Pondering fulfilment (creatively)
If you can’t change your circumstances, you need to change the way you think about the circumstances. As the poet Theodore Roethke says, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go."
A few observations reflected through different creative acts (seen, heard, and felt).
- That, that is most present, is often, least seen.
- Art is about changing the perception of something. It's not about education, or data points, it's about giving you a whole different data point about something.
- We become what we do. Some habits lock us in a rut, others bring out our potential. In 1991, when the Dalai Lama was asked what was the single most important thing one can do to improve themselves, he said, "Routine".
- Begin, and the work will show you how. Meaning is what you do, it's not what you say. Meaning discovers you (not the other way round) if you pay attention long enough.
- "Oh you like Music, that's great. What's your favorite song? What key is your favorite song?" .. technicalities might not matter, the point is, if its enjoyable, then it's culturally resonant.
- The why of it, sometimes, does not matter. Living absurdly might be a cute antidote to living creatively.
- Embrace the moments ahead of you.
- Learn to express what you actually feel, not what the other person wants to hear.
- If it's not fun, its not worth doing.
- In the words of Gabriel García Márquez, "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."