3-2-1: On the source of inspiration, the bond between love and grief, and the power of hope

It reminds me of writing and how I wake up week after week and get stuck on the blank page again and again. How I always despair that I have no more good ideas and, even if I did, not enough eloquence to convey said ideas. But I love it still. I love how writing brings everything to the surface, how it generates and absorbs my attention. How it tap

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Trusting the process becomes much easier when you regularly run into these little reminders that we’re all kinda going through the same ups and the same downs... “The tough thing is that consistency can feel like it’s not paying off for long stretches of time. You feel aimless, like you’re going nowhere. You’re not improving as fast as you like. I’... See more

The mathematical genius Alexander Grothendieck once had a metaphor for solving problems. He suggested that instead of forcing open an impossibly hard kernel with a hammer and chisel, one should simply let it sit in water and wait. Over time, the shell softens and opens with ease. This is also true in writing; time is the only non-substitutable ingr... See more

I know now I was grieving something , the death of an ambition. I started attending reading events at Green Apple Books, my local bookstore, because it was something I liked in grad school, and I had to get myself out of the house. Going to those events was (is) a way of traveling without moving; they have afforded me an incredibly valuable educati... See more