450.30 JulyDoodle Growth

July Doodle

My CLmooc friends doodle every day. July’s prompts are from Rachelle at TinkerLab — #tinkerlab. 

Today the prompt is growth, so consider the dandelion who refuses to stop growing and who cannot help but bring brightness to all within its sight.

Each of us is a seed of possible influence for each other. Ensure we hear all voices. For the People Act

#JulyDoodle #growth #forthepeopleact  #clmooc #tinkerlab #warmup4art #artaction #dandelion #gouache #procreateit 

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem.

This poem/painting is a little response to my friend Terry Elliott’s blog post: Infinite Oxbow of Nothing.

Even though few might see the poems and words in Terry’s spaces, he has influenced me with considerable thought-worthy conversations [some noted here]. One of the concepts Terry helped the Clmooc crew to think about, is that of “adjacent possible.” I wrote a bit here and Terry explained it way back in 2014 [and probably earlier] here: The Genius. Terry’s helpful explanation:

The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore them. Each new combination opens up the possibility of other new combinations. Think of it as a house that magically expands with each door you open. You begin in a room with four doors, each leading to a new room that you haven’t visited yet. Once you open one of those doors and stroll into that room, three new doors appear, each leading to a brand-new room that you couldn’t have reached from your original starting point. Keep opening new doors and eventually you’ll have built a palace.

Terry Elliott in blog post The Genius

The thing is, every encounter and conversation we have opens our possibilities that we may not enter at the time, but may return to. And we know not what influence we have on one another. Yet we each exist because of one another– sort of like we become adjacent possibles to and from each other. We need each other!

What we say and do and write possibly helps another– the person and the resulting influence unknown to us.

So– a good reason to take care with our words and actions.

Terry tweeted and I wrote, each thought a possible:

Enough to be a dandelion seed drifting into a gentle swirl caught in the edge of the oxbow, pushed into the softened mud where its roots reach out and hold.

— Sheri Edwards (@grammasheri) July 5, 2021

I thought, in response to Terry’s query, that it is enough to be a dandelion seed drifting into a gentle swirl caught in the edge of the oxbow, pushed into the softened mud where its roots reach out and hold, even if no one sees it there in the woods.

And in my twitter stream at about the same time was a Mister Rogers reminder of these influences in our lives:

@telliowkuwp we never know all the ones we helped “be enough”

— Sheri Edwards (@grammasheri) July 5, 2021

Yes, Enough To Be

Is it enough
to be a dandelion seed
drifting into a gentle swirl
caught in the edge
of the oxbow,
pushed into the softened mud
where its roots reach out
and hold?

Sheri Edwards 070521 18536521 Poetry/Photography

So many people and conversations and poetry from our CLmooc crew– we invite a better world through our connections.

I had no dandelions in our lawn today– at least blooming, although many wildflowers are allowed to flourish in our un-“weed’n’feeded” lawn. However, I have many dandelion photos which, today, I gathered into an album, which apparently, because it is “google photos,” I can no longer embed, but here it is: Dandelions

Be enough. You are enough. By your being, you influence. Go boldly now and scatter seeds of kindness…

Post 858 days in a row

Update– Photo for today of one of the flowers growing in our lawn. I believe this purple flower is “lawn prunella,” but I’m not sure. At any rate, we let it grow– just mow over or around it.