What Did You Come Here to Make?

Impermanence leads to freedom.

Taste of cheese toastee 

Still in my molars. 

She texts me matter-of-fact about art. 

I say I’d like to create. 

She shrugs. 

I tell her my therapist says, “there’s unprocessed grief.”

I say I want to make art in it. 

She memento moris me: 

Asks if there’s grief I AM processing. 

“Absolutely,” I tell her, “impermanence is my incessant rumination. 

My continual creation.” 

Potato chips, anyone?

—

I’ve been meditating on impermanence.

It sounds lofty, but it’s kind of out of desperation.

General Anxiety Disorder drives me to do funny little things like this… a funny little thing like listening to a monk across the world tell me to, “Breathe in: my body; breathe out: impermanent. Breathe in: earth; breathe out: impermanent. Breathe in: governments; breathe out: impermanent.”

The monk across the world blew my mind when he said,

“Impermanence makes everything possible.

I breathe in: impermanence; I breathe out: hope.”

That word, “hope,” always rings in my ears like the singing bowl between meditation movements…

I’ve never thought about impermanence in this way…

that because everything ends, everything is possible.

That impermanence is what makes everything possible.

I’m still chewing on it.

Generally, staring at impermanence directly is what brings me freedom, but it’s the most terrifying thing. Anxiety tells me to protect myself from anything that could be a threat. Looking at impermanence, accepting grief and feeling it… that’s a threat.

Endings are threats to my human brain.

But I’m doing the work to find freedom in the endings, the decay, the compost of life. When I accept that I will not be here forever (and that no one will), I’m free to ruminate on what I want to create while I’m here rather than ruminating on how to stay here as long as possible (by predicting any threats to my being and body).  [Oh, hyper vigilance, my lifelong companion.]

“Impermanence is my incessant rumination”

But it’s shifting…

From fear

To power.

I will never ask you what you want to do with your one, beautiful, perfect life…

Damn—that pressure is suffocating.

I will ask you… what do you want to do while you’re here?

What has your spirit chosen to have a human experience for?

To make?

If a podcast is a facet of your answer to those questions… I want to work with you.

The next step on your podcasting journey is to have a discovery call with me.

In a discovery call with me you’ll get:

• Coached on using your voice to achieve your goals by a master listener and interviewer

• Some ideas from a lifelong creative and artist on how to best use the podcasting medium to meet your business/creative goals

• Some next steps for your podcasting journey and how to continue working with me

I can’t wait to collaborate with you on your wild and wonderful offering to this world.

Remember, impermanence makes everything possible: what do you want to create while you’re here? What did you come here to experience?

Be well,

Carin

PS: the monk I referenced above is Brother Bay Tich from the Guided Meditation on Impermanence available through the FREE Plum Village App.