Leave it to Leonor #414

This week, I’m thinking about rules. After reading Shira Erlichman’s newsletter about having “5 Rules” and immediately thought about how I wanted to ask my friends and family for their own on topics in which I consider them experts )aka things I ask them about all the time) I asked a lot of people for their rules and these are some of the replies. My friends are geniuses. I love them all so much. I may have to make this a regular series.

Kate Quarfordt on art:

Trust longings. Amplify inklings. Follow the tiny tugs in your peripheral vision. Give yourself over to them fully, as if they were a really big deal. They are. 

Keep secrets. Art can be authentic without spilling every drop of your personal tea. Preserving mystery is not antithetical to honesty. Emily Dickinson gets it: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”

Don’t hoard. Clean out closets. Share ideas. Collaborate. Host generously. Get credited and paid when you can—in fact, fight like hell for that—but do it so you have more capacity to give. 

Phase shift. Make art one season at a time—not necessarily calendar-wise: vibes-wise. Spring is for planting (inspiration), summer is for tending (work), fall is for harvest (sharing), and winter is for resting (reflection.) Know where you are in the cycle. Don’t work in two seasons at once. 

Name thresholds. That existentially painful, overwhelming, disorienting moment when labor gives way to actually pushing the baby out? You think you’re dying. You’re not. There’s a name for it. It’s called “transition.” 

Amanda Saviñón on starting something new*: