If you’re not worried about making art then you don’t have to worry about any art critics. Little kids don’t have a critic in their heads until we put one there.*
Austin Kleon
Her identity no longer centres itself in her ego.**
Steven Pressfield
I know I often say
we are all artists,
but what if
we weren’t?
If I wait until I am good
at this, or am worthy of some title,
I may never begin–
Better comes through doing.
*Austin Kleon’s Don’t Call It Art;
**Steven Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey.
The artist is afraid of finding out who she is. This fear, I suspect, is more about finding we are greater than we think than discovering we are lesser. What if, God help us, we actually have talent? What if we truly do possess a gift? What will we do then?*
Steven Pressfield
You are the light of the world.**
Jesus of Nazerath
Owning our talents
never comes free of
demand and challenge,
Failure and transformation.
Plenty here to cause
discomfort and fear,
But also bring us to
the life electric.
*Steven Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey;
**Matthew 5:14
The solution isn’t coming. The solution is already here.* Clarity pushes us to put things in a category, a predictable box, well-labeled. Ambiguity, on the other hand, is the nature of the future…there’s the chance to embrace the soft edges of ‘perhaps’ on our way to make things better.**
Seth Godin
If the solution is already here
then we’d look for it –
We may even be the solution,
And if we’re not looking for the solution,
We may be the problem–
We are more than capable
of being solutionists,
If not alone then together.
*Seth Godin’s blog: Perhaps we have what we need;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Ambiguity or clarity.
A more fruitful approach to the challenge of living more fully in the moments start from noticing that you are, in fact, are already living in the moment anyway, whether you live it or not.*
Oliver Burkeman
We all have to live in minutes and hours and weeks and months,
But sometimes what we really need are moments and days and lifetimes–
And they are wonderfully close by.
*Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks (w).
You don’t have to believe there’s a god directing the universe, you just have to stop believing that you’re that director. As soon as you can control your spirit to that idea, the easier and happier your life will be, because you will have given up the most potent addiction of all: control*
Ryan Holiday
It doesn’t have to be some monumental matter–
It sneaks up on us:
Thinking we know best
how to stack the dishwasher
or iron the clothes …
*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic (330).
Heard in the bus queue–
Older colleague to younger:
Use nepotism to get ahead and
put aside your principles in order to
break into something.
As for goodness,
If not now then when?
Modern life is about finding answers, not asking questions. Romantic love is often absent, or “solved” using technology. There is little or no spiritual seeking. Work is a job, not a calling. There is little natural or artistic beauty in daily life. And suffering is something to be eliminated.*
Arthur Brooks
If we avoid the pain,
We may also be avoiding the good things–
*Arthur Brook’s The Meaning Of Your Life.
Each work (or more exactly, the artist’s inner odyssey as she labours to produce each work) will be a hero’s journey in its own right.*
Steven Pressfield
*Steven Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey.
The universe exists on at least two levels…The second level exists “above” the first but permeates the latter at all times and in all instances. The second level is the invisible world, the plane of the as-yet-unmanifested, the sphere of pure potentiality. Upon this dwells that which will be, but is not yet.*
Steven Pressfield
That which Steven Pressfield sees above,
I imagine below –
Though above or below doesn’t matter,
As long as it is there–
The place we go to
is a place of reframing or retelling our stories,
An extraordinary world of possibility
enabling us to do what we must do.
*Steven Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey.
The other kind [of magic], though, is surprisingly abundant. This is the magic of being able to turn on lights for others. It happens when we cause connection or open doors. It’s the magic that comes from creation, and it’s based on abundance.*
Seth Godin
So if you want to solve problems, drive change, and create a better world, all you have to do is start.**
gapingvoid
Abundant because everyone can make magic,
Though if we never begin, no one will ever know –
Including us –
How one thing leads to another,
And how the more connection we have –
others, the universe, god –
The stronger the magic,
And it doesn’t have to be for everyone,
But it does have to be for someone.
*Seth Godin’s blog: The other kind of magic;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Stop Waiting For A Sign.
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