I didn’t know that making the bed in the mornings was ‘a thing’. Turns out it is one of the presets of a monk’s morning habits to set the tone of the day. Taking care of your belongings, no matter how few, can set up the tone of your life.
In fact when you have less, you actually cherish it more. The carved spoon and bowl, the hand thrown ceramic mug, a jumper knitted with love from your mum. These are possessions to cherish and to care about.
I think of the adage ‘take care’ which people say when you are about to set forth on a journey or project. But it can equally apply to so many aspects of your life. Taking care as an artist might mean making sure the framing is strong or the glue is PH neutral or ensuring your work has archival qualities, (if that is the nature of the materials used).
It can also translate into so many other areas of life:
Care for yourself
Care for your belongings
Care for your family
Care for our community
Care for (y)our planet
When I make my bed in the morning or wash the dishes after breakfast, wash my clothes or clean my teeth; I am taking care of myself and my life. Daily habits become patterns of behaviour that carry you into the day. Taking care of your thoughts and speech is harder, but once you are aware of these, it flows into taking care of relationships with family and friends.
If we care for our community and by extension, our planet, we then take care to notice and take responsibility for our waste products, the things we buy which are disposable, the food we eat and how it is sourced.
I think of the notion of taking care as we begin a new year. Taking care of our expectations, setting our direction and steering into the future. There may be storms along the way, there may be rocky shoals to navigate, but if we keep taking care of our daily habits, they help pull us through to the “other side” of time.
Take Care of our planet: experimental fabric collage March 2022
Take (better) care of ourselves: daily collage June 2022