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Sara Ceaser

@saraceaser

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Observer of the world, organizer of ideas. I write about community, purpose, and living thoughtfully. Lover of forests, kindness, and questions.

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The seasons are changing
As they do every day,
Incrementally – bit by bit.
Day by day the sun climbs a little higher,
Then slips a little lower,
As we circle it in our cock-eyed fashion.

- I went outside this morning and one of my cherry tomato plants was leaning over due to some overnight wind.
- When I took my recycling down the driveway to the street the other day, I noticed yellow leaves on the ground hugging the edge of the street.
- The irritation our pine trees constantly cause is changing from sap on our cars to pine needles under the windshield wipers and all over our deck. Soon, we’ll be dodging falling pinecones. We’ll be back to sprinkles, then layers of pollen before we know it.

I don’t walk around outside and look at the changing world enough. Summer passes quickly in Northern New England and I find myself scurrying around trying to do all the things I don’t get to do at other times of the year.

But that’s just an excuse. It doesn’t take more than a moment to open the back door, step outside and experience the world.

When I first moved to where I live now – a peaceful place among the pines – I would go out onto the deck in the morning while my coffee was brewing and listen to the wind, experience the cold of winter while still holding the warmth of bed, feel the sun. In the evening I would sometimes lay on the deck at the top of the stairs and watch the bats circle in their crazy pattern catching bugs.

That was years ago before many of us were pulled away from the world’s rhythms.

I can see the pine needles falling.
I can see the insects zipping past.
The blue jays landing heavily on the feeder on my window.
And I can see the neighbors’ dogs playing together next door -
Happy to have each other’s company.
The squirrels are building their nests.
The rabbits have become scarce.
And I’m starting to think about snow tires and shovels.
And a hot cup of tea and enjoying the cold wind on the deck while my body is still warm from bed.

#SeasonsChanging #NatureWriting #AutumnReflections #LifeInThePines #SlowDownAndNotice #NorthernNewEngland #NaturePoetry #EverydayWonder by @saraceaser

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8 days ago

Sometimes I think I want a tattoo.

Not for how it looks,
but for what it could hold.

I paired this poem with some of my photography.

Linking Me to Me Through Time (a poem)

Sometimes I think I want a tattoo.
I want to want one,
but the logical part of my brain
isn’t convinced
that regret won’t overwhelm me
once I permanently engrave my body
with a phrase or design.

Buyer’s remorse is heavy with me.
Clothing, jewelry - expensive anything –
constantly being returned.

Still, the permanence of a tattoo appeals to me.
The thought of memorializing a particular point in time –
marking a phase in my evolution.

But how does one find the perfect embodiment of who you are?

Maybe a psychic designer could help;
could read me – read my soul
and form line and shape
into the perfect definition of me at this time in this place.

In another life I could be that person –
pulling designs out of the air –
searching for the perfect line and pattern.

Maybe they are out there just waiting to be found.

I don’t think I have the drive to look, though,
so, I’ll continue to go untattooed –
imagining what it would be like to have a mark that stays with me –
a thread tying who I was to who I am.

Adding some small permanence to my changing body.

Linking me to me through time.

#Poetry #OriginalPoetry #VisualPoetry #FreeVerse #PoetryCommunity
#WritersOfInstagram #CreativeWriting #ArtAndWords

#Photography #FineArtPhotography #MoodyPhotography
#VisualStorytelling #PhotoSeries #Aesthetic

#Introspective #SelfReflection #DeepThoughts #InnerWorld
#Identity #PersonalGrowth #Overthinking

#SlowLiving #QuietMoments #PensiveMood #ArtProcess

#TattooThoughts #MeaningfulInk by @saraceaser

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6 months ago

It feels like something’s changing related to our awareness of our relationship to social media.

The writing I’ve been doing seems to be pointing that way in me and I’m noticing it in other people, too. I think we’re at an important time right now and I think we need to examine what’s going on and document it.

To that end, I’m starting a video interview project I’m calling “Out of the Noise: Conversations about Connection”. I’d like to interview A LOT of people in the Southern NH area. I’ll be asking two questions. “What do you miss about the time before social media?” and “What is better, now?” This will be an ongoing project and I’m looking for collaboration and input. You’ll start to see interviews popping up. Give them a watch and let me know what you think!

#OutOfTheNoise #ConversationsAboutConnection #ListeningProject #HumanConnection #CommunityVoices
#SocialMediaReflection #LifeBeforeSocialMedia #BeyondTheFeed #ReclaimingAttention
#ThisMoment #SomethingIsChanging #TurningPoint #ListeningMatters
#SouthernNH #NewHampshireLife #NHCommunity #NHVoices #LocalVoices
#ShareYourStory by @saraceaser

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6 months ago

I’m not doing art. I am doing life.
What if we start seeing things from the point of view that a big part of what we are meant to do here is to figure out what we’re doing here? Certainly, it is the job of artists, if not all of us, to examine the world, try to make sense of it, and distill it into something a little more understandable.
I think, especially now, a lot of us are confused and don’t understand why the world is the way it is.
I recently talked to a friend who is approaching 60 – ten years older than me - who said that they hadn’t accomplished anything yet. My friend and I are similar in a lot of ways. This person, like I do, spends a lot of time trying to understand their own relationship to the world. I told my friend that their bit-by-bit increased understanding is a big accomplishment. I certainly feel like it is for me.
I think a lot of people in the arts feel the same way. People in the arts tend to keep an eye on their own perspective – knowingly or unknowingly – which in turn helps everyone else with theirs.
In the past, we were able to identify the experts who were good at helping with society’s perspective of the world. The experts we paid attention to – writers, filmmakers, painters, photographers, musicians, comics artists – changed every so often as what we understood about the world changed. Right now, everyone is presenting themselves as being expert in perspective and so the people who we should really be paying attention to; the makers with unique perspectives are getting lost in the shuffle and people who should be making things aren’t because they are being put off by the disingenuous nature of social media.
Things have changed in the arts; criticism and the world of agents has become a big muddle. We don’t know who the expert critics are because the way we get our news has changed so rapidly and so we also don’t know who the expert artists are. Read more at the link in my bio. #DoingLife #FiguringThingsOut #MakingSenseOfIt #PerspectiveWork
#NotPerformative #QuietWork #MeaningOverMetrics
#CreativeLife #ThinkingInPublic #ProcessOverProduct
#LearningHowToSee #UnderstandingTheWorld
#InnerWork #BecomingOurselves by @saraceaser

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6 months ago

The threads tying the different parts of my life together have gotten a bit tangled over the past 20 years or so. I haven’t felt much cohesion between “real life”, work, and the ridiculous amount of time I’ve spent online since the mid-2000s. I’ve had the good fortune recently to find the mental space for the tangles to start unravelling on their own and I’ve also had the extremely good fortune to have always been able to have my place in the working world be truly connected to my goals and intentions even if I haven’t always been able to feel or see the connection.
***
Around 2006, social media truly became “a thing”. We couldn’t possibly have understood at the time that it would come to have such a huge impact on almost every aspect of our lives. Prior to that, societies all over the world had been functioning in much the same way for eons. Our brains are wired with the expectation that societies will continue in the same way we always have. And I truly think that in the long-run (but hopefully not TOO long), we will resume communicating and living collaboratively like humans always have.
Our brains aren’t built for the way we’re living. They are designed to evolve as conditions gradually change. Homo sapiens have very slowly been evolving for 300,000 years and right now we’re dealing with a very rapid change to the way we form opinions and delineate cultural norms. We’re not set up for this.
We are at a point where the big shake-up that is social media has impacted the way we interact with each other, the natural world, and our inner selves. Its effects are being broadcast widely in the news – the mental health crisis, addiction, violence, division – but the specific causes of those effects aren’t getting as much attention.

Read more at the link in my bio. #reallifeoveronline #digitalwellbeing #dopamineculture #socialmediaimpact
#findingcohesion #longformwriting #communitymatters
#digitalminimalism #modernlife #storytellingmatters by @saraceaser

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6 months ago

Just a note - this article is about sociology.

I mostly ignore the online multiplayer video games that my husband plays, but it caught my attention recently when he mentioned that he and a friend of ours have been unhappy with the new game, ARC Raiders, that they had been excited about before it was released.

The game is like a lot of popular online “shooter” type games – people who choose to play without a partner or pre-selected group will be randomly placed with other single players in a team, and they can encounter other players and teams within a game session. The goal is to collect certain items without being eliminated by the “non player character” opponents or other players within a certain amount of time. In this game, unlike some others, when a player is eliminated, they lose all the items they collected during that session as well as anything they had with them from their collection of items from previous successful sessions.

My husband and friend’s comments were that while some of the other players and teams they encounter are willing to help other players and to collaborate for mutual success, a large number of other players view the game’s goal much differently – they are more than happy to eliminate any other player they encounter for the sole purpose of taking their items.

In the evening as I’m reading or working on other projects, I frequently hear my husband, while playing the game, say into his microphone “friendly, friendly, friendly” to announce his intentions to other players he encounters. From what he told me, the game developers recently adjusted the way the players are put into sessions with others based on their playing style – whether they want to collaborate or do the opposite. It sounds like this technique of creating playing environments that suit individual players was successful for a while but hasn’t entirely worked. Our friend completely stopped playing the game because of how stressful it had become not knowing if they were going to be targeted by other players.

Read more at the link in the bio. by @saraceaser

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8 months ago

This morning, I am planning a trip to a store in a small town nearby to do the first of my Christmas shopping for an early holiday party. It’s still before Thanksgiving – unnecessarily early even for this particular party – but I like to avoid the crowds.

Thanksgiving is this week. I mentioned to a friend that I like to listen to recordings of Aaron Copland music at this time of year because it evokes particularly “American” feelings and Thanksgiving is an American holiday. She questioned that – saying that Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada, as well.

We’ve been taught that Thanksgiving originated when the Pilgrims fleeing to the “New World” to escape religious persecution celebrated their first harvest by having a meal with the Native Americans who helped them learn to farm in their new environment. In reality, what they were thankful for was not starving to death.

Despite the original Thanksgiving celebration being rooted in a struggle to survive the threat of starvation – national declarations of days of Thanksgiving were tied to war. Washington giving thanks for defeating the British in 1777, Lincoln declaring a day of Thanksgiving after a series of Union victories – and then yearly declarations of Thanksgiving Day after that until it was given an annual set date during World War II by Franklin Roosevelt.

During the start of the cold season here in New England and throughout the world, we have several holidays set aside to give thanks. Our Thanksgiving originated in giving thanks for survival of threats from nature; it continued when we survived threats to freedom. Later in the season we celebrate the return of the light – our survival through the darkest days of the year and the lengthening days bringing new hope. Or we celebrate light persisting against a threat, or we celebrate peace and forgiveness.

We show our gratitude for these things in simple ways, giving gifts to friends and decorating our homes with evergreen trees and boughs, symbolizing the persistence of life through the killing frosts and by doing acts of kindness for people less fortunate than we are.

Read more at "link in bio". by @saraceaser

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a year ago

First thing this morning, my husband said “It’s November…” meaning several things, I think. Another year has gone by quickly and it’s November AGAIN, we’ve hit the rapid slope to cold and snowy weather, it’s almost time for the holidays AGAIN, and our weekend flea market- attending, driving-around-New England season is over for another year.

I love November. I love the quiet winding down of the world outside our insulating walls. I love the deep reddish brown of the oak leaves that stay on the trees longer than the rest, and I love the way I can focus on more of the small details in the woods. The riot of life and greenery and new things growing and changing every day is over. I can see the tiny hemlock cones left on the trees after the seeds have been pillaged by the birds and can see the lichen and mosses on the trunks of the trees that have recently been burgeoning with life. I can see the seed pods on the dead wildflower stems waiting to be blown off or eaten and redistributed to other areas.
The natural world isn’t dying – it’s resting and gathering energy for the spring when all of a sudden you’ll notice the pussy willows have their fuzzy toes out, the forsythia are starting to bud, and twigs that have been gray all winter are starting to turn rosy.

For a few quiet weeks we can enjoy the time before holiday preparations begin - before we have to start thinking about what we’re going to cook, who we’re going to invite, what we’re going to buy.

I woke up this morning to shadows of leaves moving and flickering in the sunlight streaming through the window onto the wall beside my bed. That is unique to this time of year. The angle of the sun isn’t right for it except in March in the late afternoon when I can see the shadows of branches moving around on our living room wall.

For the next few weekends, I’ll spend time at home thinking about what my husband and I will cook for our dinner. I’ll read mysteries or books about people experiencing change in their lives. I’ll read about Victorian London or about children fighting the encroaching darkness. I’ll write; I’ll learn folk songs; I’ll paint furniture.
(read more at "link in bio") by @saraceaser

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a year ago

Recently, I have been having a hard time sticking with what I choose to believe about the world. Since childhood, I have spent time making a conscious effort to fight against negativity as it pops up in my mind and in the thoughts of people I am close to.
My first conscious decision to do this was sparked by one of the books my father read aloud to the family after dinner when I was 11 or 12. The book was “What Do You Care What Other People Think” by the theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. As an 11- or 12-year-old, the content of the book didn’t make much, if any, impact. It was the title that struck me. I had never considered the fact that I could choose what to think about the world. At that age, I had been thinking a lot about the opinions of others and had been struggling for two or three years with the - not even conscious idea - that maybe I didn’t fit into the mold as neatly as other people did.
Just a note – the book isn’t strictly about physics. The first part consists of stories about Feynman’s life; the second part is about his investigation into the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The second part of the book is another area that caught my attention because I, and most other school children at the time, watched the Challenger explosion on television in school.
It was this one sentence “What Do You Care What Other People Think” that made me aware that I had been focused on the opinions of other people and helped me realize that I could decide to not care.
For many years I’ve been happily looking at the world and choosing to not necessarily go with my initial instinctive reaction or with the popular opinion. Recently, I was talking with someone about the current state of the world, and I expressed my – possibly too sunny - opinion that there is a chance that the bad things happening in the world will bring people out of their social media-induced stupor to make some positive changes together. Read more at "link in bio". by @saraceaser

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a year ago

A few years ago, my father said something that completely changed how I look at plants: seeds are living instructions for building a plant out of soil, air, and water.
I was fascinated, and though I am by no means a biologist, my curiosity led me to do some research. What I found still seems pretty mind-boggling from my inexpert view.
Organic life is pretty amazing. For both plants and animals, you start with a tiny cell that is fertilized by another tiny cell. And poof! You have started a chain of reactions that makes those tiny things into something potentially very big. Those tiny cells themselves each have the instructions on what to do if they encounter a hospitable environment. With plants, a pollen grain lands on a flower - specifically the stigma for those who remember junior high science class and if the stigma picks up that it is the right species, it allows it to germinate by providing water and nutrients. It can tell if it is the right species or not if the proteins on the stigma match the proteins on the pollen grain – like puzzle pieces. Once the pollen and stigma recognize each other and the fertilization process begins, the real magic happens inside the cells. What makes this possible is DNA—the complete instruction manual for life, carried in every single cell.
So, does that mean that every cell is full of instructions and not just the ones that when you combine them, make something alive that turns into a whole COLLECTION of cells? The answer is - yes; that is actually what DNA is, which makes up all organic life. Each cell in and organism carries the complete set of instructions, even though it may only use a small portion of them depending on its role. A skin cell has the same manual as a heart cell or a leaf cell, but it only reads the chapters it needs to do its particular job. In a way, this is like every member of an orchestra holding the entire score of the symphony, but each instrument only playing its part when it is time. Back when I first learned about cells in school, I didn’t yet grasp the elegance of this arrangement. Read more at "link in bio". by @saraceaser

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a year ago

I have had a book on my bedside table every night since 1986. I have never not been reading a book in all those years. In my 20s, I even kept two books going at once — fiction at night and nonfiction in the morning. These days, though, nonfiction feels too heavy for me.

I was a very ambitious reader in my 20s. Partly because I worked in a bookstore and am an idealist, but mostly because I had the mental energy to do it. I have heard that from others, as well. The mental energy you were once able to put toward reading all of Proust or Le Mort d’Arthur, now as someone older has to go to thinking about your job, what you are going to have for dinner, car maintenance, your health and the health of your family, the problems your friends and family ask you to help solve — the weight of the world.

The “Catch 22” (if we are being literary) is that when we are in our 20’s, while we are able to read complex books and even zip through them, a lot of us aren’t able to catch all the nuances. And that’s fine.

I really did read all of Proust between the ages of 22 and 28. For those who aren’t familiar with his work, it is notoriously complex not only because the sentences themselves can sometimes last a whole page, but also because the narrator does A LOT of reflection about his own thoughts and emotions. When I looked up a description of his major themes, I was surprised to see that I got most of them.

I don’t remember much else about the books except they ate a pastry called Madeleines, which sounded delicious.

The point is, that in reading those books in my 20’s it shaped how I see the world in broad strokes. I was able to see the major themes even though I may have not understood some of what I was reading. This is an example of how our brains work when we are younger and they are still developing. We don’t have the past experiences to compare things to that allow us to notice everything that is going on. (Click the "link in bio" to read more!) by @saraceaser

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a year ago

The world is a stupid place. I’m irritated by the fact that we are facing problems that are entirely solvable and which are defining life in the 21st century. Many of them would have been inconceivable a few centuries ago, if not within the lifetimes of some reading this.

I’m talking about intense poverty, widespread substance use disorder (which has always existed but is now magnified by manufactured drugs and global transportation), pollution, species die-off, poor education, loneliness, and isolation. These are not mysteries; we understand their causes and even their potential solutions. And yet they persist.

When I try to imagine a time when the world made sense, I can’t. Ancient stories tell us it never really did. The Greek myths of Prometheus and Pandora’s Box, or the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel from the Torah and Bible, all point to the same truth: chaos has always been part of us, and storytellers and philosophers have been struggling to explain it for millennia. (Go to Link in Bio to read more!) by @saraceaser

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a year ago