#57 Love Letters to my life
The potlatch begins
(This is my 57th experience of this monthly ritual of acknowledging my inevitable death by writing a love letter to my life. Preparation this month came with a command. — Joyce Wycoff)
give it all away without fear trust me you are loved. you will not need it where you are going someone else might they are loved. As if the message wasn’t clear enough, it added: become a mendicant.
Mendicants? Potlatches?
My rational mind flips backwards trying to pish-posh this notion. First of all there is damn little “it” to give away. “Is this what happens in your dotage,” my mind asks?
“Liminal space” comes a reply, making me wonder about this gap in ordinary time and space, this transition, this portal where odd messages wander through as if they belong.
Befuddled, I ask Professor Google to explain mendicant and potlatch and work my way to the following:
Mendicant: someone who has chosen a spiritual path that renounces ownership of property and exists on a minimum of resources through the generosity of others. Well, that fits fairly well.
While the idea of a vow of poverty originated with St. Francis, he did not intend that begging and alms should be the normal means of sustenance for his friars; on the contrary, he intended them to live by the work of their hands and to have recourse to begging only when they could not earn their livelihood by work. (Wikionary.org and Britannica.com)
So, the idea is not to walk through the world holding a begging bowl, but rather, to be free from the demands of owning property … working with my hands (writing and art … check) and trusting that my minimal financial needs will be met (hmmmm???). So, perhaps I am a modern mendicant … as are many of us … we now call ourselves “creatives.”
Potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. These celebrations focused on the reaffirmation of family, clan, and the human connection with the supernatural world. In addition to giving away riches, potlatches involved feasting, music, dancing, singing, storytelling, speeches, and often joking and games.
While potlatches were illegal for many years, they remained an integral part of the Indigenous culture. I am borrowing the term and using it as a metaphor for the act of giving away stuff … for some, that means riches or wealth.
In my case, it won’t be wealth in the sense of money or assets, but rather the gathered gifts of a life I never expected to live. Until my middle years, I never expected creativity to be part of my life ... it was something given only to “them,” the god-like creatures who were born with talent. Therefore, it has been an ongoing surprise and delight to find myself writing poetry, making art, seeing beauty in ordinary things. I now know that creativity is a part of being human and one of the great tragedies of life is that so few people have the time and resources to discover their own creative gifts.
It took two great losses to give me the time to discover the direction of my creative life. The death of my husband ended one phase of life and the financial devastation of 2008 ended the career that I thought would last forever. Out of those ashes, though, came pieces of me that I never knew existed and reminded me that, “This, too, shall pass.”
Fifty-seven months ago, I began celebrating the 17th of each month as my Death Day (since I do not know the exact date of my death, I’ve chosen the day of my birth) by writing a love letter to my life. This month, I decided to add a ritual of letting go … of potlatch … to the monthly celebration.
Since you are my extended tribe and I cannot invite you to a gathering of feasting and celebration, each month on the 17th, I am going to use our electronic circle to share some of the artifacts of my creative life. These are yours to use as you wish and to share with whomever you wish. Or dispose of completely if they are not of interest.
Potlatch #1 — Found Words
Before digital art entered my world, I did collage and spent untold hours ripping magazines apart for the images and words I found there. I was especially enchanted by the tiny messages-in-a-bottle words I found floating primarily on the ocean of magazine advertising. Eventually, I created a booklet of found words that I wanted to pass along to people for use in their own collages or journals. However, the year was 2003 and technology did not offer a cost-effective way to share the color images. Idea shelved.
This week I unpacked a box that had survived several major downsizings and discovered a treasure trove of torn out images as well as the originals of that shelved project from 2003.
Since we now have access to magic in the form of a universal file protocol … pdf … this slightly updated found words booklet is attached for your use. Again, feel free to pass it along.
Two ideas for how to use it … and if you think of others, please let me know: jwycoff@gratitudemojo.com.
1. Use the words as thought prompts for your journal.
2. Print the pages and use as graphics in your journal or collages.
If you’d like to thumb through the booklet before downloading, just click here.
Thank you for being a part of my world and accepting this small gift. I believe that giving away what one has been given is a way of expressing joy. So, by being a part of this potlatch process, you are gifting me with joy.
Thank you for reading gratitude mojo. We love your “hearts” and please feel free to share this post if you think any of your friends and family would like it.
And if you would like to see other Gratitude Mojo posts, click here:
In good times and challenging ones, practicing gratitude helps us recognize the good things in our lives and build resilience for the challenges that come our way. Gratitude journaling is one of the best ways to better understand yourself and deepen your practice of gratitude.
Any journal will do … however, her are two we are biased toward:
Gratitude Miracles, a 52-week journal filled with inspiring quotes and the science behind 13 amazing benefits of gratitude. Available from amazon.com:
Or, Gratitude Mojo, a 26-week, pdf workbook format, which comes to you free with your annual paid subscription … including one copy for a friend because having a Gratitude Buddy makes the journey better.
We want to help everyone develop a deeper practice of gratitude, therefore, all posts are always free. … However, it is paid subscriptions that truly help support this work.
Thank you for reading gratitude mojo and I would love to hear from you. It is a public newsletter so please feel free to share it with others.
Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! What a fantastic idea! Yes, of course, I have little boxes and Ziploc bags, full of words and phrases from magazines to use in collages and in journals. But now - I have this great new idea to just make a book, a journal, of only these things, and to stop saving them for use someday. And, to make them digital, so I can share them with people when we get together for collage sessions!
And as soon as I replenish my printer ink, I’ll be down loading and printing out yours!
I don’t respond often, Joyce, but please know that I derive so much value from your writings and the creative ideas you offer. So thank you.
Hope your weekend is terrific!
P.S. I remember learning about “potlatch” in a history class sometime somewhere, and this was a good refresher. And “mendicant“ was in my brain somewhere, feeling familiar when I read the information you had found. That was probably from former church days.