What gave her strength then? We cannot know for sure. That contrary thing inside her? The hard stone of rage that all lonely girls possess? - Leigh Bardugo, THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS 💬📚

Easy magic is pretty. Great magic asks that you trouble the waters. It requires a disruption, something new.Leigh Bardugo, THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS

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💬 “We are being asked to no longer abandon ourselves, to embrace and make space for all parts of ourselves to come alive and be honored.” Lindsay Mack’s Monthly Medicine for January 2022

💬 “North Americans practice embalming, but we do not believe in embalming.” Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty 📚

📚💬 “Never send a scholar who studies dystopias to a conference with futuristic themes.” Kelly J. Baker, SEXISM ED

💬 “… fulfilling my potential would really cut into my sitting around time.” Maria Bamford, THE BURNING BRIDGES TOUR

💬📚 “Anger is not the action itself. It is action’s invitation.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

💬📚🎭 “Ideas don’t get opening nights. Finished plays do.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

💬📚 “…anger is a map… Anger points the way, not just the finger.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

💬 “we are conditioned as academics (and also just people in 2021!) to sacrifice long term stability for short term productivity.” From Katy Peplin’s newsletter. I highly recommend subscribing.

💬📚 “If I’m expected to be a kin keeper, no one can judge my coffee consumption.” Kelly J. Baker, Sexism Ed ☕

💬📚 “…if we can become one-tenth as good at positive self-talk as we are at negative self-talk, we will notice an enormous change.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY.

💬📚 “It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

💬📚 “Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

💬📚 “Creativity is play, but for shadow artists, learning to allow themselves to play is hard work.” Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY

“The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” C. G. Jung, quoted by Julia Cameron in the Artist’s Way. 💬📚

📚💬 “If this is your first draft, stop worrying.” - Leigh Bardugo in her latest newsletter

📚💬 “When academic women, experts in their fields, are seen as not credible, then can women ever be?” Kelly J. Baker, SEXISM ED, “Academic Men Explain Things to Me,” p. 55.

📚💬 “My Ph.D. cannot trump my gender.” Kelly J. Baker, SEXISM ED, “Academic Men Explain Things to Me,” p. 52.

“She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray 📚💬

“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them…” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray 📚💬

🔖💬 Parents Are Not Okay:

Through these grinding 18 months, we’ve managed our kids’ lives as best we could while abandoning our own.

there is no separation between mother and writer, nor can I tease apart the time I spend tending to my child from the time I spend thinking about my writing, or actually doing it.

Finding Literary Spaces Amid the Intensity of New Motherhood 🔖📚💬

Don’t think of fantasy as mere entertainment, then, but as a way to train for reality. It always has been, after all.

💬🔖 “What did I learn today about how to live this life?” This question applies to a lot more than writing.

Catapult | On Writing (with a Day Job) | Richard Mirabella catapult.co