It’s storming today, so I put some comfort on it. Thinking about the definition of comfort as relief in affliction, I used blue dots for prickling sorrows, and contrasting orange as its consolation. I’m glad I had an umbrella handy.

Comfort

When I think of comfort, I think of physical calm, lack of irritation, things like hot showers, warm, soft blankets and thick socks when I’m cold, or a cool breeze and diving in the lake when I’m hot. But when I looked up the definition this morning, the majority of the definitions were about consolation and relief: “relief in affliction; consolation; solace.” The definition of consolation is “The act of alleviating or lessening the grief, sorrow, or disappointment of (or state of being consoled).” When I looked up “solace” I got into a definition loop because it is defined as comfort.

I was planning on playing with the textured clear filter I used for snowballs last fall, but now I’m looking at comfort differently. How will I visualize relief in affliction, and alleviation of sorrow? This is much more challenging than I imagined, and may be a theme for an entire month of study or more.

After meditating on how I found comfort in my grief, I realized I found relief working with my hands. When I was suffering, I focused all my attention on my fabric art and costuming. So for today’s abstraction, I used the hand-shaped filter I created for “altruism” last December. I completely changed my color palette, using the soft light of small plastic globe lights and pastel LEDs. Then I played with the depth of field of the mirrorworld to create the shape and its opposite and the impression of hands joined in work.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a poem in the form of a poetry prompt inspired by the poems of Mathias Svalina. I especially liked December Poetry Writing Prompts: Day 1

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write a catch up poem.

The Poem

Poetry Catch Up

1. Shut it off. Shut it all off:
2. the information overload; the over-excited electrons; the demands of self and others
3. Go outside and look up, all the way up.
4. Unhunch, unclench, wriggle until the latch breaks
5. Catch blossoms on your tongue
6. Catch dew on your lashes and light in your eyes
7. Catch bee vibrations and birdsong frequencies
8. Catch orange blossom and exhaust, dead fish and night jasmine, sweat and cinnamon all rolling on a breeze
9. Catch the moment in your mitts
10. Take it inside
11. Squeeze it, compress it into a poem