how & why we make art when the world is still the world

another installment of the saga.

Being creative in a time like this is no small act. The world feels heavy, and the noise is nonstop. Here you. me. we are, trying to make something. Last week, I was having tea with a friend who said, “People aren’t at their best right now. Everyone is stressed. Cramped. In survival mode. He was right. Is right.

Survival mode, by its very nature, is not the most generous place. It is not where the softness occurs or where the best ideas come from. It is, however, where we forget we are allowed to dream. And reader, we must dream.

Still, this is precisely where (and why) creativity is needed to name what we’re feeling and interrupt the survival script, even for a second. Your mind is doing its level best inside conditions it didn’t choose. If you’ve been feeling less inspired and more scattered, or if creativity feels harder to get to, distant, and inconsistent, remember this is a natural response to most unnatural times. The fact that you still want to create something is sacred and worth believing. Keep going.

Something is happening where I get out of breath/faint-dizzy, whenever I try to do my Morning Walk. Worrying because the Morning Walk is a staple, something I do to sort myself out (get myself right sized) between waking and kicking the day into ita sweet beginning. The symptoms might be signalling anything anything from an anaemia thing to a mental health thing. I don’t know, so I’m treating everything. The truth of the matter is that I'm a little mineral deficient and dysregulated due to all the flights and touring, so now that I'm standing still, my body has things to tell me. I am over pushing through, and have no more desire to override my telling systems, but I think you know that.

In other related or unrelated news (haven't figured out which), things are changing rapidly around here, and often I feel quite unsure as to how long I’ll be on this format before another needed pivot, so I’m doing an AMA. So, reader, ask me anything, anonymously or not,

here.

IN OTHER NEWS

This baby is (finally) OUT IN THE UK ON THURSDAY!!!!! I know, I know…you’ve heard me talk about this baby a lot this year. As parents will know, that’s just how it is 😉

JUICY THINGS THAT GOT ME THROUGH LAST WEEK

idc how any of this sounds