Practicing a practice is a practice

and other emergent summer thoughts

Welcome to Gentle Musings, a publication about reconnecting with yourself, experiencing life as a creative practice, and living out loud. Gentle Musings is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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If you want to listen to this as an audio, here you go:

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First, I’m ALWAYS thinking about this moment when a child was given crayons before seeing this statue and making their mark

• How there's a myth that the things we are called to do should come easily and be enjoyable *from the start*. I've found that the things that I have been called to do and try are the things that I'm most naturally gifted but/and, the beginning phase has been more tedious, fear-soaked, unpredictable, and embarrassing than I could have imagined. We don't always come to our gifts with sufficiency from the start, and that’s actually a gift.

• Mood boards as a way of life

• Tres leches cake

• No-more-ambient-internet-July

• How credentialism makes me yawn

• Gestures of generosity as subversive practice

• Staying after school to watch Amelie at the after-school French club (I didn’t speak French) because the after-school Spanish club was playing Selena for the hundredth time and how something clicked in my mind when I saw it (I watched it again this week and wow).

• How we don’t show the messy middle of creative processes and why?? (calling myself out but also enjoying being a creative hermit as much as possible)

• How you probably shouldn’t wait to reach out to the friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with

• How it's ok to want what you want; it's ok to want more from life; it's ok to want more from yourself and others. Just as it’s important to radically accept what is—and instigate growth and change from that place—it’s also healing to sit with the pure sensation of wanting, and that includes wanting more or wanting something different.

• How the more I approach my work with ‘seriousness’, the more I feel constrained and limited until I remember that I can literally make my own rules?? The more I show up with devotion, the more I end up working earlier, with more enthusiasm, with deeper focus, with healthy breaks, and with total trust in my work.

• Spontaneous calls. Reminding my friends that they can call whenever—to have a three minute chat, to vent, to get advice, to talk through a decision, to share about a movie while folding laundry, whatever… And how I will answer if I’m available and won’t answer if I’m unavailable and that even when I’m unavailable, I care about them and want to know the details of how their life feels. And how spontaneous calls are a field of serendipitous delight. Hot tip here if this feels uncomfortable: exchange windows of availability with your friends so both sides know if any times are off limits with work and other life things.

• How some of the most meaningful and fulfilling experiences we could give our time and energy to are considered 'unproductive'.

• How creative career aspirations are sometimes (dare I say often?) devalued and belittled as 'impractical' and 'unnecessary' and how it eats away at people most core sense of self-coherence.

• How overconsuming information is sometimes a sign of hypoarousal, and so we can be compassionate to ourselves and our animal bodies.

• When I said this: “If you are feeling creative stagnation, impatience, or longing and vying for expansion (even if it means discomfort, fear, and risk), trust your process. Trust that your future self is lovingly pulling you forward. You become who you need to be by doing the thing (again and again and again). You can feel at home doing the bold thing that your mind protests but your heart craves, and you probably have evidence for that in your life already.”

• How we can hide behind getting organized (ok, calling myself out again) but also how getting organized can be a way of building capacity to hold more, share more, create more and it’s often overlooked as a key part of the process of building capacity that will serve us long term.

• How nothing needs to work the way we think it ‘should’ on the first, fifth, or even fiftieth try (this is not a hyperbole!)

• How totally underrated cinnamon sugar toast is

• This quote by Sellars: "It wasn't until years later that I learned that no matter how clumsy, gappy, and incoherent a first draft is, it contains the essence of what one has to say; and the comfort of finding raw material on paper to be licked into shape makes writing the next draft an entirely different experience [...] one should give one's muddiest intuitions the fullest benefit of the doubt."

• This quote by Audre Lorde: "We are citizens of the most powerful country in the world, and it is a country that stands upon the wrong side of every liberation struggle on earth. I want you to feel what that means."

• How our inner child isn't just like... a very young one. It's also you as a pre-teen and teenager. Remember her??

• How freeing it is when you decide to create when you're afraid and create alongside the fear (this includes creating your life).

• How practicing a practice is a practice, and it’s one that I adore.

  

Studio Happenings

🔸 A mini summer vlog

🔸 Have you grabbed the Harvesting Guide yet? Harvesting is a focused practice of mining insights and wisdom from your personal archives—journals, documents, notes, and more. It's a deliberate process of revisiting and cultivating meaning from your experiences and recorded reflections.

Or sign up for the two-part workshop where we’ll walk through it all together: learn more about Cultivating Clarity.

🔸 Pivoting Toward Wholeness waitlist is open (!!) Gifting is my love language, and I've got some for people who join the waitlist.

1:1 support for living an honest and vibrant life:

• For concentrated, short-term support —> Root to Blossom: Bookend your month with private sessions to support you in deeper creative engagement with yourself and your life. Learn more and apply here.

• For an immersive, transformational experience —> Creative Mentorship is a space for you to cultivate your visions for your life and take aligned action with masterful support every step of the way. Learn more and apply here.

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