A new 105-year-old hero
Oh, hi friends!
Just now, I was trying to figure out what to say today, the most important morning of the week.
I had nothing. So I started scrolling Instagram at 11pm, and looked at my own profile.
There were old Playbills and running photos, gathered friends and Brooklyn sunsets, bursting foliage and optimistic quotes and donuts.
And then I found this photo from my X-Files inspired play “I Want to Believe (in Love)” which was part of a night of one-acts my brother Eric, Chelsea Smith, and I put on in my old apartment five (!) years ago.
And my caption reached out of from across the years and told me what I needed to hear:
Creating is hard, OK?
It's really hard to work on something when you don't know what it is.
It's hard to excavate everything that needs to be dug up in order to make your work resemble anything remotely truthful.
It's hard to hold something up to the world—or to a bunch of people in your own apartment—and say, look at this, please, look at this, and try not to shatter if they don't see it the way you do.
But as frustrating and time-consuming and exhausting as it is to create something new, it's so much easier than doing nothing at all. Standing still zaps your energy and yet reaps nothing. Literally. Nothing. Let me say it again: N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
But letting something loose in the world brings back the most beautiful unknowns: collaboration, reaction, evolution. I'm game for that. Forever.
That was my chosen message for a Monday, maybe it’s one you need to hear, too? Or maybe a previous version of yourself will come to guide you today.
When you look back at your old selves, what do you see?
What do they tell you?
What do you need to hear the most?
"It's better to be alone than to spend time with toxic people.
It's better to do nothing than to work on something that doesn't matter.
It's better to rest than to climb the wrong mountain."
Essential reminders from James Clear’s newsletter
One hundred percent obsessed with 105-year-old Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins, who recently set a 100-meter world record (in the 105+ category) at the Louisiana Senior Games.
She took up sprinting after turning 100; before that, in her 80s, she competed in cycling time trials and won several gold medals.
“I love to run, and I love being an inspiration to others,” she said. “I want to keep running as long as I can. My message to others is that you have to stay active if you want to be healthy and happy as you age.”
LOVE. HER.
(Thanks to Danielle Friedman for sending over this story; on a related note, you can preorder her book Let’s Get Physical, a cultural history of women’s fitness, now and follow her @DanielleFriedmanWrites for more fitness-related fun!)
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You can also support my work by checking out my motivational journal, Do It For Yourself, designed to guide you through your creative and work projects.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara