Arriving here, in isolation 2.0, July 2020. Writing in my notebook seems like only half way there, and so I'm here, keyboard in lap to bring them to fruition. Daily Ceremony is for me to put into practice the recognition of daily rituals, repeated pleasures and frequented doings. I've never had grand plans for life, maybe the grand plan, is the daily grind. Grind me up some coffee & let's begin. This month, I have been incessantly reading Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver released her first poetry collection in 1963 at the age of 28. My mum was born in 1963 and had me at the age of 28. I received her book Devotions on my 28th birthday. The way she talks about the connection between nature and humanity is hopelessly unique. Reading her poems feels like drinking an entire galaxy in a tea cup. So here is something I wrote // In this world, we have created 'us' and 'other'. We created an idea, that human is separate to nature, human is separate to animal, rain is separate to tears, wind separate to breath, thunder disassociated from anger and joy apart from the buzzing of the honey bee.

Your feet, are the roots of the lotus plant, your blood, the sap of the tree, the warmth between your thighs, the sun bathed stone. I don't know why we thought it could possibly benefit our existence to build an unwavering divide between what beauty means on the face of a freckled child to what it means when the Magnolia blooms after the depths of winter. You are not better than, more advanced than, more in tune than the turning of the tides, drawn in by the pull of the moon.

You, running around the city, fast feet, busy mind, have moved so far past what it means to be alive. This pause we're all in, has created an avalanche of turmoil & earthquakes of co-dependency falling down around us. Now, in the pinnacle of the pause, before the wash back of the wave on the sand, is your time to pick the leaves up from your back yard & smell the oils. Those oils, that same as ones residing in the pores of your skin. Lay, with your back on the ground, looking up at the vast blue of the sky. The blue of your favourite berry. Slow. Pause.

Image: Movement Artist, Olivia McPerson. Instagram: @oliviamcpherson

Daily Ceremony acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land we work on, and we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging.