Dear young creators,
The two questions that I am most frequently asked by young creative people are:
Where do your ideas come from?
and
How do you retain your sense of self while making works in collaboration with others?
Ideas come to me when I am not seeking ideas.
They come to me later, when I am being fully present in the current moment.
They arise when I am being fully alive to the continuation between myself and the planet.
They surface when I’m feeling the wonder of gravity and my continuity with all who are drawn by her.
As one of the monks at the monastery of Thich Nhat Hanh in southwest France told me: “Maybe the universe invented you so she could see herself through your consciousness.”
And, in a collaboration, I recognise that my self is continuous with my collaborators and everything around them. As Jorge Luis Borges said, “I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”
Lastly, if you remember only one thing on these pages, please let it be the words of the author and farmer Leah Penniman: “The earth is madly in love with you, it’s time to participate in the romance.”