How do we live well on an unpredictable creative journey?
Or: Is creativity born only through struggle?
Living the Questions is for writers and creatives who are in the long middle: neither beginners, nor masters, but somewhere in between. It begins with a question I’m facing in the process of making meaningful work, dealing with obstacles, and trying to live the best possible life alongside an unpredictable creative journey.
It’s called Living the Questions because, in his infamous letters to a young poet, Rilke advised:
Have patience with everything that has not been resolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms for which you lack the key, and books written in a completely foreign tongue. Do not search for answers that cannot be given to you now because you could not live them. And it is a matter of living everything. Live the questions now.
When he reaches out to Rilke, the young Mr Kappus is concerned initially with his talent and capacity as a poet. But he continues asking for advice, because he’s worried about how the process of creation is impacting his life.
The pervasive narrative around creativity has branded it a struggle through darkness, madness, procrastination, pain, etc. How can we expect anyone to create in a sustained way, over the course of a whole lifetime, if that process - if the practice itself - is always rooted in struggle? Is there no other way?
I believe there is. This newsletter is an experiment in creating a beautiful life through creating beauty.
So if you’re drawn to slow thinking, honest reflection, and a quieter kind of creative practice, this is a place for you. I invite you to come and live the questions with me.
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