Activity before rest
It’s this time of year when we’re entering rest, yet there’s so much activity before we can rest.
There’s the usual activity around all the end-of-year holidays and new year beginnings — preparations and decorations, gatherings and gifts, travel and festivities and fireworks — an energy that somehow sways and swirls before that slowing down to the sweet, restful rhythms of winter.
The energy of the banana tree is now entering a long rest underground. And yet it’s still generous and generative. It has given you its big stems to play with, be curious about, and see what emerges before it entirely rests.
A month ago, we cut down the banana tree stalks and covered the large underground bulb with layers of leaves and mulch. It’s something we do every year. For the past two years, I’ve kept a few stalks, experimented with mark-making, made a video, and written about it (here and here). This year was the third time experimenting with “banana tree mark-making.” (please watch the very short video; it’s quite fun!)
There’s a transition in this season, a gathering before the winter solstice when dark and light pass from one to the next. They are at play, needing each other, as autumn needs winter, and activity needs rest.
Photographing the banana tree stalks, I noticed how it made its own marks — etched, weathered, and weary signals that it was ready to go inward.
As I brought one short stalk to my studio, I wondered what marks we would make and was curious to know what would emerge in this time of activity transitioning to rest.
Many marks were made by pressing, as if pressing on to go inward, leaving an imprint, or making an impression.
The last marks to impress before slowing down to winter’s sweet, quiet rhythms.
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LouLou
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