Saving Grace
finding peace and creativity in wild things
Last week, I watched an old episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix. If you haven’t watched or heard of Chef’s Table before, I highly recommend the series for a boost of creative inspiration. I often find myself returning to this series for an infusion of foreign culture, fascinating life stories and creative hydration. Each episode shares the life of one leading-edge chef from somewhere in the world through their unique talents and the life story that has inspired their food and artistry.
I was drawn to watch Jeong Kwan, a Buddhist nun living in a temple in South Korea who makes ‘temple food’ and uses cooking as her spiritual practice. Her relationship with nature is one of reciprocity. Jeong Kwan grows food in completely natural ways, using no chemicals or fertilisers, and through all seasons. She even allows the insects to have their share of the produce and is happy to pluck cabbages and lettuce with holy leaves. As she prepares food for her community with total presence and mindfulness, Kwan ‘becomes’ each vegetable while peeling and slicing; an aubergine, a cabbage - her mind meditates upon the vegetable and she connects with it so that she can fully understand its nature and “create something out of nothing.”
This video clip is not the episode of Chef’s Table that I’m talking about but will give you a flavour of Jeong Kwan’s joyful, creative presence and how she works in relationship with nature to create her art through food (this shows her winning the Icon Award in 2022).
We are like nature, as Jeong Kwan says in this clip; sowing seeds, sprouting, blooming, and producing fruit. The ‘fruit’ of our creativity that can be enhanced and ‘fed’ by spending time in nature during which we are totally present.
Nature has been my saving grace throughout my life, and especially these last few years. Through the pandemic, I was lucky enough to live close to nature; parks, forests, rivers and hills. Nature is where I went to grieve. Nature is where I went to play. Nature is where I went to ‘clear my thoughts’ and my energy; it’s where I heard the murmurings of my being again.
Nature is where I find and feel home, it is where I feel sensual and alive with eros. Nature holds me in difficult times. Nature guides my creativity. I am nature and nature is me.
Nature has been my saving grace and offers a place to rest in grace.
The poet, Wendell Berry expresses this simply and beautifully in one of his most well-known poems, The Peace of Wild Things.1
There’s still time to join Women & Nature - a 5-week online Creative & Reflective Writing Course connecting women and nature through words - we begin next week.
Our senses are the doorway through which we develop our relationship with the natural world. There is deep intimacy to be found when we see our connection to nature as an intimate relationship which can be cultivated over time.
We can find that intimacy through our mindful presence, curiosity and reverence for the natural world. We can also develop it through our creative practice which in turn, brings our creativity alive.
In each live class, we’ll focus on a sensory theme which will act as the catalyst for our creativity.
What to Expect:
Weekly assignments in your local nature places (with a focus on reflective and observational writing and sensory experience)*
4 x weekly 75-minute live workshops on Zoom (with a focus on nature-themed creative writing)
An online place to share your experiences and to connect with the group
Connection Partnership - You’ll be teamed up with a fellow writer as a space to share/connect/listen (optional)
Extra nature-focused resources – books, articles, etc
Replays of live classes uploaded within 24 hours (if tech all goes smoothly!) if you can’t make it to every class
Registration closes on Monday 27th of May next week.
We begin on Wednesday 29th of May.
Some flowers for the weekend,
love
Jane x
Poem: The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry. Source: Resurgence Magazine, issue 261.
*Photo credit: Flowers in hollow trunk - myself.