VII
Ox Forgotten, Self Remains
I am home. The moon rises, as the sun sets. Ox and rope, all forgotten. There never was an Ox outside of myself.
Perfect freedom
Perfect joy
Just sitting
On a recent September day, my husband asked if I’d be interested in going to The Art of Noticing, an outdoor art exhibit. Intrigued, I said yes.
What first meets the eye isn’t what we see when we look again, or again, or again. The exhibit was designed to make us look. And to look harder. Although physical art may not move, our perspective does. And so it is with much of life. Facts that once seemed immutable become malleable over time. Or our perspective changes.
The exhibit was at Old Frog Pond Farm in Harvard, Massachusetts, a farm purchased by Linda Hoffman after her divorce. When Linda moved to the farm, she knew nothing of apple-grafting, or beekeepers, or growing organic raspberries. But she felt drawn to the farm, and to reshaping her life there. Now, more than 20 years later, it has become a place of healing and personal growth for her, an organic pick-your-own-orchard, and a hub for a now thriving community of visual artists, writers, and spiritual seekers.
Having meandered through the exhibit with others eager to notice, a book for sale near the exit struck my eye: The Artist and the Orchard, a memoir by Linda Hoffman. The more I read, the more I noticed.
One of the exhibits on the farm was Paul Matisse’s Olympic Bell, an enormous interactive piece that was created for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and later in 2016, moved to Old Frog Pond Farm. When rung, the bell emits a deeply resonant low F-sharp, a sound that can last for more than 15 minutes. Reading Linda’s book, I learned that Paul and she had been married. They divorced in 2001, after a 20-year marriage.
Of the Olympic Bell, Linda says “I hear in its ringing a tribute to the healing
possible between people.
Among her many art forms, Linda creates tiny bronze sculptures. I was drawn to her serene meditation figures, hidden among giant trees in the forested part of the farm, and also to her artful reenactment of the Buddhist parable “Ox and Self,” a moving creation of the courage it takes to go out into the world on a spiritual quest and how the journey itself helps a person turn inward to find themself.
It’s a powerful parable and one that parallels the journey of divorce. So often it is not what is sought outwardly but the seeking itself, that helps a person arrive where they most want to be.
At the end of her book, Linda describes an impromptu interaction she had with Paul when he was meeting their daughter at Linda’s home. About a month later, Linda called him to arrange a lunch. It would be the first time they’d share a meal together since separating 16 years before. It became a healing lunch, and during it, Paul suggested he had a sculpture that would be a great addition to her orchard.
After their lunch, Linda drove Paul to his house, their former home. As he prepared to get out of her car, she said: “Paul, thank you for everything. I am so grateful for our relationship. I will always love you.”
Oftentimes when lives evolve, space opens for new love and new relationships. Happily this happened for Linda, and she remarried. So soon after her lunch with Paul, Linda found herself standing with him and with her new husband, and together they found the perfect spot to install The Olympic Bell. It now sits majestically overlooking the Old Frog Pond.
Personal journeys create perspective changes never thought possible before
they’ve begun.
