Living as a Process, Creating Like Nobody Owes You
Giving, being at home and owning the process...
Welcome to the Monday Thicket! This is a weekly collection of ideological stones, feathers, and bits of fluff gathered from my wanderings.
Each week, we venture into the tangled undergrowth of nature, art, philosophy, and our ever-shifting world, searching for insights worth carrying home. Think of this as a shared foraging expedition where I’ve done the pathfinding, and you get to discover what treasures might be worth adding to your collection.
Just under two weeks since I drove away from home. One week of deep nature immersion and skill-deepening in the bush and one week of sheltering from torrential rain. I’m preparing for another week back in the bush this week.
The air feels clear here. Crisper. The birds more confident and at-home. The skies are a charismatic, chaotic swirl. Changeable within the hour.
And the bush is dense. The earth is thick and rich like chocolate cake. Foods aplenty. Enrivered with creeks and streams.
I’m learning to find home not in my routine, couch or things, but in the landscape.
Processual Biology: You Aren’t a Being, You’re a Process
This piece links so beautifully to my essay last Friday, Made to burn: why I’m giving my art to the fire. It speaks about the fact that we are never stagnant or stationary. Not matter what phase of life we’re in, we’re constantly changing. Like a river, you never see the same one twice.
This has similarly been raised in my recent teachings about Taoism. Our bodies are constantly responding to external (our environment & relationships with others) and internal (emotional and spiritual) stimuli. And therefore, our being is inherently unique to the time, place, state we’re in. We’re a process.
Nobody owes you anything! Create accordingly.
On creating within mutualism, where all parties benefit.
As someone who has gone down the road of content creation across many platforms, it’s important to check-in with my ‘why’ for it all now and then. I started with good intentions and continue with them, but it’s so easy to get caught up in the metrics and optimisation. Whilst validation feeds me, I can also be starved of it.
But Natalie’s framing in this piece is so important. It doesn’t attack the desire to create or connect through content, it merely asks us to go deeper into the ‘why’. They encourage us to honour the gifts we’re giving by allowing others to give in return, rather than expecting something in our traditionally transactional ways.
Lots to ponder on here for me. It’s sprouted a few idea for how I can deepen the community values of ConserVentures and allow people to give, rather than prioritising a transaction of money for experience.
Alright, that’s all for this week.
See you on the other side,
Jada