LIFE CYCLE OF TREE: FLOWERING 7/12: Gift Wrapping
It's July, a very special month to celebrate because we've cruised through more than half of 2021. Hooray! How have you been in the past 6 months? During the second lockdown in Singapore, Mr. E (my best friend & husband) and I made a trip to Chestnut Nature Park on one wee morning to explore its nature trail. I've heard from friends about the little streams of flowing water appearing in the middle of this trail. The keywords "little streams" struck my immediate interest so that's why I am here, at this quaint rustic Chestnut Nature Park.
We brought with us, 2 juicy white peaches, purchased from Isetan Lido. When it comes to selecting them, aromatic peaches light up my nose and mind with an array of fireworks. Its secret lies in the smell of the peaches. Bring one towards you and if you can smell a delightful peach fragrance even when you have your mask on, my friend, you had just struck a peachy jackpot.
We hit the top of Chestnut Nature Park's hovering tower at 7:30am and there was only us and a man meditating while facing the sun. Finding the perfect spot for sunrise watching, with a peach in each of our hands, was one of the many highlights of our journey. How simple yet beautiful to welcome the day. We were both in bliss with gratitude for this opportunity. I promise that I will be sharing this adventure in my future post when I have completed sorting out all the photos. It's been a while since my last outdoor adventure, hence I can't stop myself from taking so many photos on this trip. So, look forward to this forest update which I also can't wait to share this chapter with all of you :)
Nature is my magic healer whenever I am surrounded by it (a place with minimal or no man-made structures). I could feel my exhausted mind, body, and soul being embraced by the unconditional love of nature, in a miraculous way that I could never explain. All my accumulated stress transforms into calmness whenever I complete a journey amidst nature. Do you have similar experiences too?
In the last post, I spoke about Budding and my process of learning, how I learn, and learning how to let go without guilt when something doesn't work for me anymore. A farmer friend once shared his secret of harvesting large and juicy corns. When the corn plant is budding (no matter how many buds there are), he will remove every single bud and leave only 2 for each corn plant, so that these remaining 2 corn buds will gain a surplus of nutrition to grow into a healthy fruit. Learning how to let go at the right time is crucial when it comes to quality harvesting. The same holds true in life: Less is more.
In this July post, I will share my process of flowering one of my personal goals. This is a special month. For the first 4 months, I've been spending most of my time researching and gathering resources about what I wanted to learn in 2021. The progress was slow but grounded, but every step I move, I move with a conscious mind.
"Every flower must grow through dirt."
- Laurie Jean Sennott
My journey to achieving my goal is filled with struggle, loss, discomfort, chaos, excitement, curiosity, and satisfaction. The mixture of every little feeling has led me to a deeper understanding and had prepared me for the path of mastery, one step at a time.
Words could not justify what I said, I've been spending quite some time to pick and consolidate photos to share my journey with you. The content for each goal can easily overwhelm one single post, therefore I've decided to split my goal updates on weekly basics (only in this month of July). A one-off weekly update for you to look forward to this month... yay! :)
So a flashback of January 2021 to July 2021
1. Gift Wrapping
My interest in gift wrapping started 20 years ago from my encounter with Japanese packagings. I could spend the whole day just walking around a Japanese supermarket and ogle at each packaging. There is something very special about Japanese packaging that makes me smile whenever I receive it. And I wonder if I could apply the same Japanese packaging essence to gift wrapping?
Since then, I started investing time and money into gift-wrapping so I could also share my "made me smile" experience with the people around me, my customers included. You may check out some of my customers' reviews.
In recent years, when I am in a forest, I realized that much of it is filled with all sorts of trash that would take a long long time to be broken down by nature; When I dive, I see plastic and waste, stuck in between rocks and on the seabed. Seeing it and experiencing it with my own eyes is heartbreaking. That's when I knew it was time to make a change. I want to change the way I gift wrap, towards a greener and more sustainable approach.
I began searching and looking for ways to gift wrap on Instagram and Pinterest. The result always pointed to wrapping methods and using mediums similar to each other. No waste or recyclable material to replace the current gift wrapping methods are far and few. And I promised myself to be the one to provide a greener gift wrapping platform with 365 ideas for those who utilize gifting as their love language (not knowing what I got myself into).
Although I have been reading up (almost every) books about gift wrapping, creating 365 ideas from what's available around my neighborhood and what I already have has been pretty challenging with my limited knowledge about gift wrapping. It wasn't too long before I realized that I was too ambitious with 365 ideas, and I am now not too sure I could hold it up till the last day of 2021. Every month, I am still seeking ideas and different mediums to include in my "it's a 365 wraps" project @wabisabi.wrap
My 5 principles for wabisabi wrap
It has to be recyclable
It has to be easily accessible
It has to be green (biodegradable)
It can be made out of leftovers
It has to be FUN!
So my friend, if you have any ideas that fit the above principles, please don't be too shy to share them with me. I can help you (help me) to explore the proposed medium and develop it into different wrapping methods. Now, let me walk you through my progression in the past 6 months!
Thank you for reading until here, @wabisabi.wrap is still an ongoing project which should hopefully (fingers crossed) last till the end of 2021. If you have any brilliant ideas and do not mind sharing them with me, I am more than willing to hear them :)
My friend K once suggested that I should try wrapping with old newspapers because a lot of people, including himself, find it hard to use newspapers as a wrapping medium, having aesthetics in mind.
Selected ideas will be credited with any name that you would like to address yourself. Looking forward to hearing from anyone who is willing to share their green ideas in the comments below. If you are very very shy, you may also write to me at wabisabiuno@gmail.com.
I'll stop here to catch my dinner, talk to you again next Thursday about my progression on natural dyes in the past 6 months. If you are interested in plant-based dyes and don't know where and how to start, do subscribe (the green button on the top of your right) and follow my journey on learning about natural dyes.
Before I go, I would like to share a short and sweet quote with you: "Choose what makes your heart bloom" by Dhiman.
Thank you for accompanying me on this journey and may we each find our moments of blooming :)
May your bloom happen sooner than later,
Waee Waee
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