🧬 aren't we supposed to change?

It's in our DNA.

May 24, 2024

Enjoying classical music in a garden earlier this week

Hey friends! The internet is a funny place so just wanted to say hi. I’m also just a girl… sitting here in front of a screen, asking you to read this newsletter… (Name that film, heh)

I’ve always believed that life is just a series of losing and finding yourself.

And there’s nothing wrong with being lost.

It’s just the circle of life, I suppose.

Noodling on this, I was reading poetry (yes, I have entered that phase of life where I read poetry in the corner of a bar in the afternoon) and came across this definition:

Ouroboros — a circular symbol depicting a snake biting, swallowing, or eating its tail, as an emblem of cyclic nature of the universe: creation out of destruction.

That last part really hit me — creation out of destruction.

There are a lot of reasons to create.

Maybe it’s for innovation.

Maybe it’s for competition.

But maybe it’s from destruction — when everything seems to have shattered, broken, and crumbled to bits. When you feel a little, or a lot, lost.

Have you been there before?

😏

Me too.

And… what have you created from that place? What are you creating?

I’d also like to propose that creation from destruction is the most powerful because you’ve/they’ve/we’ve lost it all.

We are forced to build anew.

The process of creation is a process of evolution.

I am a big fan of evolution. For myself and for humankind.

Evolution, to me, is a series of peeling back the layers you’ve put on. Maybe you even add a few.

Maybe you shed the ones you were born into or the ones that were thrust upon you. Cough cough, #societalnorms and #thepatriarchy.

You can think of me as Shrek from here on out. 🫡

So, losing and finding yourself isn’t a bad thing. It’s just the process of evolution. When you find yourself again, you’re finding a new you and integrating her with the old you.

I wrote the other week about friendship. And to me, a good friend expects you to to change. They celebrate your change. They get curious about the evolved you.

We shouldn’t shy away from change — within ourselves or others. We should get curious about it because it means evolution is in process.

I think this quote from Lessons in Chemistry perfectly sums it up:

“Courage is the root of change —

and change is what we’re chemically designed to do.”

All to say — if you’re in the destruction phase, keep goin’.

Creation, and thus, change, is just on the other side.

🎨 Remember when I told ya I was hosting a Creative Mornings Virtual Field Trip?! Well it’s live! Join me on Thursday, June 27th for Creativity for Perfectionists. It’s free and all are welcome!
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📚 Might be late to the party, but I just finished Lessons in Chemistry (per the above quote!) and I really loved it. Would recommend if you’re looking for some summertime reading.
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