I’ve never been a confident person and sometimes I wonder about that. Every creative thing that I have done has taken inner courage and energy to break through my natural state, which is to dismiss and deny that there is anything of value here. I often find myself viewing people who are confident as being [ Read more … ]
Books
Metaphorical threads
I brought small pumpkins into Monday’s class at the Sophia Center. I had everyone close their eyes and hold out their hands to receive their pumpkin, so they wouldn’t immediately know what it was. Holding/touching something with eyes closed is evocative—we don’t immediately rely on our mind to recall pre-stored ideas about the object. We [ Read more … ]
It’s all about enjoying the process
A book I’ve been working on for almost ten years was supposed to be published last February. At the last moment, the University that was going to publish it dropped their publishing program due to political issues between the departments. There I was, back at square one, not knowing if my book would ever find [ Read more … ]
“To know a thing is to awaken to its depth and presence”
To create is always to learn, to begin over, to begin at zero. — Matthew Fox In John O’Donohue’s book The Invisible Embrace of Beauty, O’Donohue mentions St. Thomas Aquinas, who believed that beauty was the perfection of a thing. “To know a thing is to awaken to its depth, complexity and presence.” [ Read more … ]
Paying attention is an act of love
In many respects, all we have in this life is our attention. We’re shaped by what we pay attention to. Our lives are the result of what we pay attention to. My current favorite read is Eric Booth’s book, The Everyday Work of Art. Booth writes on page 61: “If our experience of being alive [ Read more … ]