Week 13: Cascade of Joy
“cascade of joy”
Collage, cut New Yorker Magazine paper, 9" x 12"
Congratulations! It’s our five-month pandemiversary!
I hope you’re finding ways to stay healthy on every level—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This project is definitely contributing to my wellness, giving me some focus and purpose. And it’s helping me cut back on my screen time, just as designed.
But there’s still no avoiding what’s going on out in the world. And I don’t want to. I just don’t want to get hooked into it and let it run me and have an adverse effect on my health, on any level. So I’m choosy about what I put into my consciousness.
If you’re keeping up with my posts, you know that I’m reading anti-racist literature. This week I read a chapter in So You Want to Talk About Race called “Why Can’t I Say the N-word?” Author Ijeoma Oluo recounts the first time that word was hurled at her. While reading her story I had a visceral reaction. I could feel the tension in my body, especially my gut. And I said to myself, Aren’t you lucky you can put the book down and choose not to think about this. Black people live with this feeling every day. You can sit with your discomfort for the time being. And so I did.
“Power Trip” by Joost Swarte
The New Yorker, July 29, 2019
I also knew that I wanted to choose a New Yorker issue that would give me some diversion from my studies.
It was the cover (by Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte) that grabbed me. Two summer travelers. It took me a second to realize that these were oblivious tourists leaving giant footprints while on their “Power Trip.” Regardless, they reminded me that I used to travel, in the good ol’ pre-pandemic days.
One of my favorite trips was to India. I had the great good fortune of traveling there with my spiritual family to do energy work at certain power points along the Brahmaputra river. I especially loved visiting Assam near the foothills of the Himalayas. We stayed at the Kaziranga National Park, the world’s only one-horned rhinoceros preserve. The people there are doing great work to protect these animals from poachers and have brought the species back from near extinction.
This region has an annual monsoon season, and the folks who live there are accustomed to flooding. But this year they have been hit especially hard, with many people and animals dead or displaced. My heart and prayers are with them.
Detail — “cascade of joy”
I think that’s partly why I wanted to create this week’s collage. There’s so much happening in our world that I needed to remind myself: Joy is a choice. I can be awake and aware of what’s going on “out there.” I can take action to help. AND I can still choose to experience a “cascade of joy.” It’s up to me.
I may have been in love with elephants before visiting Assam, but that trip sealed the deal. I’m not super happy about how some elephants in the park are used for humans to ride on safari, but I am so grateful to have had that experience. I know I will never forget it.
I don’t know a lot about the Hindu gods and goddesses, but I am drawn to the elephant-headed Ganesha, known as the “remover of obstacles.” About a year ago, when I was wanting to make art but having a hard time jump-starting a practice, the first thing I created was a mosaic of an elephant. I keep it on my desk to remind me to channel that “remover of obstacles” whenever I need to.
The image for this week’s elephant has been in my head for a while, and I was hoping to be able to make it work. When I came across the words “cascade of joy,” everything clicked. I love how the Universe gives me what I need, especially when I’m looking for it.
I needed some joy. I needed the reminder that Joy is an inside job. I needed the reminder that playfulness is innate, and not just in humans. I needed color!
This is the first time that I’ve incorporated cartoons into the collage. I’ve been saving them all for I-don’t-know-what-yet. But I decided this week they could be part of the joy I was creating, and I could make great use of their shades of gray.
The Hubs helped me pick out this week’s cartoon. I thought it was funny, but when he laughed out loud at it, I knew it would be the featured one. Hubs is not unlike Ned. So I would just like to say to the world, MY HUBS HELPS OUT! And he’s great at it. Even when he isn’t. To be fair, I would much rather make art than vacuum, so. SOMETIMES I HELP OUT TOO.
Maybe we all have an Inner Ned.
So YAY YOU for doing that thing you did to help out! The world needs you! You are “lovable, indeed.”
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED CARTOON
