A Month of Virgens

Good Morning -

While I haven't quite yet been blogging for a month, last night marked a month of Virgen making. Starting with that first Virgen done in Chicago on May 22nd, I've chronicled that trip to Chicago, the heat, food issues, gardening, more on the heat, camping, family dynamics, and the heat through my Virgens.

According to studies, this is now a habit, which means that it'll be hard to quit, but not so hard like an addiction that I'll need a support group around it - probably a self-help book or an online discussion group will do ("Breaking the Virgen Habit", "7 Steps to Successful Cessation of Virgen Making", etc.). I'd offer to chronicle that habit-breaking time with the making of Virgens, but that might make it more of an addiction, which would put me past the online support group and into something a little more serious - Virgen Rehab.

Before I bite my tongue in my cheek, let's move from habits, addictions and rehab to what I started this project to be - daily reflective practice that becomes ritual. I just looked to get a good working definition of ritual and now wonder if I can call my intention "ritual" since it is a solo practice and the definition I found implies group or community.

I thought a ritual was more a repeated practice that has symbolic meaning and shifts the participant from the pragmatic to the sacred - however she chooses to define sacred. The participant uses some props and possibly repeated words to shift to the sacred.

So, unlike brushing one's teeth (a daily practice with props), a ritual has meaning beyond the moment to the participant (although I have to imagine groups out there suggesting that all of life's moments should be sacred and even teeth brushing should be done with the sacred in mind - I have a sister who has her Masters in Divinity, so I'm actively trying to channel how she would explain this to me but the lines are crackly this morning (more coffee, perhaps?)).

Either way, it feels good to take this time each evening and create a visual representation of my day. Centering those images with the Virgen reinvigorates my optimism and helps me go to bed in peace and clarity. No matter what I'm depicting - family challenges, the heat, global food crises - laying the Virgen over all of that draws my lens back and fills me with the peace that comes with perspective. It's nice and, while I don't want to imagine where I would store a lifetime of Virgens, I'm hard pressed to imagine wanting to stop doing this.

And what perspective was I working towards last night? With what issue was I looking for peace? We've got a calm, cool blue background for our Virgen, which I needed after spending time yesterday taking down my disintegrating poly-cotton clothesline (used to make this Virgen's border) and replacing it with plastic rope. If you ever wonder what the impact of relentless and hot sun is on materials, take time to look closely at the border of this Virgen. Flanking her on either side are the spoon and straw I used yesterday afternoon to move my delicious and imperative pineapple and mango raspado from the Styrofoam cup to my mouth - delicious.

I found out yesterday that all this time Google has been storing and organizing my Virgen images into a photo album - fantastic. I don't necessarily want to think about what else Google might be doing with my words and images without my knowledge, but this is a great feature.

Enjoy.
(Pumpkin blossoms in my garden. Beautiful.)