorised container I notice I am able to pause and stay engaged - I am curious but not scattered.
The willow I’m using has come from a village close to where I grew up in the South West, both of us grown a stone’s throw from a Tor and the Sea. I find myself wondering if the trees on the Somerset Levels are less stressed than the trees I see everyday in South Manchester. Surely they are? Less traffic, less people, more clean air, no parakeets?
I’ve become a bit fascinated by noticing that the trees seem to have stayed green for much longer this year. I have blurted this out to my partner many times, to family, friends, anyone that might listen. I have to say I’m mostly met with a polite containment.
Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear a tree expert (arborist?) on the radio this week, who validated my noticing and provided the reason - the trees are 'stressed & confused'! Stressed & Confused trees!!
They don’t know what season it is (because of the extreme weather we live with now) and are trying to keep growing. "The trees are in survival, in their sympathetic nervous systems" is my internal response. This is how I make sense of arborist’s sharing; it’s my frame of reference to try and make sense of the statement.
The trees are trying to 'Be Ready' in their own way, they are preparing just in case. Mixed messages have meant that the current climate isn’t as it once was and so some adaptation is happening. I refocus on my ‘over over under' mantra and feel a very real sense of awareness of all the processes involved in this moment. I realise my mind has woven all of these thoughts together whilst my hands have threaded the willow. All of it harmonious.
I am hugely compassionate toward those in my world that do not experience such a harmonious weave, who struggle so much with the exhaustion that comes with an eternally fizzy, restless mind. With the unseen burnout of the dopamine search. With the sensory overwhelm that can accompany this. With the complexity of a brain that dances to its own free rhythm. With or without diagnosis.
I do not take for granted that I can wonder which curious interest to ramble about; can amble through interests that link but that stay equal without them fighting for all of my focus. My neuro-divergence has me forget every single spelling rule that ever existed, but that’s a different story for a different day.
Right now, the most important thing is to be using some relaxed willow to create a gymnastics influenced wicker basket...which will contain my wind-up radio... when they come back in stock.
- Katy