Growth and Decay Slow Dance Together {October 2023}

MORTALITY  •   LOVE  •  ECOLOGICAL SELF

Hey everyone -  Jo here, once again writing in the final hours of this month to bring you our October offering. I will miss the spiral portal snail image of September. And, as we turn the calendar page to October, we find a favorite of mine—a colorful and airy still life who has broken into our often animal-centered milieu. 

This month continues a year-long reckoning with time. We bow to non-linear time, we rest in infinite moments, and now we celebrate the inevitable condition of life—which is, of course, death. There is no separation here. The often polarized notions of growth and decay are not opposites at all. They are more like lovers—drawn to one another, staying close, courting, dancing, playing—always tumbling together through time. 

Our modern paradigm fetishizes growth and demonizes decay. Much is invested in upholding such an imbalance, such a precarious position. But it will not prevail. There are forces at work within us and upon us that are stronger than all that. If there is fear in our movement toward this slow dance of growth and decay, let us remember that we are more than what is threatened by the inevitable. We are elements of a living world. Growth is an arc of melody, and decay is the syncopated rhythm that carries it. We need not be afraid to dance!