Hello all!
I took a little sabbatical from writing my newsletter for the last few months.
I’m looking forward to getting back to writing.
Alex
Fear, uncertainty and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.
—Unknown
✏️ In Praise of Idleness
Relentless, blinding
breaking my back
at the parapet.
My fate
at the mercy of the stars.I know not where I’m heading.
In search of paradise lost
I find only salt water —
Bitter, quenchless,
familiar to the tongue.
How long until salvation comes?A long walk at dawn
lifts my spirits.
For a moment
I taste the nothingness
that eludes me.
The solace is in silence:
I’m learning to watch the grass grow.
The desire to be of use — to be productive, respected. Valued and celebrated. One can spend his life playing that game and never have his thirst quenched. Is it not better to start each day with the birds, feeling the brush of the wind and tasting coffee made with thoughtfulness? Slowness is the most satisfying — it is where connection is found, where greatness is born, and where a love of the human experience is sown.
Better to write a novel on my old laptop. In my ideal life, I’m taking walks with no destination in mind. I’m not fighting the to-do list. I’m reading the books that continuously show up at my doorstep, waiting to share their wealth. This path I’m on leads me away from myself. Away from God. In this new season, I’ll be teaching myself how to watch the grass grow again.
Patientia vincit omnia.
Patience overcomes all things.
💡 Food for Thought
Remember the shortness of life. And that you will never be as young as you are today. Every day is an opportunity to start afresh, to reset the board.
🔗 Sunday Best
Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1975) — Gavin Bryars
A 1971 composition by Gavin Bryars based on a loop of an unknown homeless man singing a brief improvised stanza.
Self-Discipline Will Ruin You
Feel less pressurised to be strict or over-prescriptive about their practice, with a little more of a barrier up around non-critical sales pitches of self-discipline narratives that might be limiting. Taking in that concept around self-management (separating tasks/mentoring yourself). Pushing for a confident, softer, more aware approach, ability to let go when necessary, and commitment to enjoy their creative practice and be secure in it (as opposed to reactive) over the long term.
John Field- Nocturne no. 11 E Flat Major Moderato
I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
—Albert Einstein
See you next week.
AT