The creative process

Hello!

I love the creative process. I love not knowing how things are going to unfold, and just trusting in life to guide me and move me to the right place.

Our lease is up at the end of the year, and we don't know where we'll move next. We've thought of moving to California, most likely west of LA near Malibu, but we've also considered Williamsburg or not having a place for a while and driving around California or traveling the world. I don't know what we'll do, and it'll be exciting to see where it ends up.

I also want to create a hotel/resort in California, on the coast, up in the mountains, overlooking the ocean, where we'll have a pool, restaurant, event space, music recording studio, and which we'll use as the basis for creating software for the hospitality industry that's better and easier than anything out there. Maybe we get started on that, and we'll just live at that place? Nah, probably can't get that going in time. But it's an idea.

I love throwing ideas up in the air. Maybe they stick, maybe they don't. Maybe they're practical, maybe they're not. I'm not committed to anything, I'm just looking for the path that feels the most juicy, flowing, easy. It may require me to stretch and grow and experience fear, that's fine. But I don't believe in anything that feels like struggle. If we're struggling, something needs to change. Life's a game. Let's have fun with it.

That's what the creative process is like for me. I have a very clear vision, but I'm not attached to it, and I'm certainly not attached to any timing around it. It'll happen when it's time, or maybe it'll never happen, and that's okay, too.

I encourage you to look at life the same way. All of life is creative. We're constantly creating every aspect of our lives, day by day, moment by moment. Have a vision, but don't be attached. Allow life to unfold in mysterious ways. The best experiences are always unplanned. They just happen.

Then, of course, we enjoy them so much we want to have them again, and that's when the trouble starts. We try to figure out how they happened, and manufacture them, but it never turns out quite as well. And then we just try harder.

Even worse, while we're having this magical, unplanned experience, we're busy worrying about when it'll end, and if we'll ever be able to make it happen again, that we're not really enjoying it in the moment.

The biggest scam perpetrated in our society is the constant living for the future. Some day in the future, I'm going to be educated, have a job, be successful with my business, find a lover, have kids, make more money, retire, and on and on and on. We never actually enjoy the present. We're so busy preparing for a future, but once the future arrives, we're not even there, we're busy preparing for a new future.

Just let it all go. Be in the moment. Sure, you can do work that builds towards a future, just remember, if you're not enjoying it in the moment, you're betraying yourself. 

Calvin's Random Links from around the Interwebs

Why you should never eat food on planes. Apparently your digestion shuts down completely. That makes sense. I always feel both hungry and bloated when I come off an airplane, and I've eaten. I think I'll start practicing this right away. I'm flying to Copenhagen this Sunday.

It all fits together now. Dave Winer summarizes the Trump story. Don't know if it's true, but it sure makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Fontgate is fantastic: The font used to forge a document wasn't released until after the document was purportedly written. 

With love,
–Calvin