I'm doing my best to keep this brief. You've suffered enough through of my insufferability regarding Inktober. Believe me, every part of me is good and over it too. October is over, November is here. Time to put all this behind us until next year or until the world ends.
Day 29 - "Massive"
"Never underestimate the big importance of small things", Matt Haig says. Because there are only small things. Below the surface tension of anything substantial, anything formidable, is a teeming coalition of small things. Small things coming together to form something unfathomable. Something unfathomably larger than themselves. Anything giant or grand, anything massive in scale, stands supported by the dance of particles swaying in unison.
Day 30 - "Rush"
We experience time as a loss. A seemingly intrinsic lack. Something we are pressed for. Racing against. Something always running out.
We experience time as ache and energy. Heat and opposition. The friction of it vanishing. The sense of it rushing by. But nothing hinders the flow.
Everything is made of time.
When reality is unacceptable, when acceptance seems impossible, begin with the acceptance that reality is something in flux. That it is something always changing. Something always changeable. That it can, and will, be other than it is. It twists and turns. Dips and curves. Alters and sways. “This too shall pass” is the only absolute. The only stable thing.
Day 31 - "Fire"
This the part of the challenge when my profundity runs out. When even my attempts at it or towards it fall flat. It's taken everything to make it this far. There's nothing clever to add to this one. It's the only object with a fire connection that came to mind. And, maybe the only one that conveys my every wish for Inktober to be done. And so it ends.
One of my few strengths of personality is my ability to be realistic, to be a skeptic, to be sensible. Especially when it comes to planning, when it comes to conceiving of what is achievable. That skill set must have been absent when the council in my head took a vote and said that Inktober was good idea, that it was something doable. There's a kind of out of body experience that happens in the moment you discover that you are more wrong than you have ever been. When you come to in the middle of something difficult and think to yourself “where the fuck have you been?” This was harder than expected, and the first week wasn't over before the regret set in. As sad to say as it is, the endeavor wreaked havoc on my mental health. And yet, despite it all, we did it. We made it to the end. Thanks everyone who helped get me there, you're all incredible:
There's no promise that you'll see me do it again next year, but there is a promise that I'll cheering you on if you do.
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I loved following your amazing creations this month! Thank you so much for sharing them!
I think I like the idea of the world ending before I do Inktober again 😉
Loved the Haig quote. It is the little bits of everything that make up the larger ‘everything’. That make it so so special. On the other hand, the tiniest of details can also make a shitstorm of something that could be good.
‘Reality is something in flux’ Yes! Good says bad days - things can always get better, but things can also get worse. Change is the only thing stable in our lives.
We did do it! Just finishing is something good - something to celebrate; however, a reflection allows us to take account of the impact this challenge has taken on our lives, our mental health, how it buried itself so deep into our routines that it has been hard to come back from it.
Thank you for being a source of inspiration, for collaborating with me and for cheering us all on.