loving the process

I've been doing a bit of "speed dating." Meeting new collaborators for the first time in almost ten years? A day or two with different people just to get a vibe and throw some paint at the wall. Creative handshakes, if you will. Following the chemistry.

It's been an interesting process. One that has tested a lot of what I know to be true. At the... See more

Nothing looks the way I thought it would look. Some of it has been more delightful than I expected, much of it has been more heartbreaking than I ever planned for — or thought I could survive. Yet here I am, living out the story that I am, at best, co-creating in collaboration with mysterious and invisible forces. It has been, at every turn,... See more

We all know that life does not hand out bouquets. Flowers do not just appear in the world. The same is true for a life of meaning. Both are grown, over time, from the tiniest seeds. You have to cultivate meaning in your life. You need to do the hard work of tilling the soil and nurturing the seeds. No one can do it for you. Grow your own flowers... See more

As the years unfold, you’ll see that all your questions aren’t so urgent. The only ones to care about are the ones you’ll never answer. And you don’t have to get caught up in your plans as you did when you were in your twenties.

I can chart the exact moments of inflection where I was being pushed to rise to a new level of worth and, instead, took what was on offer. Said yes when it didn’t feel right. Gave something valuable away because I didn’t even know it was valuable. Took whatever was offered to me instead of saying no, and demanding options. Being so impatient to... See more

Most of the time, bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom.

But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is... See more

I place a lot of emphasis on generative making and process. Of course, institutions also give us rooms. A lot can happen in a room if we don’t let ourselves be limited by the expectations of what should happen in the room. A stanza, too, is a room.

This journey from naming what you want to achieving it isn't accidental. It follows a path that, in many ways, mirrors training for a marathon. And just like with marathon training, each phase requires different skills, different mindsets, and different kinds of courage.