I've been listening to Garrison Keilor's Writer's Almanac a lot lately. In his "on this day" segments Keilor often departs bits of wisdom that feel like fragments of broken mirrors where I catch glimmers of the reflections of my experiences. Okay, too heavy handed there...
"Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along."
Napoleon Hill
“Think and Grow Rich"
I feel like sometimes creatives can't get overwhelmed by the idea of perfection and take no action at all. I often feel like I am flying a plane that is not completely built, a ramshackle monstrosity that would tumble from the sky at any moment. I took solace in that quote, perhaps someday I will be more buttoned up.
"Find your own stress level — the speed at which you can run toward your own goal. Make sure that both the stress level and the goal are really your own, and not imposed upon you by society, for only you yourself can know what you want and how fast you can accomplish it. There is no point in forcing a turtle to run like a racehorse or in preventing a racehorse from running faster than a turtle because of some 'moral obligation.' The same is true of people."
Hans Selye
I've been overwhelmed by "saying yes to the universe" a bit too much. I had to start questioning why am I working so hard, and i it worth it. I am trying to slow down and really analyze why am I doing what I am doing and proceed on a smarter path. A famine of opportunity I have not.
On writing poetry, Jane Kenyon said, “Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.”
Stephan Dunn said: “I think one of my early motivations for writing was that other people’s versions of experience didn’t gel with my own. It was a gesture toward sanity to try to get the world right for myself. I’ve since learned that if you get it right for yourself, it often has resonance for others.”
And, “You must be a little driven, and what you’re doing must be crucial to you in order not to be defeated by the likely neglect that awaits you, the lack of rewards, and the fact that, by and large, your culture doesn’t take you seriously.”
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