My friends! This is a repost from one year ago. It’s always relevant! I am still a bit overwhelmed from the exhibition and the work coming out of it. Normal service will resume soon!
“I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write a poetry book that maybe, you know, 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling … What matters is to know what you want and pursue it. And understand that it’s gonna be hard. Because life is really difficult. You’re gonna lose people you love, you’re gonna suffer heartbreak, sometimes you’ll be sick, sometimes you’ll have a really bad toothache.
But on the other end, you’ll have the most beautiful experiences. Sometimes just the sky. Sometimes, you know, a piece of work that you do that feels so wonderful, or you find somebody to love, or your children. There’s beautiful things in life. So when you’re suffering … it’s part of the package.
I say, stay strong, try to have fun but stay clean, stay healthy, because you have a lot of challenges ahead, and be happy.”
Dear Patti,
I saw you play once in CBGBs. NYC, 1979 it was. A world away. I like to picture you writing your journal with a black coffee in that little cafe Downtown. And now I’m reading your book.
It’s comforting to know that sometimes, even for you, it is just the sky. Because for me today, it is just this next generation robin in the hawthorn tree. Thank you for the reminder.
Let me tell you, I too understand how navigating the contemporary commercial online world has become exhausting. Blogging is now synonymous with branding and PR, selling and advertising, profiling and customers. Shouting about yourself, your products and your successes is the new norm. All the advice says “You are not capitalising on the exposure and the opportunities.” Like the lists that cross my desktop every day “Top 10 things every blogger should know,” “How to advertise, exhibit, publicise even more.” “How to get a million, trillion, squillion hits.”
So Patti your words are welcome today. This quiet space IS my calling and my quest. It is carved from a tiny corner of a windswept island in the Atlantic. It has quiet beauty and simple rhythms.
Mostly though, it is a space to be creative, to dream and to live. And yes Patti, I know what I want and I am pursuing that. So I will be hunkering down in this backwater of calm and acceptance, to do this and to be happy.
with love and gratitude
Catherine
Dear Catherine
This post struck a chord with me and the truth that lies therein. Patti Smith is one of my heroes and now seems to be a legend in her own lifetime. I recently read ‘M Train’ and ‘Just Kids’ and it was reading these books that inspired me to keep writing my journals, something I do everyday regardless of how menial the contents may seem to me.
Yes, blogging has changed over the years, not for the better – and people seem to be slipping away – people I have read for years suddenly disappear without a word of goodbye – over to Instagram or somesuch new social media. The blogging community is gradually disintegrating, which is such a shame but hey I suppose you can’t stop progress or change.
I keep plodding on with my own blog regardless – I feel it is a good discipline to sit down and put my thoughts together once a week and try to express what I am seeing and feeling and showing those who do still stop by just what a wonderful world we live in.
I am glad you have kept on blogging too – the blogging world would be a lesser place without you.
Kind regards
Elaine
Elaine, it was great to find you here today!! We are indeed survivors of a lost time!!! I think you have hit the nail on the head about discipline. I find exactly the same and I never fail to get one post out per week!! It has built my confidence and skills in so many ways. Let’s keep going!! x
Please don’t give up. I was ‘chatting’ to a robin in my garden yesterday while raking up endless autumn leaves! A chore but so therapeutic in amongst all the colours & achievable because I still have the strength & will power to get outdoors when truth be know I would rather be reading a book in front of the fire. Just go with the flow & see where it ends. Life is too short.
No intention of giving up Susan!!! And thanks for your lovely image of life amongst the autumn leaves. What could be better? The sky, the little robins and the beauty of autumn! Sure that’s more than enough for both of us. Live life!!! xx
Lovely sentiments, Catherine. Adore the photos, as always.
Jean, you never know where you are going to find inspiration. Delving deeper into her writing I find that she is one of that tribe of ripening women that we can really be inspired by again and again. And you my dear are another one. Really appreciate your words today x
Thanks so much. jx
I hear you loud and clear, Catherine…I decided long ago to ignore the noise of the Internet and the push pull from the pundits in regard to my own writing, my photos etc… I haven’t published, may never do it, but I am content now in later life to find my own quiet pathway to peace, to a degree of freedom to follow my dreamimg, and I am constantly inspired by the glorious moments of sunrises and sunsets on the pristine beaches where I now live…I feel so privileged to soak in all the beauty – the dynamism of our tropical skies, the energy of the ocean….the changing restless and sometimes dramatic rhythms of the natural world here…
Yes, we must take in the joys, the beauty where we can find them, as life is challenging and sometimes desperately unfair and sad…tragic ! But as Maya Angelo says, “…still I rise! “. How lucky we are with such fabulous and wise women.
And Patti Smith is one of them, an incredible woman, a treasure! Thankyou for sharing this with us…Lots to ponder, and enjoy, as always…❤️❤️❤️
Hi Barbara. The tribe of wise women is certainly strong this morning! How lucky we are indeed. In spite of the challenges isn’t it wonderful to be reminded of the small and precious everyday sweet spots? Your pristine beaches are a tonic too. I will never ever forget the beauty of OZ and how moved I was by it. Somehow it was unexpected? Sydney Harbour brought me to tears! Maybe it was thinking about my son living there? Or the thousands from Ireland who also love it. Anyway lucky you, lap it up, every day xxxx
Catherine, this post brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. I’ve been feeling the same thing so much lately. Why bother? I think. But this morning I wrote a blog post to come out of hiding, to battle hopelessness, to get back to creating for the sake of creating. I’m out of practice and not thrilled with what I posted but it’s a start. I so appreciate Patti’s and your words today. Thank you for the sweet reminder that showing up and writing and capturing images is something to do because of the simple enjoyment of doing so.
This is beautiful – the sentiment, the writing, the imagery.
O that’s lovely to hear. Thank you so much for being here today x
Patti’s words are awesome but yours touched me in a more personal way, they helped me understand why I have not been tending to my blog lately … seems so much has changed with all you stated, the branding and shouting about yourself which will never be what I want to do. I remember our Vision & Verb days so warmly and how we connected, shared, supported and got to know each other in a quiet, gentle way.
Thanks for still being here, for being in your calm, tiny corner and taking your delightful photos and for putting your heart out there in the world.
xo
It’s a funny one, and it is much harder to navigate, but I love that we are still here, still doing it in our own way and for our own reasons. Those days of Vision and Verb were a foundation of relationships that have lasted in that “quiet gentle way.” I won’t be giving up or anything but sometimes it is difficult to see the purpose…..? But then old Patti came across my desk and reminded me. Love our connection Susan x
This is beautiful, as others have already said. And it’s worth saying again, because so many of us are tired and need to remember there is so much beauty in the world if we just pay attention. I try to find that little corner of beauty every day. Today it was coffee with my son and the sun was shining on Minneapolis on an unusually warm November morning.
Hi Kathleen. Yes let’s take it where ever we find it. Today for me too, there is sharp November sun and I am lapping it up!! x
I do see the faces that have slipped away from blogging.
But I also see familiar faces still blogging.
And what encourages me is the steady stream of – just started my blog today.
For some of us, a blog is a piece of who we are.
I agree Diana, it’s a wonderful expressive art in a way. Let’s hold onto that freshness and that fun we always had! Keep on keepin on…..x
I really needed to read this today. Thank you for sharing. Your words and pictures are just beautiful and a wonderful inspiration.
blessings
~*~
It seems so many of us are feeling the same way. Thank you so much for saying that Laura. It means a lot :~)
Thank you Catherine. Not only do your images touch my heart, peaceful and discrete marvels, bur your words and her words are precious, and so conforting in moments of doubt. And your beautiful space is for us to remember that beauty, quietness, patience and gentleness still have their word. Thank you.
Amelie, I always feel we are on this path together. You write so beautifully though…… Thank you, I so appreciate every wonderful word…..xxxx
Thank you Catherine for such open and heartfelt sharing in this piece … Just the kind of sentiment I needed to connect into this morning. A friend emailed me link to your piece for which I am so grateful . You like Patti have given voice to the ordinary in an extraordinary way.. So beautiful . And yes nature is the ultimate healer. Go gently. Loretta
Hi Loretta, lovely to find you here this morning. Thank you so much and to your friend of course. Nature just settles us somehow doesn’t it? Like today the cool November breeze and the warm sun impossible to ignore……
Gosh so much here in this little posting and in all the wonderful comments! Patti did the same exact thing for me a couple of years ago when I read both of her books. I started blogging eight years ago just for me, but then somehow it started feeling as if I should please others. I had to come back to my original thinking as to why I started blogging in the first place. Now I blog when I want, how I want and have tossed aside all those “build your exposure” crap that comes my way. So liberating!
On a side note I got to meet Patti at one of her book signings in NYC for M Train. Just as lovely in person…
So here’s to our little spaces where we “create, live and dream…”
It has been extraordinary how much the whole online world has become boringly commercialised. Delighted so many of us are dancing along in our own way. I remember you wrote about Patti alright, and I think that’s what brought me back to her and her writing. I couldn’t but think of you in NYC and everywhere else too, shining your light and living your dream xxxxx