This spicy lil number is in your ppv! :)
I'm trying to get a *brand new* video out within the next day or two. My intention for Jan is to create more (I have taken a bit of a creation break through the holidays) and be more present here on my OF page. (So please don't hesitate to reach out to me here.)
Ps - I sent a lot of end of the year sales for some of my favorite videos of ‘22 (all in your dms from the last week or so). I’ll leave them for 1 more week in case more of y’all wanna grab any of them!
My favorite excerpt from the essay:
"I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all.
There is no other way work of artistic worth can be done. And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time."
One of my favorite writers of all time is Mary Oliver. Her words carry a resonance, a soft medicine for the heart.
I wanted to expand on yesterday's audio journal with an essay from *Upstream* - this one is called *Of Power and Time* (the audio attached here is my reading of it.)
It is now one of my favorite pieces on creativity, but I just found it in December for the first time. And finding it when I did was no coincidence. (More on these synchronicities to come). I first read it late one night while I was camming. I had set up my camera near one of my book shelves, and decided to pull a random book from my collection, open it to a random page, and read whatever I found as a 'tuck-in' before I logged off for the night.
I was shocked that it aligned with so much of what I had been navigating - questions about my work, my purpose on earth as a Creator. Releasing attachments to what was and allowing the evolution of self to carry my art forward in ways that reflect the present. And I've also been pondering if there are alchemical ways to bend time, for it's something that I feel tries to rule me. I fight time. I lose time. I always wonder why there never seems to be enough of it.
In this essay, Mary Oliver explores the need for solitude and devotion to the art. "In creative work -- creative work of all kinds -- those who are the world's working artists are not trying to help the world go around, but forward."
"Intellectual work sometimes, spiritual work certainly, artistic work always -- these are the forces that fall within its grasp, forces that must travel beyond the realm of the hour and the restraint of habit."
Sharing more throughout today <3
On a lighter note - My outdoor camping video is re-releasing today! This video was previously only available as part of my Camp Emma club in September but I'm allowing anyone to tip for it as part of the new year. Look for it soon!
There is a tendency we have as humans to busy ourselves. To move on to the next thing - perhaps it is the next goal or even the next crisis... until our emotional backpacks are so heavy that we must collapse on the soft earth, or sometimes hard, rock bottom to feel what we feel.
But emotional resilience is determined by how well you can sit in your own discomfort. Alchemy cannot happen until then.
15ish min audio about some raw thoughts and emotions.
Those who are meant to hear this, will.