Wednesday’s Word: Look

Look for a count of sixty.

Studio Wisteria

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

• From Sometimes by Mary Oliver

Good evening friends,

I remember when I first came across Mary Oliver’s work and it is now tricky to imagine that I haven’t always known it. The quote above is from a longer poem, but it’s all we need for today. I recently stumbled upon an article about something called Green Sketching, and I’ve begun to have a go at it. The basics are: looking at something from nature for a whole minute before beginning to make a sketch of it, thereby reconnecting to nature and becoming more invested in caring for it. There must be more to it than that, I ordered the book and haven’t yet looked at it (oops), but even the idea of stopping for a count of sixty has been profound for me. And I’ve only filled 3 sketch book pages over the last few weeks.

Green sketching in the churchyard.

Are my sketches any good? Some of them. Does it matter? Not really. Have I really looked? Yes - and that is what counts.