Story Info

Mind The Heart
Mind the Heart—Maia Gelfman & Roie Avidan
Fargo, ND
2018

Story & Experience

We have been carrying this magical thread with us, everywhere, since we returned from DC to Seattle. It went with us to the Olympic Peninsula, to North Cascades, through countless tiny towns across Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. It accompanied us to expanses in Glacier National Park and through flowering creeks in the Black Hills. From Devils Tower to alleyways in Billings to farms in Newcastle. All this time, we were searching for the right spot. A place where the thread would fit, and that would fit the thread. We envisioned burnt husks of trees where fires had passed, upturned & injured earth in the mining lands, romantic dilapidated structures by the side of the road. And through this all, it never felt right. Then, yesterday in Fargo ND , the yellow thread found its spot. No drama, nothing monumental. “Just” a green being protruding from the sidewalk. We dedicate this yellow-gold magic encapsulated in the bundle of yarn to unsung heroes—plants that grow in cracks in cement. We see them on the sidewalks, on walls, growing and living in unpredictable places, against all odds. They’re here to remind us that all of this urban habitat that we have created is a part of and built upon a natural habitat. And that nature prevails. Nature finds a way. It’s here to give us perspective and to remind us that we are part of it all—the living web of all things. Our connection to and respect of this web can and should start anywhere we are, and from there expand to encompass it all.

We have been carrying this magical thread with us, everywhere, since we returned from DC to Seattle. It went with us to the Olympic Peninsula, to North Cascades, through countless tiny towns across Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. It accompanied us to expanses in Glacier National Park and through flowering creeks in the Black Hills. From Devils Tower to alleyways in Billings to farms in Newcastle. All this time, we were searching for the right spot. A place where the thread would fit, and that would fit the thread. We envisioned burnt husks of trees where fires had passed, upturned & injured earth in the mining lands, romantic dilapidated structures by the side of the road. And through this all, it never felt right. Then, yesterday in Fargo ND , the yellow thread found its spot. No drama, nothing monumental. “Just” a green being protruding from the sidewalk. We dedicate this yellow-gold magic encapsulated in the bundle of yarn to unsung heroes—plants that grow in cracks in cement. We see them on the sidewalks, on walls, growing and living in unpredictable places, against all odds. They’re here to remind us that all of this urban habitat that we have created is a part of and built upon a natural habitat. And that nature prevails. Nature finds a way. It’s here to give us perspective and to remind us that we are part of it all—the living web of all things. Our connection to and respect of this web can and should start anywhere we are, and from there expand to encompass it all.

Fargo, ND

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