Ursula

The intersecting catastrophes unspooling all around us don’t offer an escape from reality, but an intensification of it. So we have a choice: (1) Accept this reality. Accept the full toxic soup of conditions we’ve put ourselves in, as well as the thick, messy, profoundly human dramas playing out amidst it. And awaken to the burdens — of grief,

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For fifteen minutes I did not turn away. I wanted to see why I didn’t look. And as I refused to turn away, refused to wear a mask, every reason I had ever avoided people’s gaze surfaced: fear.

Memories emerged. As a teen with braces and acne, I feared looking into someone’s eyes and seeing them see the “imperfection” of my face. As I grew older and... See more

Every time we allow ourselves and our communities to grieve — for a person, for a season, for a movement, for a dream — we are practicing a politics that refuses disposability. We are rejecting the idea that we can just move on without consequence.

I thought the key to his great work was an obsessive attachment to his identity as an artist. Rather, it was the ability to be fully present and inspired.

I use Georgia O’Keeffe as an example of seasonality, that her productivity as an artist didn’t really pick up until she began saying, “You know what? In the summers, I’m going with Alfred Stieglitz, we’re going to Lake George and I’m going to sit there in a shanty,” she called it the shanty, it was an outbuilding near the lake, “I’m just going to... See more

When you have chronic illness, life is reduced to a relentless rationing of energy. It costs you to do anything: to get out of bed, to cook for yourself, to get dressed, to answer an email. For those without chronic illness, you can spend and spend without consequence: the cost is not a problem. For those of us with limited funds, we have to... See more

What if instead of sitting at your desk for so many hours you exercised and sought inspiration and lived life and rested and then you came back to your desk the next day rested and focused and unblocked and created your best work in less time because you were healthy and happy and because you finished great work in less time you could repeat it all... See more