Letter from Cressida Pryor
July 31, 2020

I hope this letter finds you well and managing to navigate these extraordinary times with enough resources to keep afloat and provide a safe emotional haven to those who need it…

I know this can be a big ask in these times…and there will be moments when it’s hard enough to keep paddling and perhaps it is then that we can reach out for help from our community and fellow travelers…

This is the time of the first grain harvest…and I have been wondering what has been gathered so far?

My thoughts turned to something that is totally new, to me at least…and feels something I could not have predicted…

Virtual group gatherings…and the useful development of ‘breakout rooms’…

Since lockdown in March I can think back to several large webinars and trainings where I have been sent off into smaller groups and ‘met’ some really interesting people. In particular, certain meetings really stick in my mind as rather magical encounters. Often only for five or fifteen minutes or so…but the time pressure seems to have added an immediacy that intensified the communication…often personal and tender in it’s sharing.

There was an ‘I-Thou’ quality to these brief interactions (as described by Martin Buber) and it felt like a precious island of humanity and connection within the clever technical wizardry of virtual communication.

Another rich harvest has been the generous offerings people have posted both on and off line.

When we were first informed of the lockdown restrictions we needed to reduce viral transmission I noticed my first thought was…’Oh no…how will I keep my figurative drawing skills going?’…

You can judge me as totally idiotic and petty…but I honestly thought this. I could pretend that I first had worries about everyone’s well being…which I did seconds later, but the first conscious thought was much more prosaic…and self concerned.

I needn’t have worried…the art world has well and truly stepped up and offered wonderful opportunities to draw and tutor life, portrait and other areas of artistic endeavor.

A rich harvest indeed for which I am hugely indebted and grateful.

So I suggest a pause to consider what harvest we can be grateful for in these strange times…the people, the creatures and the elemental bounties of nature who have enriched our lives and the opportunities we have had to reciprocate through gifts of energy, thought and compassion…

Light a candle, plant a seed, smile at a stranger or sing a cheerful song to celebrate these gifts that are Goddess given…

Divine Mother; allow us to know we are your precious children
Let this knowing settle into our bones so we may be one with you
Complete in this Love; trusting that
Everything Belongs.
Blessed Be, Amen.