Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: grounding

Where Have You Been?

Well, lockdown has finally eased in Melbourne and I've been taking advantage of the new freedoms by going to the beach as often as I can. I am super grateful to live where I do but I have missed seeing the horizon and the roof of the world stretching over my head.

I've been heading down to the Peninsula with my girls to go swimming and soak up the sun. It's a bit of a trek but it's such a novelty that we are all enjoying the drive. We wind down the windows, play some tunes and sing along. I love the feeling of rubber on bitumen eating up the miles as paddocks and trees glide past the window.

Perhaps 'Where have you been?' can be our new greeting to one another. Instead of 'What do you do?' I for one, would like to know the answer to that question. Even if it's only, 'To the letterbox.'

So let me ask you, where have you been taking your new found freedom?

November 23, 2020
Time For Some Perspective

It’s easy to get caught up in the things that don’t matter. I’ve been submitting my poetry to literary journals for publications and piling up rejection letters. It’s disheartening to say the least.

Writing is a strange dance of hope and doubt. Every poem I write is filled with hope. I craft each one with love. Agonise over the line breaks and the exact meaning of the words. Strive to find synonyms to express what I am trying to communicate. Each time I send a new poem to a journal (or dust off an old one) I am quietly hopeful that this time, it will be good enough to be published.

When each rejection letter arrives I have to remind myself that it is the poem being rejected and not me. Which is hard when I have poured so much of myself into my poetry and it keeps getting rejected.

When the most recent rejection letter arrived I was filled with doubt. I doubted I could ever write a poem as good as the ones I read in the journals. As good as the ones written by my literary heroes. I doubted I had the ability to craft a poem that could leap and twirl across the page. I doubted I would ever be able to write the kind of poems I want to write. There’s a shift that happens in my favourite poems and I don’t know how to execute it. It’s like a magic trick I can’t figure out, all I hear is the magician’s patter and I’m blind to the sleight of hand.

All of this was swirling around in my head. And then I jumped on my bike and rode here with my daughters. And suddenly, being accepted into a literary journal didn’t matter so much anymore. Not when there is this.

August 5, 2020
Nature Connection Cards

I started these cards on Sunday to encourage us to venture out into nature each day. They are designed to be gentle invitations or a way to set an intention. It's all too easy to get stuck in the house and forget all the plants, trees, birds and insects out there.

It's been wonderful have a pencil in my hand and sketch little pictures. Inspired by my 13 year old daughter, I tried to draw the pictures from memory. She draws the most incredible portraits without copying anything. However when it came to the fox, kangaroo and owl I had to resort to copying images I found online. My original fox looked like a daschund zebra (wish I had taken a photo of it!) and the kangaroo looked more like a rabbit wth a pouch!

I based the cards on the core nature connection routines described by Jon Young of the 8 Shields Institute. Jon visited Australia last year to run two workshops and I attended the Music, Nature and Storytelling event held in Hawks Nest, New Soul Wales. Something as simple as a daily sit spot is a powerful way to connect to nature and the land around us.

Like most of my projects, I started with heaps of enthusiasm and energy and got lots done in the first couple of days. Then my energy waned and the cards dragged on. I know we need to take time to rest and refresh but wouldn't it be great if we could keep the same joy for the whole of a project?

April 3, 2020
My Backyard

It's officially the first week of the school holidays. We are supposed to be out bush at the Wild by Nature Village Camp in Riddells Creek. But we're not. Like everyone else we're confined to home.

Luckily for us there's now a virtual village where we can connect several times a day online and also share what we have been creating and discovering. The best bit of the virtual village so far has been the daily invitations drawing us out of the house and into nature.

Here are the invitations we received during the course of the week:

Day 1 – set up a camp in your house or back yard (some folks have put up a tent in their lounge rooms).

Day 2 – notice something you haven't seen before in your backyard / local park. Plus an invitation to create a treasure hunt for your family with objects or draw a map of your backyard / local park.

Day 3 – make your own nature journal and draw in it something you discover on your sit spot.

Day 4 – explore your wild self by imitating an animal using camouflage

Day 5 – make a magic wand using a stick

I'm really enjoying setting up a 'camp' in the backyard. I'm feeling so grateful for our little spot of green and thankful we're no longer in a flat. We have a little grove of trees next to the shed that we never use and this week I felt drawn to setting up there. Usually I throw down a rug on the grass near the clothesline just outside the back door which means I don't have to go very far at all. So far there's a fire pit waiting to be christened surrounded by logs to sit on. In one corner I've strung up a tarp and we spend most days sitting under it, reading, drawing and chatting. Yesterday I added a bit of bunting and today I plan to set up a nature table and string up the hammock. It's starting to feel like our little piece of camp. I'll post more pics as I add to the space.

I'm also heading out for daily walks or rides along the trail that runs next to the creek near our house. We're normally so busy we don't get time to come here. So far I've seen a rabbit, yellow-tailed black cockatoo and a new bird I've yet to id. Plus lots of people. Our suburb is usually a built wasteland, devoid of life. Now we see lots of people out and about walking their dogs or riding their bikes. In a strange way I feel more connected now that we're in isolation.

I'm counting my blessings at the moment and feeling so grateful for our community and the enforced isolation and social distancing which is providing time to slow down and breathe. We have time to appreciate what we have right here. And I now know our backyard really is wonderful.

Note: I updated this post on 4/4/2020 with the rest of the week's activities from Firekeepers and more pictures of our 'camp'.

April 1, 2020
Fresh Air and Friends

Earlier this week I met up with some friends to go for a walk. We were in the Pirianda Gardens in Sherbrooke, Victoria. I hadn't visited the gardens before. Since moving to the area 15 months ago I haven't done much exploring. My day to day activities and responsibilities usually keep me very busy. However all the normal activities have been cancelled so we now have time, that rare and elusive beast, on our hands.

The gardens were beautiful. An incredible range of plants from Australia and around the world, all beautifully landscaped. Hard to believe this was once someone's home. I can't imagine living anywhere so grand or having enough energy to maintain it all. The best bit about the gardens were all the signs for the plants with their taxonomic and common names. So good to finally put faces or rather trees to names! I've read about yew, alder and birch for years. This time I got to meet them up close and personal.

If the gardens stay open the girls and I will be coming back here often in the coming months.

March 25, 2020
Water Remedy

Nothing beats the post holiday blues quite like time spent in nature.

It was so good to be back in nature this week, sitting by the creek and listening to the birds. It's spring and they're very excited. Chirping loudly, swopping across the sky joyfully, building nests and feeding young. The sun was out and there was nowhere else I had to be.

Balm for the soul.

September 23, 2019
Grounding

It was so good to be back here yesterday after the whirlwind of activities over the last few weeks. Winter is meant to be a time to turn inwards and contemplate but I was far too busy for any deep thoughts. Coming here, seeng the creek and slowing down was just what I needed. I even saw my first wattle blossom for the season.

We were blessed with the presence of a flock of yellow tailed black cockatoos. We've been hearing them here recently and have occasionally seen them flying in the distance, black specks against a grey sky. Today we saw one flying past us quite low to land in a tree. And then another and another and another. It was magic.

July 20, 2018
Grounding

It was so good to be back here yesterday after the whirlwind of activities over the last few weeks. Winter is meant to be a time to turn inwards and contemplate but I was far too busy for any deep thoughts. Coming here, seeng the creek and slowing down was just what I needed. I even saw my first wattle blossom for the season.

We were blessed with the presence of a flock of yellow tailed black cockatoos. We've been hearing them here recently and have occasionally seen them flying in the distance, black specks against a grey sky. Today we saw one flying past us quite low to land in a tree. And then another and another and another. It was magic.

July 20, 2018
I Can’t Stop

I just can't stop eco dyeing. I'm hooked on the alchemy of turning raw plant materials that I have foraged from nature into dyed pieces of paper or fabric. Gathering the raw materials makes me so happy. My hands love the feeling of plants and my soul loves being outdoors in all weather. I enjoy the deepening connection I have for the place from which I gather most of my materials. I'm also enjoying the greater connection I have with nature – I can now identify a lot more plants when I drive around Melbourne and I often stop to gather ones that are growing on nature strips!

I think that sharing the craft with so many excited people at the Wild By Nature Camp also helped to fan my creative fire for eco-dyeing. Passion is a wonderful multiplier of energy. Sharing my current passion with other people who got excited and passionate about it in turn created an awesome feedback loop of passion and joy. I've brought that feedback loop home with me and I've now put it back into creating more eco-dyed materials which I'm sharing here and hopefully multiplying the passion even further!

plants + water + metal + fire + fabric = happy!

I wrote this equation to sum up the basic nature of eco-dyeing and after I did, I realised that all the elements are present in the process. Maybe that's why I am so obsessed with eco-dyeing at the moment.

October 19, 2017