Molly Simpson
@spagmol
@spagmol
... See moreBeing at the edge of something means that there’s something new ahead. You’ve come up against the wall of the proverbial box, whether that’s your own capacities, your own knowledge, your expertise of a medium. You can either retreat away from the edges and stay in the box or tear it down and build a new one. Or decide that boxes actually aren’t you
edges via Creative Fuel
... See moreAnnie Dillard calls the writer’s life colorless to the point of sensory deprivation. That fits. But, as she also knows, there is another kind of color that can only be discovered three years down a writing hole. It is a subtle, nightly color; your eyes need time to adjust to the dark before you can see them. You wouldn't believe their beauty if I t
... See moreA myth is a patch of soil where we can plant the best practices of a community: how to relate to each other and to our shared ecosystem. The type of mythmaking we are called to do now is probably somewhere closer to composting. We live in a culture that is remarkably good at abstracting itself from waste and off-loading it onto the marginalized com
Sophie Strand
Instead, we might see stories as:
“living entities that emerge from and move things in the world. Some of these stories are meant to exist for a long time, others expire early. Some stories are meant to remain as and where they are and to work only with a very select group of people; other stories are meant to travel the world, and to transform and to be transformed by other world-entities … Sometimes [these stories] will hide somewhere in your body, perhaps close to a song that already lives there, and wait for the right time to dance with you.”
... See moreOur humanness is not given to us. Instead, it requires our participation in its construction and realisation, which often comes about through collapse or calamity. We rummage through the chaos of our inner worlds, through our multitude of selves, to discover what we are, what we wish to be, and our authentic relationship with the world. This proces
... See moreNo one can love you enough. Build a shelter for the flies and the wasps instead. Make houses for the rats and the owls and the bluebirds. Sit for hours in the shade and watch how these tiny citizens move, floating or drifting or scrabbling over stones, swooping or creeping in rings of shadow, rings of light. Make space inside your liquid heart for
on getting lost in the sauce of something bigger than yourself
what ingredients do you think you are putting into the collective stew of humanity?
There are two kinds of writing; alive writing and dead writing. Alive writing invokes sensuousness, expansion, and insight. It transforms and enlarges its reader. It is a kind of disclosure; simultaneously immanent and transcendent. Dead writing is passive, sentimental and afraid of telling the truth. It discloses nothing except its own performance. The sentimentality is a front rather than a risk taken. Alive writing is a process wherein you forget it's even writing. Dead writing is a product that is too self conscious for its own good. It is an outcome of not being honest with yourself. It respects neither writer nor reader, instead it presents us with a mirage, having never truly made contact with the real.
... See moreWriting has taught me to carry myself more lightly. I notice what patterns recur, I notice that I write things down and think I’ll believe them forever and I rarely do. Living lightly means: we have a long long life but it’s also really short and it’s okay to change our minds to live in the fullest, most vibrant way. I see that now we’re playing ou