Goals for 2024

This week: identity, masterpieces, and a new workshop.

Hi All,

Welcome to this week's edition of The Contemplative Life.

If you are new around here these letters (I call them letters because I want them to be read like an old-school letter from a friend) are a reminder to practice and a quick way to stay informed of the various projects, essays, book updates, and workshops I am offering to those interested.

Moving forward, I am going to keep the letters shorter than previous letters so as to keep you informed in a timely fashion, yet not waste a good title.

I had planned to call this one, Identity, Masterpieces, and Gertrude Stein. I had a wonderful story I could tell about a time in my 20's while I was at music school where I had the strong impression the more I knew about musical theory the less I knew about music.

I had it all planned out. The back story, the inciting incident, but I began writing and kept bumping on format.

I had a lot to say about identity and I wanted to relate this to my education in music theory. But I was also trying to fit in with updates on how this relates to the contemplative life. And I was trying to write it with updates on my goals for 2024 (as I promised I would do in the previous letter.) And I was trying to write it so as to let you know about a new workshop. And I was trying to write and have it be philosophically insightful. And I was trying to write it with practical takeaways. And I was trying to write it as...you get the point!

The narrative arc and the philosophical insights bursting out were bumping up against word count and five other things I had to include in the weekly update. So I had a sleep, went for a walk, and had two meditation sessions before trying again. But I found myself yet again feeling desperately inadequate.

Then I realized I was trying to do two or three or ten very different things when I should have been doing just one!

One letter. One thing. So that all changes today.

This approach will help take the pressure off writing something truly insightful and unique, that is beautifully crafted, masterfully edited, and all done in a day.