Consider this : Turn a deaf ear to those who say the path of art is hard. Doing something you don’t love is a much harder path.
Dear Emma,? 1. Never forget the joy you first felt when you discovered art. 2. Find a few people who believe wholly in you and protect these relationships with all your might. 3. Don’t ask everyone you know for feedback. Creativity is subjective, and your art will find …
Consider this : may your regrets be from loving too much instead of not enough
Dear Emma, The only advice I can give you is this: do not be afraid to love. Open your heart wide. Throw back the curtains. Let the sun in. Prop the front door open, make a pitcher of lemonade, invite the world in, and have a fabulous party! You never …
Consider this : be loud and fierce and wild
I want you to use your voice. I want you to yell and scream and run and jump and use every bit of energy you have to race around the block, banging on drums and cymbals, car hoods and trunks, neighbors’ doors, the bells on bikes, tree stumps, and trashcans. …
Consider this : tell them what you really do.
Dear Emma, I hate to break this news to you, but you have maybe another four years before you get asked the proverbial “adult” question. It’s the question people will ask when they want to make some kind of sense about who you are before you even have a …
Consider this : be a failed artist
Go broke, get lost, run out of gas, lose your job, watch your beautiful plan go down the drain… Jams arched an eyebrow. “Izzat supposed to make you a better person? Like zen or…just busted. Bobby McGee, as in.” No. No, man, I don’t think I am any better a …
thinking thursday.
(photo by Kelley Ann Kelley) Another 16-year-old was killed in Asheville this week because she was answering a text message and crossed the center line, hitting a truck. And a young girl walking along a street was killed when a driver texted this message: "Do we have enough cheese for …
Consider this : you are already who you are going to be
One springtime afternoon, when my son was in 7th grade, the guidance counselors visited his 6th period class. He was not at all prepared for what they asked him to do. He came home very sullen and with a backpack full of career choices. There were at least four different …
Consider this : take the long look
Now that you’re entering a world in which your time and attention will be divided into a million quick glances a day just to make sure you’re not missing anything, I want to remind you to take the long look as often as you can. This is a little like …
poetry wednesday : I was picked up and chewed and swallowed
Sentimental Education And when we were eight, or nine, our father took us back into the Alabama woods, found a rotten log, and with his hunting knife pried off a slab of bark to show the hundred kinds of bugs and grubs that we would have to eat in a …
Consider this : be honest with your heart
These are the things I wish somebody had told me when I was 18: * You have immense strength. Trust it. * We are all born with instincts. We all learn impulses. Learn to distinguish the difference between them. Trust your instincts. Be more cautious with impulses. * Pain, trial …
