— def · wreathing

wreathing

/ˈriː.ðɪŋ/

verb · continuous · etym: from wreathus + -ing

the slow circular work of a year.

a year is wreathing when it returns to itself by degrees. the same afternoon light reappears at a slightly different angle. the magnolia opens for the second, then the third, then the eighth time. wreathing is not repetition; it is the year revisiting its own gestures with a gentler hand each time. compare wreathus, and the naturating of any returning thing.

one wreathes a doorway with foliage in december; one is also wreathed, slowly, by the years one survives. the work is rarely visible from inside it. consult the ritual wing for catalogued instances; consult paginate for an alternative measure of circulation.

in a sentence:   "the kitchen has been wreathing itself for the eighth winter; the same bowl on the same shelf, in slightly different light."

see also · naturating adundary paginate wreathus ritual

atlas · return