Circa in Perth, Western Australia | Local service

Circa

Locality: Perth, Western Australia

Address: Perth Hills 6081 Perth, WA, Australia

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25.01.2022 Beautiful work

22.01.2022 "The convergence of our ancestral experiences into a single body can be both confounding and liberating. If we trace our history, we may find a sense of purpose... in reuniting with that which our ancestors loved and were longing for. On the other hand, we may also carry vestiges of their trauma and embittered hopes in our bloodstream, and take it as only our own. It's important to remember ourselves as the expression and extension of a long line of survivors. Our lives are but a continuation of all those who came before. In that way, their wounds are our own, in that it is up to us to make something of them. It is liberating to consider that when we heal an ancestral pattern, we are healing backwards through time, liberating all those souls who were left unresolved, unforgiven and misunderstood." Excerpt from Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner (belongingbook.com)

22.01.2022 This picture of an ant's face seen through an electron microscope is just too awesome.

19.01.2022 In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency to fall... into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater? Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take "everyone on Earth" to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale. One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes [Image: Catrin Welz-Stein]

18.01.2022 In 2009 Brilish artist Kirstie Macleod, with seed capital from the British Council, embarked upon a global embroidery project called the Red Dress Project. Betw...een 2009 and 2019 the dress travelled the globe being continuously embroidered by over 120 artisans. The embroiderers include refugees in Palestine, victims of civil war in Kosovo, Rwanda and DR Congo, individuals in South Africa, Kenya, Japan, Paris, Sweden and Peru, upmarket studios in Bombay and Saudi Arabia, artists in Wales and Colombia alongside initiatives to support women in poverty such as Missibaba in Cape Town, South Africa, and FanSina working with Bedouin embroiderers based in the mountains above St Catherine's in Egypt's Sinai. This is both an extraordinary work of collective art and profound and eloquent social commentary. It is also an example of how potent the Attire language is capable of becoming. See more

16.01.2022 Stories can show us things about ourselves we never imagined! Yes, ‘carline’ is a Scots word meaning old woman, witch and the last corn sheaf; but also, carlin...e is a name for the heather used to make besoms. This story Duncan first heard when he was aged 14 from his drystone mentor Neil MacCallum in Auchindrain. The strong rapport and racy dialogue are hallmarks of Traveller storytelling. Archie’s Besom "This is a story I never heard from a Traveller, but a man in Argyll when I was young; the brother of a crofter, Neil MacCallum, a Gael, a fine speaker of Gaelic and a great storyteller. He and I used to work together back in Argyll where he told me many fine tales. One of them is ‘Archie’s Besom’ and it’s a good story. Many years ago on the west coast of Argyll there lived two brothers called Alex and Archie. They had a small croft and also did odd jobs out apart from their own farm work. Archie had never married and Alex had lost his wife, so the two of them just stayed with each other. But Archie being the youngest brother, Alex would always be the master for the whole time, and he made his brother Archie work to him mostly all his life. He never paid him a full week’s wage, only a sixpence now and again when he thought that he should give him something. And Archie was quite content to work away with his brother because he never knew any better. He had his food and his clothes, his bed, he had nothing else and he always had his brother for company. They shared this little croft between them, but the most things they did was building drystone dykes to other farmers in the district. They also used to take on contracts of building sheep dykes, fanks for keeping the sheep in, made of stone. One day Alex and Archie were out on the hillside building this dyke between them. Now this hill they were on, there was a road leading over that took you down into the village, and they were busy working away. It was a nice summer’s day when along the road came a tinker man. He stopped when he saw the two brothers building this dyke because it was close to the road. And he asked them for a match. Alex said, ‘Sure, I will give you a match.’ He put his hand in his pocket, took out the box of matches and gave him some. The tinker man said to the two brothers, ‘Is this your ground here you are working on?’ ‘No,’ Alex said, ‘it is not wir ground. Why do you want to know?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I want to know if I could have some of that heather, that fine carline heather?’ And Alex said, ‘Och sure! The farmer wouldnae object to ye having some of his heather. What are you going to do with it anyway?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I make besoms, heather besoms for sweeping the houses out and sweeping the doors and driveways and that.’ ‘Och,’ Alex says, ‘I know what besoms are; so ye’re a besom maker?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I make besoms.’ So Archie spoke up, ‘What do ye get for these besoms ye make?’ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘it is a good business -- I get a sixpence. Sometimes if it is a better one and I am in a good mood I get a shilling.’ ‘O-o-och,’ says Archie, ‘that’s a lot of money! A shilling!’ The tinker man says, ‘It is not much money when you consider you have to work nearly a couple of hours to make a besom.’ Archie says, ‘You mean to say you can make a sixpence in a couple of hours?’ ‘Well,’ says the tinker man, ‘it takes me about that long to make a really good besom.’ ‘And you make it with that heather there?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘with the heather.’ ‘Well’ he says, ‘go ahead and help yirsel to that heather!’ So the tinker man jumped over the dyke and started pulling the heather. Archie left down his tools for working on the dyke, went over and stood beside the tinker man. He watched him working the heather he was pulling. The tinker man was pulling the longest, finest, straight carline heather he could get and making it into a big heap to carry under his arm. When he had what he thought would be enough to make two or three besoms, he jumped over the dyke again. He was just about to go away when Archie followed up a wee bit by the road and said, ‘Is is hard to make these besoms?’ The tinker said, ‘No, they’re not really hard to make. You tie them up with a piece of rope or a string and just work them round tight. Get a good strong brush handle or a bit of hazel for a stick; just tie them on to the stick, cut off the points and give them a good scrape with a sharp knife -- make yourself a good besom!’ ‘O aye,’ Archie said, ‘that’s how ye do it!’ And he thanked him very much, away the tinker went. So, he walks back to his brother and Alex says, ‘Come on, come on, Archie, let’s get finished with this work!’ Archie says, ‘No, Brother, I am not doing any more work for you.’ ‘What do you mean, you are not doing any more work for me?’ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘it is just this way: that tinker man comes along there and pulls some heather from the back of the dyke and makes besoms; he goes and sells them for a shilling or a sixpence, which is a lot of money; and I work with you lifting these stones, building these dykes and sorting roads, digging ditches, doing all the kinds of work round the place and all you give me is a sixpence for a week!’ ‘But,’ says his brother, ‘I give you your food and your clothes and your shelter.’ ‘But,’ he says, ‘you are my brother and my father left the place to us both; I am entitled to as much of it as you are!’ And Alex says, ‘Well, I suppose that is right. But you know I need you to help me.’ ‘Well, you are getting no more help from me,’ he says, ‘to build any more dykes!’ Alex says, ‘You will have to do something to keep yourself alive. How are you going to get any money?’ ‘I am going to make besoms,’ he says ‘the same as the tinker man does. And I am going to sell them.’ But Alex says, ‘Archie, you can’t make any besoms -- you are not a tinker! These are craftsmen, these people know what they are doing, they know the trade and know how to sell them. You have never done that before in your life; you can’t make a besom, or couldn’t sell it suppose you made one!’ But Archie says, ‘I could try couldn’t I? So you mightnae say any more, Brother! I’m not doing any more work,’ and he jumped over the dyke. Over he goes and starts pulling the heather. He pulled and he pulled -- twice as much as the tinkerman pulled -- but by the time he was finished it was nearly stopping time. So the two of them walked home to their small croft and Archie carefully carried his heather, put it in the byre and went in and had his supper. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I had better go and get started to my work.’ Out he goes and takes a brush, cuts the handle off Alex’s byre brush, goes in, gets a nice piece of strong copper wire and gets all his heather, makes it in a bundle and ties it onto the stick -- makes what he thought looked like a besom, the ones he’d seen before. He tied it tight, as much as could, cut the points off with a sharp knife; and then tried to sweep up, but it was that heavy he could barely lift it. So he carried it in, took it to his brother. He said, ‘Alex, now what do you think of that?’ ‘Och,’ Alex says, ‘th-that’s a terrible besom!’ ‘What do you mean, it’s a terrible besom? That’s a good besom!’ He said, ‘No one will buy that from you; it is far too big, there’s no one can handle that. That’s not a besom at all! I’ll bet you it is not something like what the tinker makes.’ ‘Well, I don’t know,’ he said, ‘if it is something like what the tinker makes or not, but tomorrow morning I am going to sell it. And if I can’t get a shilling for it, I will get a sixpence -- I won’t need to work a week for it!’ So after breakfast next morning ture to his word Archie gets the besom on his back and away he goes down the road, says ‘good morning’ to his brother Alex and away he goes. Och, Alex shakes his head after him, says ‘he will be back sadder and wiser’. When Archie travels on there are a lot of small houses and crofts and farms along the way but every one off the road. No one would look at the besom. Some would say ‘it was too big’ or ‘they would have bought it if it was better’ or ‘they got one from a tinker man just the day before’. But Archie harped all day till he travelled further than he had ever been before. (In these days the crofters never travelled far except when they went for a day at the market.) At the last house he looked and saw a path going up the hill, ‘There is a wee cottage on the top of the hill,’ he says. ‘Probably the tinker never went there, too far off the road for him by the time he had hawked these cottage. Maybe I will go up there and maybe I will sell my besom.’ So he walks up this crooked path right to this house at the top of the hill. He knocks at the door and waits a while. He knocks again. Then a woman comes out to him -- the fattest woman that Archie had ever seen in his life! She was as broad as she was long, but she had the most happy face on her that Archie had ever seen. ‘Hello, my man!’ she said, ‘what can I do for ye?’ Archie said, ‘Well, ma’m, to tell you the truth, you could help me.’ ‘Well, how could I help?’ And he has got this thing on his back -- she is standing inside the door and can only see the handle -- the top of the besom he is holding on his shoulder is so high it’s stuck up above the door. He says, ‘I’ve come to sell ye a besom.’ She says, ‘What did you say?’ He says, ‘I’ve come to sell ye a besom!’ ‘O!’ she says, ‘it is the very thing I could do with, a besom! Is it a big one or a small one?’ ‘Well, I don’t know if it is a big one or a small one, but it is kind o’ large.’ She says, ‘Can you let me see it?’ So Archie took it off his shoulder, took it in ad put it down in front of her. When she looked at this besom her eyes just lighted up. ‘Yes,’ she says, ‘I’ll buy yir besom. I definitely will buy yir besom! How much do you want for it?’ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘it took me a while to make and I am not so good at making them as I am only learning . . . I think a sixpence would be enough money.’ She says, ‘I’ll take yir besom and I am going to give you a sixpence! But this sixpence is a magic one and every time you spend it there is always another one will take its place.’ ‘Och away,’ he says, ‘ye’re kidding me in, ye’re pulling my leg!’ ‘No, I’m not pulling your leg,’ she says, ‘You take that sixpence and you will never need to want for the rest of your days!’ So, she gave it to Archie and he was quite happy. He travels back the road to his brother’s singing to himself all the way. There we leave Archie to carry on, make the rest of his besoms. But unknown to Archie this old fat woman in this cottage was a witch, a witch so big and fat that all the other witches hated her. She could never get a broom big enough to carry her till the day that Archie came to her door with this big besom. So she cackled to herself when Archie had gone, took it in the house and put a magic spell on it. She put it between her legs and tried it around the room . . . just the ideal thing and she says to herself, ‘This is the very thing for me!’ Now all the witches in the district were having a meeting miles away in this wood. It was a birch wood because witches always like to have meetings there, and they landed in one of the clearings. When everyone had landed they all cackled to each other and said, ‘Ha-ha, she will not be here tonight.’ They were referring to Maggie, Fat Maggie, because they thought she couldnae get a besom to carry her to the meeting. Anyway, they didnae want her there because she was too strong and too powerful for them. But they were just beginning, when Fat Maggie got Archie’s besom between her legs -- out through the door and away she went right through the air as fast as she could go, landed right in the middle of the centre of the circle, in the middle of the wood among them all! They got such a surprise to see her with this large besom with her sitting on it. ‘Ha-ha!’ she said, ‘you thought that I wouldnae get here! But I’m Fat Maggie, the fat witch that none of you likes, when you are going to have a meeting . . . Well, tonight I am going to sit in the meeting and everyone will do what I tell you to do. And, when the meeting is finished, I’m the only one that is going to be able to fly home!’ Like that she went round everyone and took every one of their besoms, threw them right up into the trees -- they were stuck in the birch trees. So, after the meeting Maggie took her besom and flew home, put it behind the door, happy and contented. And the rest of the witches had to walk all the way for miles and miles back to their own places. But to this day, if you are walking through a birch wood and you look up, you’ll see these things sticking in them you might mistake for crows’ nests, but they are not. They are what you call ‘witches’ brooms’ -- these are the legends of the brooms that Fat Maggie had flung up into the birch trees. And that is the end of the story." (By Duncan Williamson in Fireside Tales of the Traveller Children, 2nd ed, Birlinn, 2009)

16.01.2022 I place on the altar of dawn: The quiet loyalty of breath, The tent of thought where I shelter, Waves of desire I am shore to And all beauty drawn to the eye.... May my mind come alive today To the invisible geography That invites me to new frontiers, To break the dead shell of yesterdays, To risk being disturbed and changed. May I have the courage today To live the life that I would love, To postpone my dream no longer But do at last what I came here for And waste my heart on fear no more. JOHN O'DONOHUE Excerpt from 'A Morning Offering' found in his books, To Bless the Space Between Us (US) / Benedictus(Europe) Ordering Info: https://www.johnodonohue.com/store Killarney National Park, Co Kerry / Ireland Photo: Ann Cahill

15.01.2022 We make things holy by the kinds of attention we give them. Martin Shaw absolutely, unequivocally names it.

15.01.2022 A house full of stories. Baba Yaga.are you there?

14.01.2022 "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in t...he migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." Rachel Carson Hugh Bolton Jones - November, Old Lyme.

13.01.2022 Thanks to Jaya for sharing this lovely memory

10.01.2022 So much wisdom here

09.01.2022 Boundaries, baby.

09.01.2022 Supporting our creative local community

09.01.2022 "There is a ruins in each of us. A place where 'what once was' lives on like an echo, haunting the landscape of our lives with its weathered foundations. Abando...ned, scavenged, and dismantled by time, the ruin is the holiest place in our heart. It is the ways in which we have been broken that have earned us a standpoint. It is in our life's absences that a wild longing is born. This place that has been ruined is a temple in which to worship, to throw down our grief and our forgetting, and praise what remains. After all, these remains are the evidence of how greatly we have loved and should be venerated as the legacy of survival that they are." Excerpt from Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner (belongingbook.com)

09.01.2022 Thanks to Baba Lala for sharing this. Spot on

08.01.2022 I’ve been here and it was such an extraordinary place. I came to it by gondola. Oh Venice. How I’d love to be there now

08.01.2022 it's during the dark days that fairy tales really come into their own. A torch with which to navigate the dark woods.

07.01.2022 Thanks to Patsy for sharing this gem from the past

04.01.2022 "To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart, from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance i...nstead of prejudice, distrust and hatred. We will have to teach our children -- as well as ourselves -- to love the diversity of humanity.... We can do it. Yes, you and I and all of us together. Now is the time. Now is the only possible time. Let the Great Healing begin." ~Leonard Peltier, Native American activist (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) art: Jade Leyva

03.01.2022 Do the kind of things that come from the heart, When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overhelmed with what comes back. Morrie Schwartz Evert Pieters