Hello folks, as time quickens towards publication, this week I’ve been reminded to slow down and savour the process. There are still so many decisions to make and taking the time to remember why I am doing this is definitely making the decision making easier. Reflecting on what’s important to me about the process is giving me some much needed clarity in amongst the blur of the last minute fine detail like choosing paper!
The metaphor of birthing a book is not new. As I feel my book becoming more and more itself, it is feeling less and less ‘mine’. I can feel my grip loosening and my touch is lighter as I prepare for the book to take flight.
Has this book ever truly been mine though? As I write more and more, I know it to be true, for me at least, that creative projects, like children are never really ours or ours alone.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. ~ from On Children by Kahlil Gibran
This book has been tended and nourished by so many beings seen and unseen. It is covered in the fingerprints of generations of my people long gone, the ancestral spirits of the lands on which it was written, all the poets I’ve ever read and the teachers that have generously shared their wisdom. Most can never be known let alone named.
Most recently though, the book has been imagined by designers and tended by word wizards, and read and reflected on by loving readers. An artist has encapsulated its essence and a photographer has shone their light on me.
It really does take a village to birth a book.
It has been an honour to collaborate with so many incredible people. In the lead up to publication, I’ll be sharing more about how they’ve contributed to Reunion Songs becoming a living breathing book in the world.
Honouring the book’s timing has given me the breathing space I’ve needed to get clear about difficult decisions, to discern who and what I wanted to nourish the book itself and the flexibility to work within my own sometimes limited capacities.
The birth of this book is close folks and I feel its readiness. Having birthed a human, I can’t help but see the similarities. While I prepare for the delivery above ground building webshops and engaging printers, it builds momentum and increasingly makes its intentions known below. I am reminded to make space for the joy and the sensing, to stay in close contact with the energy of the book and its knowing. As the weather warms up down here, I’ve spent more time in the shade of these beauties.
Stay tuned over the next few days for an announcement about the start of presales!
In the meantime, here’s a little video book update from underneath the Moreton Bay Fig trees, including an update on the limited edition hardback and it’s special inclusions!
Thanks for your company here and I’ll see you in the comments and on Sunday in your inbox with a poem! With much love, Amanda
Hi Amanda! What a beautiful coffee cup. I can see why it has been such a wonderful companion, ever since you turned it. And that wonderful poem expresses your relationship very well.! Congratulations on the imminent arrival of your book - the great Joy Harjo (she truly is DIVINE!) in the hardback edition is very exciting! I imagined myself sitting with you beneath that giant fig tree, drinking coffee and chatting......
Kudos for the lovely acknowledgements that you include in your post! Such a great idea to slow down and take stock, as you wisely do, of why you're doing all of this, and to appreciate the process. It's success is inevitable and well-deserved!
This is so exciting. I wish I could touch all the different types of paper!! Such a blessing and a joy to see you under the tree which has held you in your contemplations ♥️🪶🔮✨