I meant to post this yesterday, to wrap up February.
My direction for the month of February was "east." So many things I could have explored. I pretty much stuck with my thought of east as the direction the sun rises from and new beginnings. Appropriate I suppose since a gift (the carders) from my parents allowed for a new beginning that I know I'll be pursuing for a long time.
I have, however, been thinking a lot about east as a place. East as a cultural identity. At the beginning of this month I attended a conference where one of the topics was culture. It made me consider what kind of culture I want to live in, what kind of culture I create for the children I work with, and how I feel about how culture comes through in our life styles (food, clothing, music for example). Nothing like a few big ideas to ponder....
A couple of years ago I started creating my version of prayer flags. For most of them I created a digital image and then printed the image on silk. I thought a lot about whether it was respectful to take something from a culture that I wouldn't be identified with and make my own version of it. I've decided that really, it's impossible not to. We live in a global world and I really don't think there is any going back. I've decided that I want to make a set of prayer flags for this year. One for each direction that I'm exploring. I'll catch up with January (in) and February (east) and then create one each month.