Summer is all about light! Dazzling, blinding, sending curious shadows across my garden wall, like this silhouette of my miniature peach tree, Baby Bear.
Or this reflection of a garden trellis falling onto my living room
floor:
But nothing reflects the dazzling light
of summer better than the color white.
I am immensely enjoying knitting
with my white version of Kim Hargreaves' Petal,
feeling the soft texture of the 4-ply cotton flow between my hands, seeing the
flower-on-flower texture of the alyssum petals take shape on my white canvas:
There is
something so calming about knitting white yarn, facing the
complete absence of color—like a meditation on purity. As I sat knitting, the row repeats felt as calming as a ritual of counting a
rosary. The words from this Buddhist poem repeated in my mind: “form is only
pure, pure is all form; there is then nothing more than this. For what is form
is pure and what is pure is form; the same is also true of all sensation,
thought,
activity and consciousness.” Truly, the activity of knitting with
white yarn does feel purifying. As I gaze at the light canvas
taking shape, all chattering thoughts fade away, and I am left with a blissful
sense of stillness. It is the simple things that can fix us in one moment, yet too often we are too busy, our minds racing with
our to-do lists and worries. It is the color white only that seems to have the
power to still me with its simplicity, awakening me to the garden outside dotted
with golden roses, two moving needles, the skein of yarn, and a remote bird
singing. The poet Neruda’s elemental odes capture the beauty of the every day things that we ignore. Here
is a quote from his ode to salt:
“This salt
in the
saltcellar
I once saw in the salt
mines.
I know
you won't
believe me,
but
it sings, salt sings, the skin
of the salt
mines
sings
with a mouth
smothered
by the earth…the
mountain
of buried
light,
translucent
cathedral,
crystal of the
sea, oblivion
of the waves.
… on
every table
in the
world,
salt,
we see your
piquant
powder
sprinkling
vital light
upon
our food.”
At the moment it is Petal that is sprinkling vital light upon
my summer knitting. And I’m enjoying every minute of it!