This felt good. It felt really really good. Whatever it is worth to you (or anyone else), today, with each word I type, I feel a bit stronger. I feel more myself. I feel capable and wide awake, so completely wide awake. Which brings me to my last reflection this year, the thing I most want to carry with me into the new year:
FEED THE FIRE.Last weekend, on a rainy Sunday morning, J asked if I wanted to go to a museum. He said he needed something to fuel his creativity. So we drank our coffee and got on our bicycles and rode down to the Hirshhorn. There was an exhibit I didn’t like, and I’m still thinking about the strange film of black-painted spinning tops. But whatever I liked or whatever I hated, my mind was awake and alive and full of sparks. I was asking questions and being made to feel bored or uncomfortable.
The presence of someone in my life who says let’s go out and feed the creative fire has been transformative. Over and over again, experiences both simple and grand light me up, fill me with questions, stoke my urges to make something. But even when that ambitious person isn’t around to drag me out of my comfortable house into the wide world, I want to remember the good, the wild head-splitting good that comes from seeking out the experiences, the words, the sounds, the people who will feed the fire.
I’ve kept the fire going, somehow, though there are plenty of dark nights. The new year is coming for me. And I’ll meet it with this fire blazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment