GOOD BONFIRE: Writing on creativity and contemplative practice by artist Hannah Burr

FIREFLIES

8/9/2022

9 Comments

 
Picture
Here are some things I love about Michigan in the summer. That you can float down a river in a kayak, innertube, paddleboard, even with a twelve pack of beer, right through the middle of town like its the seventies, and no one bothers you. (This is certainly a two sided coin especially as I'm sober since 2011!). The state grows excellent fruit - all manner of berries, stone fruits and apples. There are several fruit   trees I hadn't encountered: The unusual sour cherry, the serviceberry, chokeberry, mulberry, and blackberries growing everywhere right about this time. 


And the fireflies. The fireflies (also known as glowbugs or lightening bugs) are more of a phenomena here than I remember them being in Massachusetts. Look out over a field or lawn at dusk and you see these tiny, silent, unassuming points of light rising by the hundreds.


Tonight, I walked deliberately to a park near our house with a big field just as night was falling because I could see that fireflies were starting to rise out of the grass on our own lawn. I wanted to really experience this in the otherwise darkening space of evening.


Here's the thing about that: In order to see fireflies, you can't actually focus. You have to look with a wide open view. It's a kind of peripheral seeing. 


What amazes me about fireflies is that they don't just happen for a couple of days, or in rare locations. They are this magic thing, and yet they happen all summer long as far as I know, and they are simply embedded in lawns and grasses. When they do happen, it's like they're normal. It's like: Oh, it's nighttime and the fireflies are out. 


If you think about it, fireflies are magic. You can't see them if you look for them. They are under your feet when you walk. They are silent and individually a small beetle-like bug. You have to rest your eyes to receive their light show. When received, it's hard to deny that certain magic is ordinary. Shooting stars require this peripheral vision too.


Lately I've been thinking about how I work, about how I go about a day. More and more it makes sense to approach my entire life that same way, with a kind of peripheral openness and a receiving of experience, rather than thinking that I'm actually doing the things that are happening. When there's a difficult conversation, when there's a good piece of news, when something like a project or a task completes, there's a tendency to think "I did it" I focused, I made it happen, I did it. To an extent that's true, but on the other hand, there's a way that we simply receive a flow of experience that doesn't cease.


Over the fourth, we see the explosions in the sky, amazing and awe inspiring. Fireworks have their magic, but in a kind of focal stage area in the sky, and unlike the complete brilliant silence of firefly and the shooting star, they are a loud, hard to ignore and being explosives, both a simulation of and a by product of human war. It's really nice to have this softer, natural phenomenal happening all throughout, asking nothing of me.


Where is there magic right under your feet? Is it in what you are tasting, what amazing things your hands can do like grab six awkward things to take upstairs? A bird in flight, singing. A cat purring on your chest. A flower opening along a fence. A child saying your name. Please let's expand the list! Comment below and add your own...

And where would you like to rest and receive versus go out and get? 

Here are some related pages from my last book, the 2021 Edition of Contemporary Prayers to Whatever Works:
Picture
p.170-171 of the 2021 book
Picture
p.186-187 of the 2021 book
9 Comments
Nancy S Biehn
8/11/2022 08:22:00 am

Your writing lights me up!

Reply
Hannah Burr
8/11/2022 09:09:55 am

Thank you Nancy!!! Thanks for tuning in!

Reply
Paloma link
8/11/2022 08:36:04 am

I love this post! Sometimes it feels like we are becoming the art work rather than being a separate object from us.
To expand the list and as I am writing: the cool morning air touching my skin. I love it.
Big hug to you dear friend!

Reply
Hannah Burr
8/11/2022 09:10:22 am

Thank you dear friend!! Excited to make a plan when I'm back in MI!

Reply
Bob Hiller
8/11/2022 08:37:28 am

The title of this blog caught my eyes because of a post by Charles Eisenstein earlier this summer, https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/monarchs-and-lightning-bugs. Fireflies are much less common here in Massachusetts than they used to be, I was out in our backyard a few weeks ago looking for them and I saw exactly one. I'm glad to know that they are plentiful in Michigan.

Reply
Hannah Burr
8/11/2022 09:11:16 am

I've noticed that too, driving through New England recently. I don't remember them ever being really plentiful. I'll observe when I'm up in Maine too. xoxoxo to you Bob!

Reply
Bob Hiller
8/11/2022 09:35:56 am

Hi, Hannah. Yes, upon re-reading, plentiful was an overstatement on my part. I was remembering how we used to catch fireflies as a kid growing up in NY where they were plentiful back then. <3

Patty link
8/11/2022 02:16:50 pm

My mother and I used to enjoy seeing fireflies in the darkness, while sitting on her deck overlooking Cape Cod Bay.

Reply
Hannah Burr
8/12/2022 09:32:56 am

That sounds beautiful- lights over the bay

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Never miss a post!

    ALIVE 

    Solo Exhibition of new work by Hannah Burr
    Barickuda Gallery
    Ann Arbor MI
    ​ Sept 17-Oct 22 2022 
    Learn more here

    END PAPERS

    This is a service and will soon be a course - in person and online. Let me know if you'd like to be notified when it's ready!
    SIGN UP TO BE NOTIFIED

    FREE SESSION WITH HANNAH!

    If you feel overwhelmed, confused or just plain excited by what's afoot in your life, and would like some excellent clarifying space and tools, try a session with Hannah! She's been a coach for 15 years. First 30 minutes is just to see what it's like...
    SNAG A FREE SESSION

    ​

    + Get one of HB's books
    +  See Hannah's Artwork
    + Shop Hannah Burr Studio

    Author

    Hannah Burr is a contemporary artist and author. Originally from Boston, she lives in Ann Arbor MI.

    Archives

    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    August 2015
    March 2014
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    Art + Books
    Art For Sale
    Art In Print
    Artists Books
    Coaching
    Contemplative Practice
    Contemporary Art
    Creative Process
    Creative Process And Practice
    Deals + Events
    Embodied
    Meditation
    Messes
    Messiness
    Objects
    Prayer
    Reflection And Writing
    Relationship
    Spirituality
    Studio Stories

    RSS Feed

hannahburr.com

SHOP
CONTACT

BLOG ROll

ABOUT HANNAH


© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.