From the birds

... an extraordinary invitation ...

Marginalia

One of my favourite newsletters is The Marginalian, by the inimitable Maria Popova, a prolific writer, deep thinker, and poet. I’m guessing, but am fairly confident that the title comes from the incessant - if not compulsive - practice of writing notes in the margins of books, a practice usually frowned upon but one in which I am certain she indulges. How could she otherwise create the detailed articles she offers so regularly? Her reading knowledge is vast, her insight extraordinary, and her ability to provide inspiration whether or not one has read the book out of which she weaves her profound insights is unsurpassed. It has been a privilege to engage her work and explore my own life through her contemplations for the past decade or longer.

For Christmas, Scott provided me a whole box of her work. A box!

A box?

Let me explain how a writer’s work ends up in a box. I think it’s alchemy, of a sort.

A fascination with birds

Over a period of time, Popova explored John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, apparently fascinated by both the art and the brief, descriptive texts. Audubon, of course, was a naturalist. Ornithology was only one of his interests. But he was also privileged to be an artist and able to make visual records his subjects. In Birds, originally published in two volumes, one in 1827 and the second in 1838, Audubon paired both his deep observational skill with his artistic skill and produced an exploration of the birds of America that continues to inspire awe to this day. Indeed, five of the birds he painted are now extinct and three more possibly so.¹

Fascinated by Audubon’s extraordinary work, and finding a deep connection with the art, Popova undertook a project of her own, one equally, if not more, extraordinary than the volumes by which she was inspired. Each night before retiring, she chose one of the illustrations and read the text included in Audubon’s book. Each morning, upon awakening, she cut and pasted words from Audubon’s text into a new arrangement, creating her own text, distinct from the subject, but deeply expressive and responsive to human reality.

In a word, poetry.

Common Blue Bird from An Almanac of Birds, Maria Popova. Photo: Society 6

I am delighted to now be in possession of one of Maria’s collections, An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days², gifted to me for Christmas by Scott. It is encouraging me to begin a new practice, one which I hope will become a daily one and one I would love to share with you.

Practice makes better

For years, I have maintained a daily practice of reflection using a variety of tools to support that undertaking. Such reflection provides a regular opportunity to engage someone else’s perspective on the world, relationships, understanding, and the complexity of life, itself, using it to peer more deeply into one’s own life. It may have started in university when I wrote poems, the only time I connected with my inner self during my youth, but an undertaking that was too irregular to be described as “a practice” back then.

Recently, I concluded working with Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic; 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, an undertaking that took, you guessed it, a full year (and a bit). Since then, I’ve been at sixes and sevens, continuing my gratitude practice at night³ but not yet ready to start something more significant. Popova’s Almanac is inspiring my morning practice to begin anew, this time focused on her poetry and what it draws from my own heart in response.

Maria Popova’s poetry on Audubon’s Passenger Pigeon, now extinct

I’m hoping to share these with you with some regularity. At this point, I’m not sure if it will be through a simple Note on Substack or an entire post. I’m thinking a post but will do the research first to see which is most likely to find you. I’ll protect Popova’s work by not sharing the photos of her divinations unless they are available elsewhere online (as is the one above) or am informed it is legal for me to do so. If the photo isn’t available, I’ll include the inspired text she created from Audubon’s image should it be confirmed that I have the right to do so. That email has been sent and I await the reply from the publisher. If there is nothing I can legally share but the public domain Audubon image, I’ll post that.

I’m looking forward to this engagement with such unique and intriguing material and hope you enjoy what Popova inspires as I share my morning musings.

---

New adventures update: Scott and I are beginning the process of selecting poems from my previous collections that we will record and upload. I’m enjoying reading the work from my years at West Hill. Out of context, they are almost unfamiliar, woven as they were from a week’s reading and reflection undertaken to prepare a Perspective(s) for that Sunday’s Gathering. Perhaps what happens to them in the process of migration to this new format will provide new insights, something we all welcome, challenging and reorienting though they may be in their arrival.

1. Wikipedia, The Birds of America.

2. Any links I provide to books are not affiliate links; I do not receive a commission if you purchase a book through the link. If, at some point in the future, I begin doing that, I’ll let you know!

3. Each night, I reflect on my day and write in a journal. The entry begins with a “www” (what went well), followed by three things for which I am grateful, and a final item that is usually related to something that provided me an experience of awe at some point in the day.