When I was pondering what to call my studio and then our guest cottage I pondered many different names. Moonflower Cottage, Burning House Studio were among some of the options. Every name has a particular morphic resonance in the world. Every name has sets of meanings to it, definitions that are passed down through language, culture, family lineages, spiritual lineages, craft lineages and so on. In one sense any name will do, anything or anyone that is named will have its True Face and simply because it IS, it will be special and ordinary at the same time. But naming something or someone is also an activity that we should undertake with great care, precisely because the field of resonance with a name also brings forward very particular associations, interfaces, spiritual residues, attractions and distortions.
I chose Plum Blossom Studio first because we practice meditaiton with the Zen Community of Oregon and our teachers' lineage is the White Plum Asanga started by Maezumi Roshi. At the time we also had a row of early spring blooming pink blossomed flowering plums (these have since been cut down due to age and disease). Plum Blossom Cottage evolved out of a deepening engagement with both Zen practice and my work as an artist and poet. It was only later that I realized that one of the original names for the I-Ching is The Plum Blossom Oracle. Plum blossoms are prized in the spiritual traditions I'm a part of because of their delicate, transitory, unassuming beauty. They symbolize hope and elegance in the face of adversity, flowering as they do at the end of winter and right before spring.
Just as we were finishing the studio-to-cottage conversion I painted a plum blossom branch on our garage door. Now when people ask for directions to the cottage or studio I can say "we're the house with the plum blossom mural". It's hard to miss! I think Plum Blossom Cottage is an apt name for our guest house. People come and go, transitory, yet beautiful meetings of guests and hosts. We created a lovely, nurturing place for others as they enter the limnial space of travel and adventure. Although our guests come throughout the year, the ephemeral nature of travel has a morphic, spiritual resonance with plum blossoms that bloom so briefly, inspire us with their beauty and scent our hearts with delicate, ephemeral memories of our travels.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967
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