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Claude Monet in His Garden at Giverny,  Unknown Photographer, 1921

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I am sitting on my bed. A storm is coming, appropriately. A storm is always appropriate.

Franz Kafka, from a diary entry written c. December 1919, featured in Diaries, 1910-1923 (via x-e-n-i-a)

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Avila Cathedral, Castile and Leon, Spain. VIA.

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Glinda and Elphaba holding hands

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All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung.

—Megan Whalen Turner, A Conspiracy of Kings, in the Queen’s Thief Series

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“the shipwreck” by w.s. merwin

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Nosferatu (2024) // dir. Robert Eggers

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(RE)WATCHED IN 2023: —Why are you killing everybody? Why are you making everybody die? —It's my story. —Mine too.

THE FALL (2006) DIR. TARSEM SINGH

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What struck me then, and what I return to now, is this: “Persistence. Dogged determination is often the only trait that separates a moderately creative person from a highly creative one. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” It’s easier to persist, I think, when you see your work as a practice—an ongoing process of improvement—instead of focusing too much on any particular project. No project will be perfect. But each project can be better than the previous one, and each project can sharpen your skills and deepen your commitment to a craft. “We are,” the blog post concludes, “what we repeatedly do. Being very good is no good. You have to be very, very, very, very, very good.” And this, I think, characterizes what the divine discontent feels like. Even if the project you’ve just finished is very good…well. Maybe it could be better. Maybe your approach, your craft and your thinking can be refined. Being very good is no good. You have to be very, very, very, very, very good. And that’s what the next project is for.

Celine Nguyen, the divine discontent

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Theater Camp (2023)

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Constellation by Boris Anisfeld (Russian, 1878–1973) 

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This marvelous haunting mystical lighthearted world where rain smells good as it falls upon earth and you can rest against a pillow just to hear your own heartbeat and whales sing to each other across stretches of ocean and you can move mountains w the power of your mind and the same water you swim in is home to coral reef ecosystems and dreams bring people you love a little bit back to life and you can bite into big fat juicy navel oranges in November and see shooting stars while walking home