Wow. I’ve always felt like creating is a much different experience than being productive, and creating feels great/fulfilling/expansive/infrequent while productivity feels dull/relentless/disheartening/daily but didn’t have the words to explain to others why “productive” hurts so much. Thanks for this! Downloading Colonisation of Time now!
That's funny you've been thinking about daimons (genuises/muses) too. I just read a book on that called Discovering Your Personal Daimon by Cat Rose. It has a lot of good references to other books about it too so I've been going down that rabbit hole. I always loved Big Magic and that statement she said about geniuses but never knew how to look further into it and Cat's book was a great help.
Yes yes yesss! Feeling this more and more in recent years. I used to HUSTLE at this time of year... in school, it was all my music concerts/recitals around Christmas. Then it morphed into busy-ness working in the service industry doing parties and holiday food for other people. And a couple years ago I started making dried flower wreaths as a side hustle. A friend asked me the other day if I would be making wreaths this year, and I said “no” with such a gleeful smile I think I surprised both of us. 😂 I’ve just been aligning my body more and more with the slowing down of the winter season, and it feels glorious. Relishing in the slow tasks of bird watching and *gasp* resting.
Also, remember when instagram and facebook were both down for a few hours? After that, i came up with an idea. I would love it if all social media had a ‘sabbath’ style break once a week (yes as you have pointed out the concept of a week is problematic!) in which there was no point going on because no-one was posting. What a feeling that would be.
Memetics, the theory of ideas hopping from mind to mind like independent mini-Muses, went into and out of academic fashion during the 90s and early 2000s. I always found value in it. Thanks for reminding me.
This profoundly resonated with me. My definition of freedom is grounded in opposition to clock time. When I’m composing a song or playing along to someone’s music, I completely lose track of time. Hours pass by and I couldn’t care less, for better or worse. That’s when I truly feel free.
Creativity is a liberating force. It’s wonderful and invigorating.
Thanks for a great post. I would be interested to know what seasons the indigenous people of florida have. Tropical areas are not without seasons. I have lived in a tropical Aboriginal community of north Australia where the settlers referred to three seasons - dry, build-up, and wet, but the Aboriginal people had seven seasons, all marked by various elements of weather and wildlife etc.
I Do Not Control The Seasons
Wow. I’ve always felt like creating is a much different experience than being productive, and creating feels great/fulfilling/expansive/infrequent while productivity feels dull/relentless/disheartening/daily but didn’t have the words to explain to others why “productive” hurts so much. Thanks for this! Downloading Colonisation of Time now!
Jess, you should check out the writing Marlee Grace has done on the topic/the class she teaches called A Quilt Is Something Human.
“Our bodies do not buy the lie of a season-less world.” oof I loved this line. Thank you for sharing this piece.
That's funny you've been thinking about daimons (genuises/muses) too. I just read a book on that called Discovering Your Personal Daimon by Cat Rose. It has a lot of good references to other books about it too so I've been going down that rabbit hole. I always loved Big Magic and that statement she said about geniuses but never knew how to look further into it and Cat's book was a great help.
Thank you for writing this. ♥️
Just thought I would drop the link to Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2009 TED talk where she talks about Genius in this way, in case anyone would like to see it: https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_creative_genius
Yes yes yesss! Feeling this more and more in recent years. I used to HUSTLE at this time of year... in school, it was all my music concerts/recitals around Christmas. Then it morphed into busy-ness working in the service industry doing parties and holiday food for other people. And a couple years ago I started making dried flower wreaths as a side hustle. A friend asked me the other day if I would be making wreaths this year, and I said “no” with such a gleeful smile I think I surprised both of us. 😂 I’ve just been aligning my body more and more with the slowing down of the winter season, and it feels glorious. Relishing in the slow tasks of bird watching and *gasp* resting.
Also, remember when instagram and facebook were both down for a few hours? After that, i came up with an idea. I would love it if all social media had a ‘sabbath’ style break once a week (yes as you have pointed out the concept of a week is problematic!) in which there was no point going on because no-one was posting. What a feeling that would be.
Memetics, the theory of ideas hopping from mind to mind like independent mini-Muses, went into and out of academic fashion during the 90s and early 2000s. I always found value in it. Thanks for reminding me.
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=randall_hayes&article=009
This profoundly resonated with me. My definition of freedom is grounded in opposition to clock time. When I’m composing a song or playing along to someone’s music, I completely lose track of time. Hours pass by and I couldn’t care less, for better or worse. That’s when I truly feel free.
Creativity is a liberating force. It’s wonderful and invigorating.
Thanks for a great post. I would be interested to know what seasons the indigenous people of florida have. Tropical areas are not without seasons. I have lived in a tropical Aboriginal community of north Australia where the settlers referred to three seasons - dry, build-up, and wet, but the Aboriginal people had seven seasons, all marked by various elements of weather and wildlife etc.