Art, Constipation, Reality TV & Cake
Another take on writer's block...
Hello friends. I’m stuck! A frustrating, maddening, knee deep in the muck stuck. A transformative, messy and eye-opening stuck. None of these feelings are singular. They are three-headed, they bite at each other.
Is this the long cold blue night I’ve heard about?
I’m halfway through the tunnel (my revisions) and I think I see something, far away, if I squint my eyes just so…
And I’m being way too dramatic.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding, I found a few words that are helping me process.
From George Poulos on TikTok (my favorite “ambiguously qualified therapist” app): Life operates in cycles, like a pendulum. At one end of the swing, you experience a state of heightened self, with feelings of boldness, courage, and progression. Naturally, however, the pendulum swings back. This return brings you into a past, less evolved version of yourself. You lose some of your progress, you revert to old ways. The recommendation is ]to pause, to engage in practices like meditation, and patiently wait to swing back. Understanding this helps to navigate this change and get back on track.
From the book Awakening Together: True healing in Western Society is seen as an individual thing. The hero’s quest. The Highlander. In other societies, healing is a communal thing. When I look outside of myself, at my connections, how I connect to the bigger picture and my ancestors, true healing can begin.
How would I know that wonderful feeling of recognizing myself on the page if it weren’t for writers like Lester Fabian Brathwaite?
Who would I write to if I didn’t have you loyal readers to commiserate with me?
Where would I post without the wonderful people who maintain Substack?
How would I eat without the people who pick my food in the field?
And so on, and so on… All these invisible spiderwebs holding me up, preparing me to fly, and I can’t tear my eyes away from trash TV and contemplating carrot cake.
A spellbinding, heartbreaking and glorious stuck.
Carrot cake pops, carrot cake muffins…