In the great silence of these distances, I am touched by your beautiful anxiety about life, …even more than I was in Paris, where everything echoes and fades away differently because of the excessive noise that makes Things tremble. Here, where I am surrounded by an enormous landscape, which the winds move across as they […]
Happy Birthday, Frida Kahlo—Arte, Amor, Dolor: Pain & the Healing Power of Art
“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing,” said Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who was born on this day in 1907. In honour of her 110th birthday (though Frida preferred to state her birth year as 1910 — the start of the Mexican […]
Poetry | Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines) By Pablo Neruda
Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines) Tonight I can write the saddest lines. Write, for example, ‘The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.’ The night wind revolves in the sky and sings. Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me […]
[Interlude] Compassion, Vulnerability & My Unexpected Plot Twist
“In order to flower, self-compassion depends on honest, direct contact with our own vulnerability. Compassion fully blossoms when we actively offer care to ourselves,” wrote Tara Brach, psychologist, meditation teacher, speaker and author of True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart. Reading these words, an uncomfortable chord struck, for despite my musings on […]
George Saunders’ Short Animated Documentary on the Art of Storytelling
“A good story is one that says, at many different levels, ‘we’re both human beings, we’re in this crazy situation called life, that we don’t really understand. Can we put our heads together and confer about it a little bit at a very high, non-bullshitty level?’ Then, all kinds of magic can happen.” ~ George Saunders […]
Poetry | Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
“All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike.” ~ Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter Caged Bird By Maya Angelou A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing […]
Frida Kahlo on Being Just as Strange as You
Henry Miller on Art, Creation & Change
Brené Brown on Owning Your Story & the Power of Vulnerability
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will […]
Find Your Motivation & Increase Energy with These Ancient Techniques
Find your motivation and boost your energy levels with these ancient tools and techniques. Every writer and artist has days where their drive dips or motivation flags a little, when instead of being filled with creative splendour, they find themselves creatively stuck, unable to express much less motivate that expression. If struggling to find that discipline or drive, attending […]