Authenticity
What does it mean for something to be 'authentic'?
Keely Adler and
Authenticity
‘Do not try to be the best. Be the only.’ It helps me believe in a positive-sum world—where my success does not hinge on the failure of others, and I am not in a rat-race.” — Nishant Jain
Caroline Cala Donofrio • The Best Advice I've Ever Heard
this year, and beyond, i will move with my own mutability as a gift and no longer search for performative one-dimensionality. being home has taught me this, as i have had to witness my own shapeshifting and reckon with the deep-rooted reasons for it. i remember one day hearing adrienne maree brown and bayo akomolafe ask each other, “so what if i’m a shapeshifter?” and how they instinctually move and mutate through the cracks of the earth, and i haven’t stopped thinking about it since. this piece of writing is inspired by that question. as i become many different forms, i will stay grounded in my ever-changing essence and merge together the many shapes i am capable of becoming. 💞
instagram.cominstead of asking:
how can i be more like them?
ask:
how can i be more like me?
how many versions of me do i occupy? where do they live? how do they grow? what will they bloom into? what rituals do they practice? how do they show care to others? what are they afraid of? what do they dream about at night?
What I want to say most is that I am not an improved or better version of myself than I was a year ago because that is no longer a goal — but I am a truer version, a closer-in version, a more expansive and open version, a less clinging-to-certainty version, and that, to me, counts for a lot more than seeking to endlessly upgrade myself.
the goal is not to optimize yourself, it’s to get closer to yourself
I'd either drive people away or they'd come in closer to see what it was all about. There was no in between.
-Bob Dylan
Always stick to what makes you weird, odd, strange, different. That’s your source of power.