One can have a lot of time and yet feel one has very little.
A person who wants an inner life needs what you might call
"open" time - time that hasn't already been filled before one
enters it with minor concerns, little duties. The more
conscientious a person is, the more easily small things force
themselves into the consciousness. Precisely because they are
so small one knows one can easily take care of them. I keep
finding in my pockets old lists of errands that in hindsight are
incredibly trivial. It's the fact that the items are crossed off
that 's so pathetic - the fact that I actually worried about these
tasks and actually did them. Tillie Olson has written an essay
on the penalties of postponing serious work for the sake of
things of this kind. It's a fine essay. She advocates going
straight for the real work and to hell with everything else.
And she's right. The creative drive withers away otherwise.
A person who wants an inner life needs what you might call
"open" time - time that hasn't already been filled before one
enters it with minor concerns, little duties. The more
conscientious a person is, the more easily small things force
themselves into the consciousness. Precisely because they are
so small one knows one can easily take care of them. I keep
finding in my pockets old lists of errands that in hindsight are
incredibly trivial. It's the fact that the items are crossed off
that 's so pathetic - the fact that I actually worried about these
tasks and actually did them. Tillie Olson has written an essay
on the penalties of postponing serious work for the sake of
things of this kind. It's a fine essay. She advocates going
straight for the real work and to hell with everything else.
And she's right. The creative drive withers away otherwise.
I produce most and write best when I have no schedule at all,
when I'm able to wander where whim carries me - both physically,
through a city or a countryside, and mentally, in reading, talking,
scribbling, thinking, whatever. Poems don't come to me often
when solicited.
when I'm able to wander where whim carries me - both physically,
through a city or a countryside, and mentally, in reading, talking,
scribbling, thinking, whatever. Poems don't come to me often
when solicited.
Galway Kinnell
- from an interview published in the book Walking Down the
Stairs.
Stairs.
Downtime is the basis of creative time. It is important that that
time not be filled with trivial things -- errands, doing the
dishes -- but rather time to day dream, [to spend time in
"The Silence"], to meander through the backwoods, to wander
around town, notebook in hand, just in case something bubbles up.
time not be filled with trivial things -- errands, doing the
dishes -- but rather time to day dream, [to spend time in
"The Silence"], to meander through the backwoods, to wander
around town, notebook in hand, just in case something bubbles up.
Rod MacIver
Heron Dance
Heron Dance
~
Art - Mystic Meandering
Vortex Art 2024
Water Whirlpool
on black paper
on black paper
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