The Earth is Burning...I Can't Breathe

A few days ago for the first time in a looooooong time, I made some art just because. Over the last few months, I've been busy getting my cards out into the world and I've had the honor of making heart portraits for people, but I haven't made any art just because. I've thought about it. A part of me has wanted to. But unless I've been creating a commissioned piece, my art supplies have remained untouched. 

Once I'd made the decision to take time to create, my body began to relax. Personal events earlier in the day had helped me to release some of the tension I've been holding for weeks, maybe months, tension that simultaneously pointed to why creating regularly would help me and why I felt stuck and unable to create. Enough of my tension eased that I literally found myself breathing easier.  

As I was breathing easier, I texted with a few friends in the western part of the U.S.- California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado- who all told me about how they're staying indoors because of the fires and poor air quality. How going outside feels like like living in a sepia photograph. I knew my creation would be about the fires... The Earth is burning. 

I also found the words, "I can't breathe" echoing in my mind. 

"I can't breathe" because of the smoke. 

"I can't breathe" because of COVID-19. 

"I can't breathe" because a police officer's knee is on my neck.

"I can't breathe" because the uncertainty of these times is too much. 

"I can't breathe." 

"I can't breathe." 

"I can't breathe."

I continue to believe 2020 is the year of clearer vision; that clarity is inviting us into some serious reckoning. Some of us weren't breathing well long before 2020 due environmental destruction, lack of access to health care, systemic racism, and other limits to access to basic human necessities. Often multiple of these factors coincide for a person or a whole community. This year is taking the breath of even more people- sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. Are we paying attention?

We have the choice to notice and tend to the collective reduced lung capacity or to turn away until the air gets so toxic that we're gasping for breath, too. Do we want to wait that long? 

What can we do now to clear the air- literally or figuratively- so that we- the big WE- not just you and I, not just the people we know, but the WE of deeply woven interconnection- can breathe?