Category: creativity and learning
-
Fool’s Gold (A Letter to Tim)
This post is composed of excerpts from an email I sent to my friend, Tim, last week. Otherwise known formally as “T. Blake,” Tim is the artist who created the visual dimension of Seven Road. We correspond regularly about our work. About our creative struggles and achievements and, more importantly, about the spiritual dimension of […]
-
Closed Captions
This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 12/10/19 I like that it’s a cozy, gray morning. Listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage, drinking coffee, and revisiting Rollo May’s The Courage to Create. An observation: the artists I admire most have all cultivated such powerful and unique personal styles. Poets, visual artists, musicians, too. […]
-
On Being Alone
For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed being alone. Maybe it’s because I was an only child. Or perhaps it’s a matter of disposition. Or both. Whenever anyone asks me if I miss having a sibling, even now, I think, What a ridiculous question! A sibling would have inevitably interrupted my much-cherished […]
-
On Creative Limits
I haven’t experimented with collage work in awhile. Now that I am writing poetry rather comfortably and adventurously again, the urge to tinker with visual media has substantially diminished. Though not disappeared. I’ve got a stack of magazines and a folder full of clippings and other trinkets ready next time the mood strikes. What I […]
-
On Being a Late Bloomer
We all know those people. Those people who have the rest of us convinced the world was tailor-made to help them succeed. Who seem to flow from life phase to life phase with little difficulty. And who always seem to be moving up. Those folks who seem to have figured it all out by the […]
-
On the Art of Rejuvenation
When left to my own devices, I am a simple creature. I am quiet and can (and often prefer to, when afforded the opportunity) go for a full day or more without any human contact. I like dimly lit, uncluttered, serene spaces. Small rooms give me comfort. I like to immerse myself in nature, in […]
-
On Being Untamed
I’ve never been particularly adept at following the kinds of advice offered in self-help books. If I’m going to be honest, I have a hard enough time even finishing them. Let alone imagining myself adhering to a series of complex daily routines, implementing workbooks or invoking the aid of other strategy-making devices, or—God forbid—participating in […]
-
On the Art of Wildness
The more I contemplate issues of purpose and meaning—and have contemplated them historically, as finding meaning was the quest that brought this blog into being—the more I seem to move definitively toward purposelessness. That is, the more I begin to understand that it’s the need for such a quest that’s the problem. And that struggling […]
-
On the Art of Sensitivity
I’ve spent some time over the past few weeks researching sensitivity. As it relates to perception, creativity, and emotional regulation, including experiences of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. I was also, if I am to be honest, looking for some reading on the real advantages of being a sensitive person. I mean, being sensitive might help […]
-
Take 3
This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 4/19/19 Figured it out. What I was working toward on my return flight—the idea that was brewing but on which I hadn’t gained clarity sufficient to write. Returned to Rogers and Maslow. Re-reading them in conjunction with Huxley is illuminating. Also ordered Rogers’s Client-Centered Therapy. […]
The Used Life 