Longing = a yearning desire.
“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.”
– George Eliot
Art by Aleksandr Golovin.
Grasp = a firm hold or grip.
“The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project.”
― Simone de Beauvoir
My “situation” has a penchant for grasping more and more of the world in different and divergent sporting circumstances; cycling, skating, skiing… Sketching over one’s limits melts the stresses of fitting an imperfect representation of perfect living.
Art by Evyn Fong.
Dread = great fear or apprehension.
…I find nothing fantastic in so-called fantastic art, it is an aspect of reality in search of sanity beyond the normal bounds. I believe that fantastic art is related to the protective dream, that it prolongs the healing dream and finds symbols that change dread into wonder, strangeness and beauty. – Thomas Häfner
After a pack of dogs jumped at my bike wheels, I developed a “protective dream”. The dogs in the tall dream protected me of the dogs in the tall grass.
Art by Kinuko Y Craft.
Mistake = an act or judgement that is misguided or wrong.
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.” – Neil Gaiman
Art by Gertrude Alice Kay.
Hurdle = one of a series of upright frames over which athletes in a race must jump; a problem or difficulty that must be overcome.
“Love is a tenacious adventure… Real love is one that triumphs lastingly, sometimes painfully, over the hurdles erected by time, space and the world.” – Alain Badiou
Art by Andrea Kowch.
Brevity = concise and exact use of words in writing or speech.
But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy.
–Herman Hesse
Art by Pod Drzewem Serce.
Forge = make or shape (a metal object) by heating it in a fire or furnace and hammering it; create (something) strong, enduring, or successful.
“Witchcraft is a poetic reality – born from the dragonflies that took shape in the sparks of the first blacksmith’s hammer – as He forged Beauty in the cave of Wisdom.”
Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold, The Nocturnal Gospel
Art by Paul Gustave Doré.
Calcification = abnormal deposition of calcium salts within soft tissue often causing thickening or hardening.
“Keep awake, alive, new. Perform the paradox of being hard and yet soft. Survive without calcification of the tender membranes. Be a poet. Be alive.”
–Tennessee Williams
Art by Tsuchiya Koitsu.
Steward = someone who looks after something and protects it.
“Tell the whole truth. Don’t be lazy, don’t be afraid. Close the critic out when you are drafting something new. Take chances in the interest of clarity of emotion.
Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.”
–Jane Kenyon
Art by Eugene Lushpin.
Marsh = an area of low-lying land which is flooded in wet seasons or at high tide, and typically remains waterlogged at all times.
“You’re a fire person. What you’re most like is marsh-fire; (…) you got witch-oil in your soul.”
– Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
Art by Michael Cheval.
