First-I need that recipe. I was drooling. Second - I loved this story. There were a few lines of this that really struck for me. One was the idea that we are not here to learn lessons. I have heard that a lot. As an entreprenuer, a parent and a partner. It always made me feel unfiniished but not in a good way. Like I was less than whole. Like I need to always be chasing something out there as I learn along the way. Now I say I am experiencing learning and, for some odd reason, this feels better. The other idea that I am happy to have you nudge was from Stephen King. That amateurs wait for inspiration and the others get going and do the work. I know, as I continue to experience the learnings around writing, that I get stuck. I think about my muse at these times and ask it for inspiration. And then I do something else. That is how I get to work in the moment. That is how I move from amateur to pro. Thanks Ro. Love reading what you write, experiencing learning and being inspired!
OMFG, Rowan. You have no idea how much I needed to read this today. My story came through in a divine blessing and a divine blast this weekend...not all of it, of course...but the feeling of the story, the reason, the depth, the importance. This puts the story in the driver's seat! WoW.
1st I want to live in your house because that looks so good I can almost smell it through the phone. 2nd thank you for writing this morning because your Inventure arrived at a moment I opened my phone to say I need support (alongside my second cup of tea).
Not so much to write the book, although that's in the works, but to face the deeper than surface complexities that inhabit and enliven (when Im willing to look at it that way) my life right now. The deep dives and the effortless rising to the surface where I pop up again remembering that I have abundant air to breathe. Just by being inert and letting what wants to happen happen rather than struggling with some idea that makes it hard to know which way is up.
Off I go into the wild Inventure of this day: what to say to a welcome group that may want to be a client, who to invite to support the team in this, our next adventure, how to get a quick answer to a logistics question, what I'll learn from a routine med follow up, and most essential - my new favorite question of each day - what will be the most fun I can have along the road (literally - I live in the sticks). Less important, why the heck I was trying to sort out the difference between wench and wrench in a dream last night. Not particularly keen on interpreting that one, just curious.
I too love cooking +Audible. Or podcast, Bewildered of course, but what else do you listen to? Audible wise I am currently listening to Bittersweet by Susan Cain. It as least a fantastic as Quiet. Part philosophy, poetry, music, stories and science.
I am not a writer but this applies to other art too. I have caught a poem while sitting on my porch, caught living and whole unto themselves.
During Martha’s creativity class we were tasked to make a vision box. The concept came to me immediately, I sketched each panel. All but one, the inside. I chose a box that had a lid, so I could put something inside. But the inside was blank no idea what went there other that it was important, valuable. The box was a shrine with legs of coral and bejeweled. I had beautiful velvet to line it, waiting for the object that my vision shrine was built to hold. The true purpose of my life.
Despite being focused and present, I glued the box shut and covered the seam. My vision shrine no longer a vessel, but strangely I was not upset.
A few days later in a flood of realization that took my breath away, Nothing was the purpose. A shrine to Nothing, not my health or family or my seeking. Not to my future or past, Nothing is my true purpose. Way smarter than me.
Susan Cain just turned me onto Jacques Brel. I don’t even speak French and I am hooked.
There are so many podcasts now, it's an explosion. What kind do you like? I follow some of the AstrologyHub, but thats for astrology nerds, and I've loved The Spiritual Gayz. Other than that I jump around. Need recommendations.
Thank you for sharing this with us - exactly what I needed to read today whilst drafting! It’s so true that much of the story reveals itself to you. I always wonder how I’m going to figure it all out and then realise half of the time that the story has done that for me already.
It's so odd - yesterday I was actually thinking about this concept of not allowing yourself to stagnate - and how just the act of getting moving is oftentimes all 'we' need to do, for the inspiration to find it's way to and through us.
One of my little writing tricks that has served me so well is the fact that I never let myself sit and stare at a page. I've found that even if I end up spending time writing things that aren't going to be used, it's the act of getting those first, second and third drafts OUT that I find the one that's going to work. It's almost as though there's a need to clarify and gather through the act of writing things out that has to happen, and in that the work that wants to be born will be.
I've also found that a lot of the time, the first draft IS the one and it IS there - I just have to START to find it. Waiting to start until after I feel like I 'have it' can literally be a game of cat and mouse that never ends.
Movement is what brings life. Movement is the secret ingredient to all things that we call animated, that we recognize as being alive in any way.
Art, just like all other life forms, needs motion to exist.
The story will always find its way, so long as we make room for it to do so - and I think we do that by moving. Moving in our lives. Moving in our bodies. Moving in our perceptions. Moving the pencil. Moving our fingers.
When we're willing to move, life will always find us :)
I work from home so I cook 2 meals a day at least, so I have a few. I jump around too sometimes, looking for a specific guest or topic. I think that is how I found both Ologies and We Can Do Hard Things
Regularly: We Can Do Hard Things,(Glennon Doyle) Unlocking US(Brene Brown), Revisionist History( Malcom Gladwell) and of course Bewildered
Depending on the topic: Factually(Adam Ruins Everything) Ologies(a biology pod) Philosophize This(philosophy), I Weigh (Jameela Jamil), Getting Curious( Jonathan Van Ness) and Arm Chair Experts(Dax Shepard)
I write but not enough to be a writer... however I draw, paint and design a lot, and I do call myself an artist. I resonate with this Rowan, as I've seen powerful themes and even 'messages to self' emerge in my visual output. It's amazing to look back at my teens, twenties, thirties to now (I'm sixty six now) and find fascinating threads of theme and story that were there from the beginning. Weirdly I've painted several accurate images of people before I met them, and often specific characters emerge in my paintings, not sure who they are. But I'm here for the mystery ;-)
Amy I completely agree, art can have a life. For me personally my best art is caught not created. Though I am always doing something that allows me to find the flow.
First-I need that recipe. I was drooling. Second - I loved this story. There were a few lines of this that really struck for me. One was the idea that we are not here to learn lessons. I have heard that a lot. As an entreprenuer, a parent and a partner. It always made me feel unfiniished but not in a good way. Like I was less than whole. Like I need to always be chasing something out there as I learn along the way. Now I say I am experiencing learning and, for some odd reason, this feels better. The other idea that I am happy to have you nudge was from Stephen King. That amateurs wait for inspiration and the others get going and do the work. I know, as I continue to experience the learnings around writing, that I get stuck. I think about my muse at these times and ask it for inspiration. And then I do something else. That is how I get to work in the moment. That is how I move from amateur to pro. Thanks Ro. Love reading what you write, experiencing learning and being inspired!
OMFG, Rowan. You have no idea how much I needed to read this today. My story came through in a divine blessing and a divine blast this weekend...not all of it, of course...but the feeling of the story, the reason, the depth, the importance. This puts the story in the driver's seat! WoW.
1st I want to live in your house because that looks so good I can almost smell it through the phone. 2nd thank you for writing this morning because your Inventure arrived at a moment I opened my phone to say I need support (alongside my second cup of tea).
Not so much to write the book, although that's in the works, but to face the deeper than surface complexities that inhabit and enliven (when Im willing to look at it that way) my life right now. The deep dives and the effortless rising to the surface where I pop up again remembering that I have abundant air to breathe. Just by being inert and letting what wants to happen happen rather than struggling with some idea that makes it hard to know which way is up.
Off I go into the wild Inventure of this day: what to say to a welcome group that may want to be a client, who to invite to support the team in this, our next adventure, how to get a quick answer to a logistics question, what I'll learn from a routine med follow up, and most essential - my new favorite question of each day - what will be the most fun I can have along the road (literally - I live in the sticks). Less important, why the heck I was trying to sort out the difference between wench and wrench in a dream last night. Not particularly keen on interpreting that one, just curious.
Again, thank you. What timing. What grace.
Yes!!!
I too love cooking +Audible. Or podcast, Bewildered of course, but what else do you listen to? Audible wise I am currently listening to Bittersweet by Susan Cain. It as least a fantastic as Quiet. Part philosophy, poetry, music, stories and science.
I am not a writer but this applies to other art too. I have caught a poem while sitting on my porch, caught living and whole unto themselves.
During Martha’s creativity class we were tasked to make a vision box. The concept came to me immediately, I sketched each panel. All but one, the inside. I chose a box that had a lid, so I could put something inside. But the inside was blank no idea what went there other that it was important, valuable. The box was a shrine with legs of coral and bejeweled. I had beautiful velvet to line it, waiting for the object that my vision shrine was built to hold. The true purpose of my life.
Despite being focused and present, I glued the box shut and covered the seam. My vision shrine no longer a vessel, but strangely I was not upset.
A few days later in a flood of realization that took my breath away, Nothing was the purpose. A shrine to Nothing, not my health or family or my seeking. Not to my future or past, Nothing is my true purpose. Way smarter than me.
Susan Cain just turned me onto Jacques Brel. I don’t even speak French and I am hooked.
https://youtu.be/O6MGGh8WUco
There are so many podcasts now, it's an explosion. What kind do you like? I follow some of the AstrologyHub, but thats for astrology nerds, and I've loved The Spiritual Gayz. Other than that I jump around. Need recommendations.
Thank you for sharing this with us - exactly what I needed to read today whilst drafting! It’s so true that much of the story reveals itself to you. I always wonder how I’m going to figure it all out and then realise half of the time that the story has done that for me already.
It's so odd - yesterday I was actually thinking about this concept of not allowing yourself to stagnate - and how just the act of getting moving is oftentimes all 'we' need to do, for the inspiration to find it's way to and through us.
One of my little writing tricks that has served me so well is the fact that I never let myself sit and stare at a page. I've found that even if I end up spending time writing things that aren't going to be used, it's the act of getting those first, second and third drafts OUT that I find the one that's going to work. It's almost as though there's a need to clarify and gather through the act of writing things out that has to happen, and in that the work that wants to be born will be.
I've also found that a lot of the time, the first draft IS the one and it IS there - I just have to START to find it. Waiting to start until after I feel like I 'have it' can literally be a game of cat and mouse that never ends.
Movement is what brings life. Movement is the secret ingredient to all things that we call animated, that we recognize as being alive in any way.
Art, just like all other life forms, needs motion to exist.
The story will always find its way, so long as we make room for it to do so - and I think we do that by moving. Moving in our lives. Moving in our bodies. Moving in our perceptions. Moving the pencil. Moving our fingers.
When we're willing to move, life will always find us :)
Love this reminder, and I hope the stew was good.
<3
Brilliant Aliyah as always. “Art, just like all other life forms, needs motion to exist”.
I work from home so I cook 2 meals a day at least, so I have a few. I jump around too sometimes, looking for a specific guest or topic. I think that is how I found both Ologies and We Can Do Hard Things
Regularly: We Can Do Hard Things,(Glennon Doyle) Unlocking US(Brene Brown), Revisionist History( Malcom Gladwell) and of course Bewildered
Depending on the topic: Factually(Adam Ruins Everything) Ologies(a biology pod) Philosophize This(philosophy), I Weigh (Jameela Jamil), Getting Curious( Jonathan Van Ness) and Arm Chair Experts(Dax Shepard)
I write but not enough to be a writer... however I draw, paint and design a lot, and I do call myself an artist. I resonate with this Rowan, as I've seen powerful themes and even 'messages to self' emerge in my visual output. It's amazing to look back at my teens, twenties, thirties to now (I'm sixty six now) and find fascinating threads of theme and story that were there from the beginning. Weirdly I've painted several accurate images of people before I met them, and often specific characters emerge in my paintings, not sure who they are. But I'm here for the mystery ;-)
https://www.juliefefermanart.com/portfolio
Amy I completely agree, art can have a life. For me personally my best art is caught not created. Though I am always doing something that allows me to find the flow.