The entire process of this project is organised in order for it to proceed as slowly as possible. This is a huge challenge for me for, more often than not, I find myself acting as a control freak and cannot deal with frustration because things just don't go they way I want them.
I have realised (finally!) that the more I try to control things, the less they work and take the direction I want them to take. In fact, quite recently, I realised that when we let go of things and stop controlling everything, things just happen, we get into that flow through which life JUST HAPPENS.
It's good to have plans, but it's better not to be driven by them - try and sit back and see what happens. By this, I don't mean that we should go on automatic pilot mode, but simply that events unfold without us making much effort and without getting all worked up by them! It's a new concept for me and, believe me, it still sounds strange to me, too! But I have a feeling it's a great step forward!
This take-it=easy attitude has also been inspired by a famous writer, Kostantinos Petrou Kavafis: some Christmas ago, I received a mug from my old best friend Marina. The mug has a quote from Ithaka, one of the most popular poems Kavafis has shared with the world; the poem is enclosed below with the bold part highlighting the quote on the mug.
The mug has been sitting on my desk at work since that Christmas, reminding me every day how and why I should take it easy while keeping in mind the direction that my creativity is taking. Happy reading!
Ithaka by Kostantinos Petrou Kavafis (1863 - 1933)
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
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