All of our days.

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”

~ Fr. Alfred D’Souza

Creatively Maladjusted. 

After a two-month absence from my weekly, more-or-less regular musings, I’m slowly returning, rearranging and remaking my small and personal piece of Virtualia, with a chance of art. 

I’ve been insanely busy all summer co-creating Rebelle Society, an imaginary, online country dedicated to making daily creative revolution and reporting on the Art of Being Alive.

I’m turning Rebelle Époque into my tiny living room and letting Rebelle Society be the rest of the house. 

If you’re still around (considering that one virtual month equals one flesh and bone year, more or less), or if this knocks and knocks at your inbox door and you open, I’ll take this chance to invite you over there for a sneak peak, and share our Creative Manifesto (a.k.a. Constitution) with you.

Because life is one organic, epic canvas, and we, the artists, and no, we don’t get to paint it twice, and yes, everything, everyone matters.

So this is how we plan to seize the day: 

1. We are editors of life. We cut and paste its daily beauty and pain with the sharp scissors of our minds on the canvas of humanity.

As human beings we can only assimilate the world through selective perception. The more we train our perception, the more aware we become of the world around us, in its light and its darkness.

We turn into what we digest on a daily basis. Due to our spongy nature, we must absorb carefully.

*****

2. We regard Art as a dynamic matter of Now. Art is not just a museum affair. Objects are less than people and no work of art is ever finished. We are our own live collage of images, memories, experiences, relationships, thoughts and feelings.

As such, we must constantly make Art that is Synonymous with life, in order for it (for us) to keep on being art. By existing to our fullest potential we become our own living works of art in construction. Whatever comes out of us is secondary to what’s already in us.

*****

3. Life is short and it’s running through our fingers, as we speak. Our hour won’t come in some kind of imagined, distant or near future, our hour is happening this very moment. Wherever we are – or are at, we’d like to make it count.

Be here now. Be here now. Be here now.

*****

4. The only censorship we apply to ourselves is the kind that will censor other people’s genuine right to be whole.

Love the way you want to be loved and recognize a piece of yourself in every piece of life.

There are no strangers in this room. It’s just a bunch of Us. There are no tribes or constellations. Only lonely stars with a light of their own.

*****

5. Life is homemade, painful, intelligent and beautiful. We avoid nothing, we want it all.

As creators, healers and journalists it is our duty to curate reality and communicate it in our own, unique words. We don’t want the shortcut, we want to walk on water and walk on burning ashes.

Give us the whole package, even if it takes longer and it demands more. If we’re going to jump anyway off of life’s inevitable cliffs, we might as well pick the highest one and use our own heart as the only parachute.

 *****

6. We respect and strive for the light but we don’t hide or get rid of the darkness. It’s only by accepting, integrating and finally reusing every bit of ourselves that we’re able to meet and face life for what it is, in all its brightness and all the shadows it casts.

Fear is biodegradable fuel. We’ll never get rid of it, but we can recycle it into a more human-friendly version.

Click here to read the remaining five (& give us an e-hug). 

{Join the creative revolution. Free passports issued daily.}