The Urgency of Words and Water
A story to remind us how to live our life as a work of art
Stories are alive and they love to happen.
The first story was told when the World was still a child.
She spoke in beauty, so art became human.
Music notes and brush strokes, handprints on cave walls, dance offerings, architectural marvels, and woven ingredients from the Earth became love letters.
Stories are like water.
They heal, hydrate, drown, wash, cleanse, and nourish.
Words, like tears, like rivers and rain, carry the memory of everything we have not earned the right to forget.
“What is the word that this place is keeping under its breath?”*
Together we can remember to praise the magnificence around us.
We can learn to discover what time hides in plain sight.
The stories that we needed to tell but didn't
The questions we needed to ask but haven't.
The answers we needed to find but couldn't...
...because we ran out of time,
out of breath,
out of water.
We have an obligation to re-member these stories back to life.
To weave each thread carefully,
every word a new strand,
every braid a conversation,
every dialogue, a bridge.
Art is not just what we can do or what we want to do, it is what we must do to bring the world back together.
To gather beautifully so the spirit behind the story can emerge.
The steam waiting for the boiling to begin,
for the lid to be lifted,
for our ears to listen deeply,
for our hearts to open fully,
for our senses to indulge in the aroma of a shared experience.
Without beginning, without end, and without time.
Only pausing to catch our breath,
to sip our water,
to praise our gathering.
To greet the gods discovered through our hands,
our crops,
our laughter,
through the wind, the trees,
and the messages shared in good silence.
Unending meetings of unending weavings our ghost remains: the echo of our voice, our choice, our footprint.
Let the stories we tell shake you awake,
lull you back to sleep,
and nourish your dreams with the life-giving gift of water and story.
This is a story to remind us how to live our life as a work of art.
And this story is happy you are here.
Latente x UBUNTU for Casa Escuela
Inspiration from: Martin Prechtel, Alejandra Artigas, Mariana Ampudia, Manuel Galindo and Robert McFarlane.
*Direct Quote from Robert McFarlane