Hello! It’s been a few months since sharing something here in this space. I’ve had a busy period with some performances and recordings! Now I’m back with a mini-Insightful Creative project for the next few weeks.
The book, Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman has been an incredible inspiration and resource for me recently. While the book already has short, digestible chapters, I want to summarize his wonderful ideas really as a personal project to help me remember them - I won’t discuss the state of my slipping memory!! - as well as share some reflections. I would love any discussion from any readers, too!
In the spirit of Julie & Julia, where a blog is created for a set timeframe to pour through recipes of Julia Child, here I’d like to do 28 “dailyish” posts. (Why dailyish and not daily? Well life happens, and as Oliver Burkeman talks about, life is imperfect - and I want this project to have room for imperfection!).
This book is about how “the world opens up once you realize you’re never going to sort your life out,” Burkeman says. It’s about how when one gives up “the grim-faced quest to make yourself more and more productive” it gets easier to do bold and important things. By accepting that we’ll never get around to all we need to do or that we’ll never resolve everything that needs fixing, he says, we’ll create space to do the things we want to do - the things we’re called to do.
By embracing his idea of “imperfectionism” we can see how our limitations aren’t obstacles to a meaningful existence. On the contrary, Burkeman writes. He says, “accepting them and stepping more fully into them is how you build a saner, freer, and more accomplished life.” He continues, “ When you give up the unwinnable strategy to do everything, that’s when you can start pouring your finite time and attention into a handful of things that truly count…when you no longer demand perfection from your creative work, your relationships, or anything else…that’s when you’re free to plunge energetically into them.”
There are four weeks of little gems of insight and inspiration that I’ll share here. Burkeman calls them “daily reflections/ideas to allow new thinking.”
Again, on a dailyish basis. They are meant to be daily, though I can’t promise to daily. I’ll do as daily as I can. :)
Week one: facing the facts of finitude
Week two: taking bold, imperfect action
Week three: getting out of your way and letting action happen
Week four: showing up more fully for life in the present, rather than later
…Day one, “It’s worse than you think,” coming soon!
