Unpredict the sun

Posted on Posted in Unpredict

Originally posted on 12 June 2017 via tinyletter.

Dear Unpredict Community,

Thank you for sharing all your experiences! I loved the texts, emails, social media #unpredict posts and phone calls. 

Some themes emerged when you shared your experiences. Some people used the experience to connect with themselves through art or a meditative moment in nature. Others unpredicted by calling a friend and you did something, together. At its soul, for me, and for many others, unpredict is about connection — with yourself and/or with others. 

Unpredicted highlights from community members to give you ideas and inspiration:

-Climbing a tree and drawing from a bird’s eye view.

-Giving yourself permission to try a new art medium.

-Running along the ocean with a friend.

-Planning a birthday celebration in a treehouse. 

-Watching the new moon rise.

My unpredict experience

Inspired by YOU, I combined art and nature by attending an Andy Goldsworthy‘s opening exhibit in San Francisco. He creates ephemeral art using materials found in nature – and documents them with photography and videos. These are his words from an interview with NPR.
 

“Design implies a sense of mapping something out, and then you follow the plan; [but] these things grow, and the process of making it parallels that of growth. So in the making of a work — layer by layer, stone by stone, branch by branch, leaf by leaf, petal by petal, one being added to the next — something grows in front of you. And the process of growth is obviously critical to my understanding of the land and myself. … It’s a lot more unpredictable, the process is far more unpredictable, and with far more compromises with the day, the weather, the material.”

With Andy Goldsworthy’s words in mind, there is no one recipe on how to unpredict, and your unpredict could evolve and morph and grow into something different than you expected. However, I want to start suggesting some (optional) themes as building blocks. If you have an idea in mind, do it! If not, in honor of next week’s summer solstice (in the northern hemisphere), I invite you to:

Unpredict the sun

We can play with this theme for a few weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing how you interpret the sun and connect with yourself and with others. As my friend Christina illustrated in her comic, Unpredict! is “a provocation and invitation …to break out of our routines  — just for a little while.”

I’m so grateful for all of you to join this adventure with me and with each other!

xoMo

Welcome to Unpredict

Posted on Posted in Unpredict

This is a copy of the first email I sent about Unpredict (22 May 2017).

Dear all! Welcome to Unpredict!

Thank you for signing up! Undoubtedly, many of you are not quite sure what this is or will become — and that is already an unpredicted experience.  I’m unpredicting the process myself and I’m excited you are joining the journey with me.

As I mentioned in my post about enjoying a sunny afternoon, an unpredict can be anything at any time during the week (but it’s nice to choose a consistent day to look forward to). It doesn’t have to be an epic adventure or curated project. It can be a five minute meditation (or less!) or a five hour hike. All of you are likely to create adventures I’ve never even considered! I shared this project with my Dad, and he said, “I think I’ll study one of Omar Kayyam’s math problems.” 

I want to take a moment to give gratitude to my Dad for sharing his own unpredict, but also for taking me on my first bike ride, drawing leaves on paper tablecloths in restaurants, giving his children math puzzles and generally inspiring us to view the world with a sense of curiosity and wonder. All these shared experiences with my Dad built on one another to create a childhood punctuated with unique experiences. And I want to continue to build on these experiences with all of you. 

This week, my unpredict is creating this community. I’m looking forward to seeing how you all interpret this adventure, and I’m hoping you also share some of your experiences with me and others, both here and in your local communities. 

To explore what unpredict means to you, choose a day or hour or moment this week and try something out of your routine. Include a friend in the experience if you wish! And have fun! 

If you feel inspired to share your unpredict, send me an email — or take a photo to post on Facebook or Instagram (tag me!), or tweet (#unpredict) — or call a friend who doesn’t use social media and share the experience with them. I’ll re-share and reflect back what I hear from y’all on this weekly community forum! The hope is to inspire each other to have intentional, joyful and spontaneous moments. 

sharing love and adventure,

xoMo

“Questions” for Shavuot

Posted on Posted in 54 Challahs
This is the written script of a talk that I shared at The Kitchen‘s Shavuot Banquet on May 22, 2018. It is also the first day of a “100 days” practice that I’ve seen many artists do as a way to build their craft.

 

 

 
 

“Questions”

 

When I was talking to Rabbi Noa about sharing some Torah tonight , I said, “Ok, but I have more questions than insights!” to which Noa responded, “Great! Teach about questions!”. So, it got real.

 
 
Now, for those of you who know me, you may guess that my first step was to ask Google for some help. I typed in “How many questions are there in Torah?”
 
 
Error message. Hmm. Apparently there are more questions than syllables in the Torah. So I had to try a different strategy — Because it’s Shavuot, I decided to read the book of Ruth. It’s short. I’d never read it before. I recommend it.
 
 
For those of you who have not read the book of Ruth, it played live this morning when a wealthy, hierarchical landowner married a divorced, biracial foreigner.
 
 

I heard they might eventually have a great grandson named David.

 
 
There are 4 questions in the book of Ruth. The first one is probably the most well known. Ruth is in the fields looking for spare wheat and Boaz, the landowner, is kind and inclusive. She asks him why he is being so kind to her, a poor foreigner.  This is a question that many of our fellow Kitchenites teach us through their actions all year young. If you want to learn more about this question, ask Nicole (gesture to audience where Nicole is seated) about the work she is doing in partnership with local immigrant communities.
 
 
 
Questions 2 and 4 are asked by Naomi to Ruth. In summary, they are:  “How you doing? Did you find enough wheat?”  These questions are the bread and butter of our emotional integrity as a community. Take a moment, now, and look at your neighbor or look across the room for someone you don’t know. As a community, we should ask each other: How are you? Did you eat breakfast? Is everything going ok? These are the questions we need to ask each other before we can even begin to get into the deeper questions of Torah. 
 
Without our well-being and basic emotional needs met, we can not begin to ask the other questions.
 
 
 
And, now we come to Boaz’s question to Ruth when he wakes up, his feet uncovered, and she is unexpectedly there. He is surprised and the Midrash says that Boaz thinks that Ruth is a demon and feels afraid. He is fearful of her presence but instead of calling the authorities or lashing out with violence and aggression, he shows restraint and openness to his own limits of understanding by asking her: “who are you?”
 

Who are you?

 
It’s an essential question. The answer to that question could be: I am your neighbor. You could give someone an opportunity to share their pronouns, their chosen way of being. Or in Ruth’s case, she boldly replies: “I am your future wife.”
 
 
 
This is a very romantic way of saying,  “I belong here.” What a profound thing to say.
 
 
 
Now, keep in mind, both for the the live Royal wedding this morning and in Ruth’s case, Torah states that were many gatekeepers noticing all the ways that she did not belong. And really, by traditional standards, Ruth did not fit in. So, in fact, saying “I belong here” is so bold and radical that it transforms Boaz’s question ” Who are you?”  into ” Who are we?”  and, because of Ruth’s answer, we can all ask together: “Who will we become?”
 
 
 
This is the question I leave you here with today. “Who will we become?”
 
 
 
And, just one small hint: Google doesn’t know the answer to that question either.