There's a Great Power in Not Knowing
“There’s a great power in not knowing.” ~ Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Enter November — longer nights, an hour gained (or lost?), clocks rolling back, first fires, cooler breezes, grayer skies, cozier meals, heavier blankets on the couch, baseball-free evenings. More time for reading. More time for thinking. More time for making plans, setting intentions, and doing all of the inner life work we push to the margins in the crazy hazy summertime.
This going-in season, I’m focusing on building daily creative and artistic practices ~ writing, watercolor painting, and ceramics, because these things soothe my mind and make my computer job not cause so many headaches.
But I’m no artist, at least not the kind of artist who can make something beautiful at the drop of a hat with any old medium they get their hands on. (I live with three of those kind of artists, that’s how I know they exist and that I’m not one of them. Not yet, at least.)
I want to make beautiful things like other people do, but I often need help. Mostly in the form of perspective and encouragement. So I’ve been re-reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin.
This week, these words resonated deeply for me ⤵
“We tend to believe that the more we know, the more clearly we can see the possibilities available. This is not the case.
The impossible only becomes accessible when experience has not taught us limits. . .
There’s a great power in not knowing.
When faced with a challenging task, we may tell ourselves it’s too difficult, it’s not worth the effort, it’s not the way things are done, it’s not likely to work, or it’s not likely to work for us.
If we can approach a task with ignorance, it can remove the barricade of knowledge blocking progress.
Curiously, not being aware of a challenge may be just what we need to rise to it.”
~ Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
What a relief that we don’t always have to know exactly what we’re doing. What a relief that we can try new things just because we want to.
Invest in ourselves by chasing something that gives us a zing.
Join a class knowing we may look foolish.
Try something no one we know has ever tried before.
We can figure out the riddle that is ourselves by exploring things we’re curious about but have no idea if we’ll stick with them, where they might lead, or if they’ll ever lead to anything at all (which we may have talked about deeply before in a previous message, linked here).
We don’t have to know every single thing about something before we give it a go. Not knowing can be our superpower.
I hope that encourages you the way it does me.
I hope it also encourages you to know there’s someone out here giving new things a go with her not-knowing superpower on full display ⤵
My first two ceramics projects out of the kiln, a mini vase and a wonky blueberry that won’t hold a thing (they’re tiny, because 12% shrinkage is quite a lot it turns out :)
Here’s what I’m reading this week ⤵
WHAT’S ON MY NIGHTSTAND
I’m absolutely loving Monica Wood’s memoir When We Were the Kennedys. It’s everything a book written about a person’s childhood should be, in my opinion — chock-full of rich family stories that transport the reader to the early sixties in rural Maine and make them want to stay there long after the reading lamp goes out.
WHAT’S IN MY EARBUDS
I finished Michael Crichton’s novel about the African jungle Congo this week and immediately started The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. Neither has been what I was expecting. Neither is exactly in my comfort reading zone. But I’m glad I read them both, and honestly, I highly recommend both on audio — The Berry Pickers a little more than Congo.
WHAT’S IN MY MORNING BASKET
I’m nearly through my second reading of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and it continues to be even better the second time around. It’s slow going for me, only because I’m stopping to write down a good quote or two every couple of pages, like these ⤵
“. . . it’s time. Your time to participate.”
“We can’t force greatness to happen. All we can do is invite it in and await it actively. Not anxiously, as this might scare it off. Simply in a state of continual welcoming.”
“A dedication to the practice of showing up on a regular basis is the main requirement.”
“If you’re looking for the work to support you, you may be asking too much of it. We create in service to art, not for what we can get from art.”
“If we can tune in to the idea of making things and sharing them without being attached to the outcome, the work is more likely to arrive in its truest form.”
“Impatience is an argument with reality. . . Patience is developed much like awareness. Through an acceptance of what is.”
WHAT’S ON MY WEEKEND TBR LIST
I’ve got my eye on the new Octavia Butler biography Positive Obsession, planning to get into it tomorrow morning on my long drive to pottery class (which I’m in no way complaining about because I’m loving making pottery so much it makes me want to cry most days — more later).
What about you? Read any good books lately?
I’d love to know :) Send me a message
✌🏼️💓 📚
Celeste
did AI write this? nope, this lady did ⤴ always