Full Moon Update – 30th April

April 29, 2018

3 minute read

In my town, a man creates chalk mandalas and pairs them with spiritual quotes. Known as Gaz Mandala, his creations never last long, they disappear with the next rain shower. #impermanence

Wake up Screaming
Full Moon Update – 3oth April

This Month’s Theme: The Great Outdoors
Deadline: Midday (GMT) Sun 13th May

Following the Launch of edition #9 The Great Outdoors, I was keen to continue the outward orientation and start to reinvestigate my adopted town of Glastonbury.

This Full Moon, we reaffirm this explorative focus and ask, in what ways can we embrace the spaces we find ourselves in? Our immediate environments, our towns and the characters that inhabit them? What little treasures hide just under the surface? What do our towns mean to us, what does it mean to stay, what happens when we have to leave?

I arrived back in Glastonbury in November. Somehow, 6 months has passed. It’s been a period of hibernation, inward-looking, completing projects and planning for the next. Now, with the arrival of Spring, a far more sociable tendency is emerging from me.

It’s the longest time I have remained in one country, let alone the same town, for the past 3 years. And honestly, it’s refreshing to be in a place without the wanting/having to leave. The nomadic lifestyle brings experience and lessons by the barrow load, but it doesn’t bring rooted strength, security, support, and the complete ecosystems required for a fully flourishing human man. I suspect these things are provided by staying still, by making a home, and growing into a place, which from a personal perspective is what I am exploring with the theme, “In My Town”.

It might be an overused metaphor, but one’s life seems to me like tending a garden: When we keep moving from place to place, our gardens never mature, we keep cutting back, chopping down. Some plants might remain, like the trees we planted in our youth; the overseeing parental figures, or the collection bulbs we planted in the beds that pop up each year in the form of distantly sustained friendships.

But the real meat of the matter, the vegetation, the nourishment, the flowering, the unfolding thickets, the symbiotic relationship with the soil. All the new environments within environments that provide a place for creatures to nest, for new growth to take hold, for deeper relationships to be tended, for familial healing and support; these things are stunted. These support networks, relationships, the roots of life, without direct attention, grow weedy and anaemic.

Within the last two weeks a noticeable fusion took place, an alchemical bonding, a merging of me and My Town. I finally related to Glastonbury as a home, as a place that held endless potential and could provide the opportunities for me to flourish and develop more finely as a person. It is a place I desire to stay and with that settling down, not running, not chasing, not wanting for much else than to stay put, we locked into an embrace; a key turned in a lock and my surroundings sprung into life right in front of my eyes.

In an astoundingly short period of time, with a little intention, and with what seems like only a fingertip’s touch, Glastonbury itself is opening up. Under the act of observation, of direct enquiry, spaces have started to unfold around me in ways I could not have predicted, planned or even wished for. New keys find their ways into my hands, doors open and rooms welcome. Opportunities and relationships start to reach out, grow and flourish.

I feel like I have spent my entire life trying to escape myself, my town, my country. Now, having escaped, having stripped away and walked from, having left behind, having been, gone and come back again, having pulled myself as far away from myself as I could, having snapped, cracked and pinged back. I reproach Glastonbury a different person; more capable, more committed, more at ease. I am no longer seeking to leave, rather I am at ease with sitting still and being found.

By no means is my travelling done, but for the time being it’s a relief to be in a place without the wanting to escape. I look forward to having an adventure right here on my doorstep, in my adopted town of Glastonbury.

If you would like to join me by exploring the theme “In My Town” – then check out the submission guidelines. I look forward to learning about the relationship you have with your town.

Reading List:
What is a Bard
Glastonbury community networking
About Glastonbury – History

Call for artists

#10 In My Town – Submissions open

Deadline: Midday, Sun 13th May 2018

Release: New moon – Tues 15th May 2018

This month we are asking artists from all over the world: What is happening in your town? Who are the special people, artists, poets, musicians, philosophers, that make up your community?

Do you run an event, art, music, poetry, dream circle, spiritual development group, or other? Is there a unique aspect of your town that you would like to bring to the attention of a wider audience? In addition, what does your town mean to you? Have you ever left your town? Do you have an adopted town?

We are looking for visual pieces, written pieces, illustration, painting, drawings, animation, music, sound, video, multimedia, films, installations, movement, dance, noise, soundscapes, songs, collaboration, creative writing, poetry and short articles < 600 words.

Please view our submission guidelines and previous editions before submitting your work.