Creativity carries pain
a brief note
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My intention for this letter is to touch base, to not overthink writing this, and to speak from a place of useful sincerity.
I paused what was meant to be published through the Regarding Dew letters this last week or so because…
1) It didn't feel appropriate to continue business-as-usual1
2) I've been tear-soaked. A wreck… Doom-scrolling on a new level. The grueling terror toward and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people—and then the simultaneous circus of denial and support for it—is a nightmare beyond nightmares.
I’m sharing being a wreck only because there are many self-employed and freelance artists/designers/writers/musicians/healers/humans that read my letters, and sometimes it feels like being 'on' is necessary in order to get by, to keep the work working and get rent made on time. I hope that we can each normalize that having your heart ache in new ways is a natural response to witnessing immense, unfathomable terror, and to let that heartache be a major disruption. And I hope that we each find the people and practices that help us to meet the heat of grief without turning toward numbing or indifference. As US tax dollars fund this, bearing witness is the very least one can do.
Saturday was the first session of Growing a Writing Practice. I couldn’t have imagined a more full-hearted group. I shared a quote by Zen monk Suzuki Roshi…
The most important thing is remembering the most important thing.
I shared how writing helps to keep what is most important to you at the center of your life.
My work has always been about centering creativity, whether that looks like dipping your toes into creative discomfort, deepening and expanding on your creative practices, connecting to your ‘creative self’ and unlearning the ‘you’ you’ve outgrown, or finding the courage and gumption to be creatively expressed even when it means being vulnerable and misunderstood (it often does!).
One of the reasons why creative engagement with life is at the heart of my work is because creativity—in the most expansive sense—offers an alternative to staying stuck in numbness. Creative engagement with life is the opposite of indifference and hopelessness. It’s understandable when numbing is practiced or even desired, and moving in creativity offers a way of meeting what is right here. It’s the pathway toward connection.
As I witness the forceful loss of the most important things—the lives of over a thousand children (February 13th edit: now over 12,300 children according to AP news), basic tenets of truth and humanity, and fundamental needs like water, food, home, lineage, and safety—I recognize more deeply that writing is needed even when words fall short.
Centering creativity can feel futile when hospitals are being bombed. This is a short letter to speak to the necessity of your creativity during times of crisis.
Staying responsive to suffering is a creative act.
Sharing your voice and crafting your contribution to the collective couldn’t be more creative.
YOUR creativity is a force of care for yourself and others.
I tell myself: May creativity be expressed in honor of those who were robbed of theirs. May creative courage be a dedication of merit. May it create some small opening beyond numbness for grief and rage to move through. May it help us to remember and fight for what is most important.
Maggy
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This isn't a comment on anyone else's decisions. I fully respect how weird it is to not be employed in the traditional sense and to navigate privacy, transparency (what is shared ‘in’ business vs with people you’re in relationship with in only a personal sense, what is shared online vs offline), etc. while needing to also keep sharing work to make a living.