Daffodil Season

The state of Georgia can be a funny place in January. One day, you are convinced Spring has arrived in full splendor - daffodils and all! - only to awaken the next morning to a frost covered landscape glistening in the morning sunshine. 

I love daffodils. They remind me of driving up my family’s driveway and seeing the first two or three that would always bloom in the same spot under an old pecan tree right as you rounded the final curve before arriving home. I equally love winter sunrises on a cold morning, when it feels as though the rest of the world is still asleep, and the golden rays pouring in through the window accentuate the steam of my hot cup of coffee. For me, the erratic weather pattern where I live is a gentle reminder to appreciate the day in front of you for what it is - a gift - wrapped up with all its quirks, newness/sameness, beauty, and mystery. 

Here at Brown Parcel Press, we are beginning this year with an intention to focus on three ideas: 

• Connection — The type that stops you in your tracks and makes you want to linger there for a while. It is what we hope you feel with every idea and product that we create and print in our small letterpress studio. Regardless of the type of connection (there are many), we strive for those that are rich in authenticity. 

• Holding Space — Honoring the moment right in front of you. Practicing presence. Breathing in. Breathing out. Continually seeking to become more in-tune with beauty and a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves. It can be a walk, a mindful meal, a homemade dish made with love and intention, or fifteen minutes dedicated to writing a letter to a loved one. It is an approach to a door of true experience.

• Seasons & Cycles — Everything is always within a season, a natural cycle. From the growing seasons of native plants, the seeds germinating in our gardens, the rising of the morning sun, the lunar phase of the big ol’ moon in the sky, to the daily pattern you and I more or less follow every 24 hour period, seasons & cycles are the essential framework.

We feel extremely fortunate to have ample inspiration just outside the windows of our studio. The annual letterpress calendar honors what we witness in and throughout the transitions from Winter, Spring, Summer, to Fall. Today, my eyes are drawn to the dried grasses swaying in the breeze. I can see the contour and slope of the hillside off in the distance because all of the trees and undergrowth are bare. However, just a short walk out the other side of the studio I find a patch of the first daffodils of the season blooming courageously under a tree. It’s unlikely they’ll make it too long, the inevitable “first Spring” will pass and a few more weeks of Winter will arrive. But for today, those daffodils are the most beautiful version of themselves — for you, for me, for themselves.

“When I see animals and plants and even the stars die so willingly and offer their bodies for another generation, or another species, or the illumination of the universe, I begin to see the one pattern everywhere. It is the truest level of love, as each and every thing offers itself for another.” - Richard Rohr

As the first month of the new year comes to an end, I hope that we can continue dig into this idea of connection and holding space for those activities, things, circumstances, and moments within the season, and day, at hand. Just like the daffodils.

-Katherine