I haven’t seen many dandelions on Crete yet. They are one of my favourite plants – such tenacity! And every part of her can be used as food or medicine. I have some dried dandelion tea though so that will suffice. But I woke thinking of dandelion today; remembering why I love her strength in the face of such adversity, even when whole TV ad campaigns are built around eradicating this most beautiful, useful, giving plant from people’s lives. My…
Integrity: the supermoon tugs at your womb / self-loathing needles out through the pores of gossamer skin to blossom then / wither in silvered light // in dreams you are visited by foxes that coax the yowling night cats of self-doubt from the holes in your threadbare heart / they exit your soul with joyful abandon but still / you are bereft & hollow without that exquisite gnawing at your belly / without their fussing & clawing behind deadened eyes…
Revisiting some older works at the moment, perhaps because slowing down here has given time for introspection. This piece holds a lot of significance for me because it marked a huge shift in my creative output. I wrote and performed it in 2008/9, then published it in early 2010 in a handstitched pamphlet called Prophecy: conversations with my Self (you can download it for free from the Herstory section of my website at sophiemckeand.com). Prior to this I’d been performing…
6.30pm and it’s still light – the sun is only just setting. I’m folded into a stack of reading research in the ‘lounge’. Andy’s in the the ‘office’ working away. Hounds are snoozing. We booked our ferry off Crete today. 11th April will be our last day here. Winter is well and truly over and the mainland calls. We found so much that was unexpected while overwintering on this beautiful Greek island. The most startling was the need to stay…
This week the moon illuminated something I’d already known for a long time, it was just hidden under the surface: I am learning to eat out of love for my body, instead of hatred, or worse, indifference. This is a huge revelation. I ask my stomach (instead of my head) ‘what would we like today?’ I say to my body, ‘I love you and want to look after you’. I’ve been reading more about Body Positivity and am trying to…
There’s no telling when an emotional slump will hit. These days I feel more able to root out the cause but it’s often not a single event, instead a few tiny insignificant things will collide in the psyche at the same time then snowball. Living slowly means I’m not hurtling into another project or drama or deadline without the time to check in with myself, which is the most amazing self-care self-gift. We’ve had a magical few days but still,…
revolution: you were born into a world of knives / this time heals no wounds / your skin is split silk folded into darkness / hair is ocean waves orating from midnight to noon / noon to midnight // where skin ribbons / flowers unfold in painful brilliance / it was always this way: the altar of the new crushes the bones of the old // you are torn & hollow, echoing with the cycles of the moon / flowers…
I love him because he says ‘let’s get the bodyboards and surfboard and wetsuits out,’ even when the waves look a bit big. I love him because he can’t swim very well but still catches more waves than me. I love that we laugh so much we gulp saltwater and choke until it runs in rivers out of our noses. I have a bruised knee and two swollen big toes. We are such surf amateurs but we have so much…
We spent months agonizing over the layout of the van. We wanted it to feel spacious and be a place we could sit and work in as well as relax in the evenings. Because it is our only home it had to be somewhere we could comfortably fold into for a few days if the weather was bad. Also we have two large vanhounds so couldn’t have a small galley because there wouldn’t be enough room for them (yes we…