Tonight there was an event called Courageous Creativity. One woman offered her spoken poetry, and another played original songs on the ukulele. One of the delightful things about the musician was her ability to self accompany. With her loop pedal she could record one track, put it on repeat and then sing another part. After three or four overlays it sounded like a cloister full of voices. 

The walls were covered with pieces done in the last year by a woman who has found her passion in a paint brush. Any anxiety about performance and perfection fades when the color hits the canvas, and time becomes irrelevant. She has to set a timer to remember to pick up her kids. 

Several of the paintings are of Aspen trees, and she described the sacred space within their branches. Her dappled yellow leaves leave me feeling serene, and probably I am not alone because the whole series was marked SOLD. But I did buy some of her cards. 

She told us that a grove of Aspens in actually connected. Their root system is intertwined, such that they are one. That way when a tree dies, it still lives on in sister trees. Their shared life can continue for thousands of years. 

What a vivid image of the way life flows between us. The poet tonight shared her piece about losing her mother twenty years ago, and in her words brought her mother present among us. It was as if she was not really gone, just hidden below the surface. 

I wonder what would happen if we could see the roots between us and the people we love. Striking out at someone who is separate from us can make sense in a stilted sort of way. But causing pain to another branch of ourselves that is reaching through the dirt to the sun is harder to justify.