197. ...dumping his barrel of apples.

(morning thinking)

I'm by the window re-reading my underlines and scribbled marginalia in Rick Rubin’s Creative Act while the sun gets about it’s morning climb into the sky. At some point at the end of last month I'd drawn brackets around 'Living in discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumptions.'

Sometimes when I return to the notes and highlighted sections that seemed important on the first pass, I struggle to remember what had caught my attention. In this case I agree with my former self - attempt to reject the axiomatic, try to live as though seeing everything for the first time without bias or preconceived ideas. IS good.

Wonder. I wonder. Sat here by the window watching a spring fresh sunrise slow gloop it’s orangey light over the horizon “discovery” manifests as elemental, cosmic.

This could be why a regular practice of watching the day wake feels so right. So valuable. Creation and beginnings, as fundamental to existence as endings. Birth. Entropy.

Daily awe. Daily acceptance. Sunrise can happen in a beautiful explosion of colour or behind a flat grey veil but neither is necessarily a sound prediction of how the following hours will unfold. It wouldn’t do to plan the rest of the day based on what happens right now. At least in Scotland. We’ve a good chance of seeing all four seasons by lunch time.

Rubin leads my morning mind Descartes, dumping his barrel of apples, inspecting each one for rot, searching for certainty. Or Socrates, unsatisfied with assumptions, peeling back layers of pretense with relentless questioning.

Watching the sunrise won't change the day’s weather. Accept things as they are, not as we might wish them to be.

Or be more Buddha?

Gentle, open minded presence, less examination. Not testing for truth or untruth but choosing to simply watch and accept.

The sunrise is the perfect practice for this. You’re never quite sure what you’ll get as the darkness lifts. Spectacular streaks of orange and gold, or a pale monochrome wash…

Each morning is unique, untouched by, and often confounding, yesterday’s expectations. It’s not about predicting or controlling the day, it’s about being present for the moment, however it arrives.

Pure reset, unfiltered discovery. Beauty in authenticity, whether breathtaking or bleak is all real. Sunrise teaches us to accept and appreciate reality as it is, rather than as we expect or want it to be.

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Thanks for reading.

I’ve been thumbing through the Rubin book before I put it on the shelf. I try to make time, when I finish a book, to look back through at the ways I've interacted with the pages and words. Folded corners, underlines, notes, exclamations of agreement, questions, refutations. “WTF?”

I’ve been reading books about creativity and the creative act, attempting to make sense of myself as an artist.

Some kind of artist.

My kind of artist.

The artist I am.

Yeah, thanks for reading.

See you next time aye?

Paul.

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Cheers now. Mind how you go.