to be a softness to my own life, and a softening to my heartspace—that spacious place within where i receive news of visitors to my gates, where i decide whether to greet them in fear, or faith.

to make a soft nest from what might be overlooked, cast away, discarded, and to entrust it all to love, and to the courage that kees calling my name in the midnight hours.

© liezel graham 2024

vessel number 1, a soft nest, a new home from discarded things}

recently, i have been doing brave things, stepping out of the things that i have tied around my own legs.

an unfolding conversation between the artist, Glen Martin Taylor, and myself, around the idea of softening to own our lives, has brought a gentle collaboration, and a gleaning of rich thoughts and inspiration.

vessel number 1, is a simple decoupage nest, made from pages from proof copies of my first book, Stripped.

publishing a book generates a lot of paper and proof copies of a book are part of that body of paper, except that they cannot be sold, and so end up sitting on my shelves, gently begging me to make something with, and of, them—to make beauty from what would be discarded.

that’s my thing.

that’s my purpose.

the lace, the soft bed to the little bird, flew all the way here, in a box filled with so much loveliness, all the from the US, having been found by Glen at an estate sale.

somewhere in all of this, are stories, of choosing to be softness, of choosing to be the difference, of ‘smiling at the broken things’ and knowing we are ok.

liezel