All art forms are for two: the audience, and the artist. As the artist, one seeks to create something that will move the audience, teach them, humor them, or simply make them think about a topic in a new...
All art forms are for two: the audience, and the artist. As the artist, one seeks to create something that will move the audience, teach them, humor them, or simply make them think about a topic in a new way. At the same time there is the aspect of creation that is solely for the artist, for their own self-improvement and sustainment. When I write, I write for others. Simultaneously I am always writing for myself�writing to heal the wounds inside.
My first book, published this April, is entitled Soon I�ll Be from the Soil Someday: Essays on Plants and Loss. I wrote it after I lost two grandparents in quick succession, and then stumbled my way into a job at a garden center. I wrote it because I was grieving, and healing, and I knew writing would be how I moved through it all.
When a writer puts pen to paper it is an act of love to oneself. It is intentional. It is saying: I choose this moment in time, to sit and think and be and to honor the thoughts and sensations that course through me. There is a tenderness to recording one�s ideas in this manner, taking the words that swim through us, sticking them to a page.
When I stumble into writer�s block, I return to this notion. I do not have to write the most beautiful essay in the world for my words to matter. I do not have to write something that is touching to anyone else. I do not have to try to make my writing anything other than an exercise in soothing my own mind. � ���������
Currently so much revolves around how we can make money, find success, and creativity is often stifled as a result. It is therefore radical to step away from that idea, even momentarily, and say: today I create, I write, for the beauty of it, for the love of it, for the love of myself. Today I write because I can, and because doing so always has the power to heal.
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