The mother of an astute philosophical thinker once described life as "a box of chocolates". She's right, or course, as most mothers are. When you work on paper, you never know what you're going to get.
Grayson Perry says that your mistakes are your style. Given the amount of mistakes I'm guilty of, I hope it's true.
It doesn't take much, it's true. Sometimes a little is all you need. A little time. A little graciousness. Ten breaths, one after another. A little art. A little music. A few small letters stacked into ten good words: You're ok. You're ok. I promise you, you will be.
The universal exists in the particular. The thing that you thought was so specific to you is the thread that connects you to everything. Lean into your weird. Own what makes you different, what makes you ‘you’. That's the texture of our shared humanity...
"There are times when ten pages of some book fall under your eye just at the moment when your very life...depends on your reading those ten pages", Thomas Merton says. When a sequence of sentences get printed that say every thought, every feeling, that you've been trying desperately to…
"Beginning is the hardest step", Carlo Rovelli says. First impressions matter. They are vital. Irreplaceable. There are no second chances at them we're told. But, all art is the art of iterating. Of starting and restarting. Making your mark and making it again…
"A world of propaganda, of endless argument, vituperation, criticism, or simply of chatter, is a world without anything to live for." - Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas
It's not suffering when you choose the pain over the profit. When you choose the process over the goal. When you choose calluses over tenderness. It's not suffering when you want the hurt more than the reward.
You can take apart your systems. Your methods. Your rituals. Your process. Your practices. You can examine them. You can look closer. You can change things. It may not be the answer, but it's a question worth asking. Sometimes that's the best we can do....
The sacred dance of writing, of creating art, of making things. The intricate network of conditions and rituals. The austere monotony. The severe repetition of trying to conjur magic with just the right steps, with just the right ingredients, with just the right spell….
If this moment is all that we have. If each one that passes is one that will never get back to us, all the more reason to choose each word as if it was your last one…