Substrate

I stepped into the portal a few hours ago and I discovered some things and made some connections that I hadn’t before. Now I’m going to hit “publish” and step out.

Most important things in life are a hassle. If life’s hassles disappeared, you’d want them back.

Don’t ask yourself if you can finish, ask yourself if you can keep going.

How comedy can teach us to survive our disastrous times.

Back in January, I decided that my new notebook needed a guardian spirit to watch over things. Emily Dickinson seemed right. I felt like Emily D kept a good watch, so when I finished that notebook, I decided to continue the practice. I burned through 8 notebooks this year, so I had to pick 8 spirits...

I agree with him: [envy] will eat you alive if you keep it inside. I think one thing you can do is spit it out, cut it out, or get it out by whatever means available — write it down or draw it out on paper — and take a hard look at it so it might actually teach you something.

That last line is worth repeating: “Blogging is an essential tool toward meditating over an extended period of time on a subject you consider to be important.”

but Hendren’s editor, Rebecca Saletan, says it’s her favorite time [(before publishing and after writing)] — it’s like “having a secret before the world knows.”

When it comes to early drafts, this is often the only editorial guidance I need.

Every time it’s a new thing.

It is my 37th birthday today, and what I really crave, more than anything, is a continuity to my days. Not an accumulation, the sense that they’re adding up to anything, not necessarily, just a continuity. The sense that one day leads into another leads into another leads into another on and on and on.

Because you can identify all the poison you want, but if you don’t find nourishment, you’ll starve to death.

Here is my secret. It’s quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.

Anne Truitt’s advice against immediately judging artists: Don’t have to bring them in for a landing or send them away, just let them circle.

another thing I love about poetry: it’s ability to change meaning

And then there are people busy at work, whispering, “This is what I know how to do.” I want to be in that last group.

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

I don’t actually read the page. I read the words, “Why do you waste your time doing that?” Because it’s fun and I love it. That’s why.

So, please: Keep making your art. Keep speaking the truth. We need your efforts, no matter how small and how trivial they may seem to you.

Creativity is about connection—you must be connected to others in order to be inspired and share your own work—but it is also about disconnection. You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others. You must play a little hide-and-seek in order to produce something worth being found.

Writer Ted Gioia on how important high-quality inputs are to mainting high-quality output.

“Race to the Top; what a horrid metaphor for education. A race? Everyone is on the same track, seeing how fast they can go? Racing toward what? The top? The top of what? Education is not a race, it’s an amble. Real education only occurs when everyone is ambling along their own path.” —Peter Gray ​ 2. Always work (note, write) from your own interest, never from what you think you should be noting or writing. Trust your own interest.

When you feel like you’ve learned whatever there is to learn from what you’re doing, it’s time to change course and find something new to learn so that you can move forward. You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again. So, perhaps, instead of asking that dreaded question, “What next?” turn it into this question: “What do you want to learn?”

(He’s off to chill in the woods and freelance.) ​ What you really want in an editor is someone who’s still on the dock, who can say, Hi, I’m looking at your ship, and it’s missing a bow, the front mast is crooked, and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed.

the more I try to focus on what I genuinely love. The stuff that really nourishes and feeds me.

Advice from Kurt Vonnegut’s uncle.

1) the full moon can be glorious, but it's really the moon phasing in and out that is the most interesting to me 2) morning moons sometimes beat evening moons, especially when they hang big and low by the horizon and startle you when you turn a corner or come out from under the shade

Sitting around drinking coffee and reading books and scribbling notes to myself.

There are more interesting views in the foothills.