How to start again
Oh, hi friends!
It’s me again. Hello! I decided to stop writing this newsletter for a few weeks.
It wasn’t really about “taking time off” — the feeling was more, I don’t have anything useful to say because I’m sad and not tuned into my creative work, so I’m not going to try. And I didn’t.
Deciding to stop is a useful tool. I don’t do it enough. Do you?
Sometimes it’s easier to keep doing the same thing you’ve always done. Easier to keep holding down the pencil and drawing the line.
Sometimes it’s easier when someone else tells you to stop and makes the decision for you. Maybe your subscriber numbers fall or you get laid off. That’s someone else saying, it’s time to change! Right now! And you do.
I was thinking about this during my unscheduled hiatus: how it can be easier to continue rather than begin.
This feels appropriate now, with so many people going through their new beginnings. It’s why I watch each one of them — each one of you — with so much awe.
You have to be brave to begin.
You also might have to be a little brave to pick up where you left off.
Maybe you’re in one of those camps right now. I am, too.
So hi again. Let’s be brave together.
"Every time I have had a problem, I have confronted it with the ax of art."
— Yayoi Kusama
(via Daniel Talbott)
What an unusual image!! I don’t normally consider art to be an “ax” but maybe, in some cases, that’s exactly what it wants to be.
Ain't no yellow brick road running through Glasgow
But I found one that's stronger than stone
Ain't no place like home, ain't no place like home
Ain't no place like home, ain't no place like home
Blown away by this video of Jessie Buckley singing “Glasgow” at the BAFTAs. (h/t Robby Macdonald) She’s an actor, too, and starred in the recent excellent National Theatre production of Romeo & Juliet with Josh O’Connor (yes, 'Prince Charles' Josh O'Connor!). Cheers to the multi-hyphenates.
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara