Quieting/Jan Willing/Heart Home

I've been thinking about people that I've met that surround themselves with quiet. What changes does it make in their lives? And what sort of change does quieting bring to the world?

Jan Willing lives at Heart Home. Whenever I have dropped in to say hello, Jan has been baking bread, making rosehip jelly from her garden, pressing cider, or illustrating a new book. She makes felted dolls and writes stories about them. Grace and Earl are in the photo above. She also carves stone into beautiful sculptures. The list goes on.

I recently asked her how being quiet influences her life and work. What is her occupation? Where does her inspiration come from?

Here is her answer:

My occupation is to attempt to live, every day, with moments of peace. I am in the enviable position of not heeding an alarm clock or a commute or a boss, so my days are mostly my own. Often it does not feel that way because of pulls of all the tasks around here, but then I calm myself down and realize what I don't do today, can most likely be done tomorrow. Or if not tomorrow, maybe it doesn't need to be done.

I have always felt that if I were a church, I would have a very small congregation. I do not advertise or market my artistic endeavors because I find it revealing and awkward and boring. I can't claim "ownership" of my various creations because of how I work. I seem to pull images and words out of the air, in an odd sort of collaboration.

When I have an "epiphany", as today, I experience joy. Most of my work in whatever medium, is intuitive. I follow the opening image or line that appears in my head, and watch as it develops.

Right now, today, I wrote this poem that responds to the idea of Quieting so much, I had to write it down. Then I thought to myself, Gee, I wish I could sing or make a tune. This sounds like a song in my head.


DROP WHERE I FALL

I used to watch the lovely fall trees
And all their colorful leaves
They would fly like the birds
They would scatter and search
For new places to learn
To see faraway lands-
But me, I’m going to stay where I land.

I’m going to drop where I fall
I’m going to nourish this earth
I’m not flying away
Because here is where
I want to stay.

This place, this place above everywhere else
Is where I want to be
I am just like that tree
On a windless fall day
When my leaves go their way,
I want to drop where I fall.

So wind-
Don’t fly me away
Please be calm, let me stay
Because here is where
I want to be.

- by Jan Willing 10/26/08
Epiphany while gazing at Weeping Catsura at 4402 Y Road, Heart Home, whose leaves fell straight down to the edges of the drip line, peacefully and quietly.

Jan's email: jan.willing@gmail.com