Exploring Universal Connections

There is something very exciting—and comforting—about the way the Universe brings stories and artwork to us each quarter, works that seem randomly submitted, yet end up forming distinct patterns, themes of their own creation. We are just the organizers and packagers, blessed with the task of picking up the pieces of the new creation, assembling them, and then putting them on display for the rest of you to enjoy.

In this issue, the organic theme became one of interconnectedness, the blurring of boundaries between “human” and “not human.” Several pieces blur the boundary between humankind and Nature. In Matt Maxwell’s “A Paean to Our Parents,” Michael Fontana’s “At the Top of the World,” and Pamela Di Francesco’s “The Story About the Lake,” Nature embodies the role of character in very unique and intriguing ways.

In other stories, Nature emerges through other characters. In “Tasting the Apple” by Donna Vitucci and “The Tree” by Allen Cody, the line between what is human and what is “tree” is blurred in very different ways. Tania Casselle, in her story “Halva in the Glove Box,” shows us a Cactus Man hitching a ride on a very important life journey. And in Jerry Erwin’s creative story, “On the Pier of the Circus of My Mind,” even a summer day, a woman, a horse, and the California sky blur together as if there were nothing separating them.

In all three of our nonfiction stories—Priyanka Sacheti’s “The Dead Dragonfly,” Dorothee Lang’s “Lakes of Pain,” and Richard Wile’s touching “Requiem in Stones”—Nature acts as the catalyst for introspection, the teacher for all three writers facing individual life lessons that are also universal.

Other stories blur the boundaries between humanity and the non-organic. In “Bill’s Pasture,” the narrator comes to term with a portal to the great unknown right in his own backyard, while in Rosalie Kearns’ “Wildwood” and Gretchen Van Lente’s “Stone Tears, Crying Statue,” there is wonderful interplay between the organic and the seeming inanimate that expands our notion of reality.

The feeling of Nature, of life, is also prominent in our artwork. Linda Woods’ beautiful photographs show the glorious face of everyday Nature, and Reihana Robinson’s abstract work portrays two “lowly” but vital living things that are part of our extended family of life. Clyde Grauke’s digital prints shows us the natural forms, human and nonhuman, that emerge from something as static and yet organic as numbers. And Jim Fuess's acrylic paintings bring us images of organic shapes, each bringing that sense of living, of life, that we can see and feel even if we cannot give faces or names to what it is we see.

We encourage you to dive into this issue, to enjoy, as we have, the feeling of boundaries falling away, the freedom and joy of embracing what lies beyond.

Barbara Jacksha & Joan Kremer