A Letter from the Editor
By Betsy Podsiadlo | 12/1/23
Time, time, time. See what’s become of me,
while I looked around for my possibilities.
~ Simon & Garfunkel
Dear artists,
December is upon us and with it, the austere reminder that we are not infallible creatures. The shorter, colder days cause us to move slower and slower. Jokes are traded between coworkers about how their post-work free time has become almost entirely dedicated to sleeping. The birds migrate south, the insects seemingly disappear, and the bears plod their heavy paws back to a warm den to begin hibernation.
Naturally, or un-naturally, as it were, this decline in speed does not affect the bustling world of artmaking under capitalism. December is a peak season for artisans and performers alike as many of the world’s population celebrates major holidays. January is not much better as large industry conferences and performing arts festivals are held in the shivering cold of the Northern Hemisphere. The work doesn’t seem to let up, but the will to push through it certainly has its moments…
This past month, November, has been incredibly stressful and difficult for me personally. It feels like each week has offered a new exhausting challenge of every variety. I’ve always found it helpful to reframe these situations by trying to locate the lesson or gaining some further understanding about life and the world around me. But that doesn’t always make it suck less.
As the year winds down and my workload winds up, I’m trying to remind myself of what’s truly important while continuing to reflect.
These are reminders I’ve been needing, maybe you need them too:
Your health is what sustains you. Visible success will not.
Winter is the natural time of rest, fighting against it is futile. Make time for rest.
Overloading your schedule with projects is not equivalent to living a full and creative life.
These are some questions I’m reflecting on for the winter season, maybe you’d like to reflect on them too:
What does my desired full and creative life really look like and how does it feel?
When the intensity of the seasons of my career and creative life diverge from the seasons of the natural world, how can I create space to manage this and take steps to take care of myself?
The calendar year is ending, I am a different person than I was at this time last year. What has changed in me and my life? What is in the process of changing?
This year I was lucky enough to attend two live performances of one of my favorite bands, Lucius. Hearing them live was a true treat in so many ways, but I think hearing the lyrics to one of their most recognizable power ballads in a live setting instilled their message in me more than blaring it through my headphones.
“It’s all a manual that we’ve been writing, a future instructional guide.
If we skip ahead to our pre-fulfilled dreams we’ll be lost without our own advice.”
~ Lucius, “Dusty Trails”
I bring this up as I end my reflection with you today because, for me, these particular lyrics have called me back to the present. I spend a lot of my inner-world time dreaming about the future, conjuring up projects that will excite me, or getting lost in the daze of imagining what life will be like after I hit a particular milestone. Looking to the future is helpful––having vision for what you desire and resolve to fill your life with things that will help you get there is not a skill I take for granted. But, as Lucius so cleverly reminds me, even if we could skip through the winters of our lives––past the gray skies and wind chill, right over the seasonal affective disorder and long dim evenings landing into the part of lives we have been dreaming about for all this time––we will have missed the lessons taught to us in the darkest winter night. Those lessons, the ones learned when hope seemed like a long-forgotten friend, galvanize us to live within the dreams we have for ourselves once they’re finally in reach.
May you have a restful winter season and a happy new year!
- Betsy Podsiadlo, Creative Director