Between the Gatherings
Continue the Inquiry
Expand the tab below and find out more about this page (seriously feeling very clever right now - there's an expandable tab thingy!!!)
The gathering may have finished, but the conversation hasn't. This is where it continues ... read more here
Think of this as a shared field notebook rather than a finished workbook. A place to pause, notice, wonder, make, question and collect the things that don't fit neatly into an evening together.
Between now and our next Gathering (15 August), I'll keep adding to these pages.
There'll be reflections, creative prompts, field notes, little art experiments, recommendations from our guests, photographs, questions worth sitting with and the occasional rabbit hole I've disappeared down. Some things will be polished. Most won't.
You're welcome to wander rather than work your way through.
Stay for five minutes or an hour. Skip ahead. Circle back. Download the pages that are useful. Ignore the ones that aren't. Bring your own questions, your own sketches and your own stories.
Because becoming rarely happens in a single evening.
It happens in the ordinary days between gatherings.
Welcome | or Welcome Back
Welcome | or Welcome Back
I was at The Winter Gathering
For those of you who were at The Winter Gathering, return to your field notebook. Revisit the pages you began, notice what has stayed with you, and continue the inquiry from where you left off.
I was NOT at The Winter Gathering
Welcome. You have not missed the beginning. The questions live beyond the event, and you can enter the conversation right here.
Learning to Read What Grows in the Dark
At The Winter Gathering, everyone received a small field notebook.
It wasn’t a program or a set of instructions. It was simply somewhere to gather words, sketches, questions and observations as the evening unfolded. A reminder that there is no right way to keep field notes. Only one practice:
To notice.
Some people filled their pages. Some wrote a sentence or two. Some carried theirs home mostly blank.
All of that counts.
This page is an unfolding continuation of that little notebook—a place to return to the questions from the evening, follow a few new threads, make something, notice something, and keep exploring what may be growing beneath the surface of your own life.
And you do not need to have been at The Winter Gathering to begin.
Perhaps you found your way here afterwards. Perhaps someone shared a question with you. Perhaps you are simply living through a season that does not yet make much sense.
You are welcome here too.
Start wherever you like. Wander rather than work through it. Bring a notebook, use the notes app on your phone, make a sketch, sit with a question, or simply read.
There is no need to finish anything.
We are simply learning to read what grows in the dark.
FIELD NOTE #1
Reading Your Season
Winter gardens rarely announce what's happening beneath the soil.
Not everything that looks still is finished.
The Original Question
What part of your life have you been reading by flowers... when perhaps it's quietly growing roots?
A Little Reflection
One of the easiest mistakes we make is assuming that if we can't see change, nothing is changing.
We're surprisingly quick to label a season as "stuck," "unproductive" or "wasted" simply because it isn't producing flowers yet.
But winter has a different measure of progress.
One of the things I love about gardens is that they refuse to perform. They don't care whether you're watching. They don't speed up because you're impatient. They don't panic because the garden next door looks more impressive. They simply keep becoming. At their own pace.
Perhaps the question isn't, "Am I growing?"
Perhaps it's, "What if I'm simply measuring the wrong thing?"
Creative Invitation
Find something that appears unfinished, dormant or overlooked - a winter tree, an empty garden bed, an old fence, cracked pavement with moss finding its way through.
Spend a few moments with it.
Grab your phone (or camera) and enjoy a little photo shoot. Take pics from all angles, play with your filters, turn your phone upside down, zoom right In, PLAY! ENJOY the colours, lines, textures, all the intriguing things you didn't notice before you began ...
If you'd like to, give it a title.
Not what it is...
What it reminds you of.
If you'd like to share It with myself and other winter travellers, puhleeeeeeze pop It In the comments here or on my facebook page or send It through to me (kendallbryantartist@gmail.com) - maybe we can start an online gallery?!?!?!!
Keep Wondering...
What have I been too quick to call "stuck"?
Where might quiet growth already be happening?
What would change if I trusted the roots a little longer?
What in my life deserves a second look?
FIELD NOTE #1
Reading Your Story
To be published on Wednesday 29 July
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