Guys,
I woke up hella early by chance this morning…Then I made the critical error of checking my phone. ><
I saw I’d missed a Slack message - and then I completely succumbed to the stupid glowing brick in my hand. I responded, and then I was so annoyed with myself for breaking my own rule of not checking my phone in the middle of the night that there was nothing to do except go to the gym to burn off all my angries.
Yeah, the day hasn’t started off great.
But then something happened. I got inspired by 3 things, in quick succession.
Stephen Klein - He’s the found of a company called Curiouser.AI. He regularly posts about the need for accountability in the AI space - which is doubly impressive to me because he simultaneously is running an AI software company. THIS is what the world needs - people actively developing in this space who aren’t afraid to speak truth to power and won’t kiss up to all the bigwigs just for networking’s sake. He’s not the only one. More and more people are speaking up.
Ly Nguyen - Chief Creative Officer of Movement. She’d written this incredibly raw post about how her race to the top of the ladder had fueled a 6-month life crisis. About how the industry likes to tell us there’s only one way to be creative. She said everything that was in my heart - everything that I felt, everything that had moved ME to make this newsletter in the first place, and way more eloquently than I feel I’ve ever been able to say it. I felt like weeping from the relief of knowing that I wasn’t alone. Seriously read this post, you guys.
My beat up, flower-less orchid. Why TF am I inspired by an orchid? Well, I’m kind of a plant murderer. I’ve (accidentally) killed every single plant I’ve ever had, except this orchid, which for some unknown reason has held on for over a year (tragically its sibling didn’t make it). I never asked for this plant - a teacher gave it to me for free following a orchid-watercolor-painting-class I’d taken. Over the months, the flowers fell off, it lost leaves and stems. But it somehow clung to a couple of green shoots despite the thorough amount of neglect I’ve given it. This weekend, I realized that for whatever reason, this little guy actually liked being around me, and it was time I started making its life a bit easier. I got the plant a bigger pot and replanted it with some new soil so it would have nutrients and more space to grow. I don’t know what I’m doing, but this plant is special and I don’t care if it never makes pretty flowers again - I’m going to take care of it. Something about the act of gently caring for this weathered, unpretty thing - it’s healing me. We all deserve gentle care - especially in our most weathered and unpretty state.
You never know how close a person might be to giving up on everything and chucking it all in the trash. I’ve been playing jump-rope with that line all year. So I immediately reached out with small notes of gratitude to the people I mentioned above.
Just in case you needed to hear it today, your existence is incredibly important to the world. You are worthwhile. You are loved.
Be Well, be Fierce, and be Weird.
