Encouragement Files

(17-25) Field Notes for Curious Minds

This is the 17th Edition of ‘The Encouragement Files’.

Thank you for being here - thank you, yes you - for the lovely notes you have sent us to say how much you are enjoying this showcase for words, publications and people that inspire us.

We love that only four months in, this weekly curation is providing an encouragement for others to celebrate the creativity that lifts their spirits in an off-kilter world.

Let’s get straight on with this week’s gather-em-up of curiosities.

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‘I am not defined by darkness’
Confided the night
’At dawn I am reminded
I am defined by light’.

Lemn Sissay

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Beyond Substack

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I N T E R I O R S

For now, we live in a three-bedroom farmhouse set in two acres. There’s a wraparound meadow, fruit trees, a kitchen garden and a surfeit of barns, Next time, we’ll have our eye on somewhere small, simple. And we’re always looking.

Images: © Murray Orr

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P H O T O G R A P H Y

Sometimes we wonder if the search for the shot, the most beautiful, stirring, sumptuous image, blinds us to the beguiling poetry of the everyday. Ludovic Balay counterbalances our cravings with delicious photography of ‘normal’.

Images: © Ludovic Balay

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A R T

Occasionally, the pieces we shared elsewhere pop back into view and there is a chance to celebrate them afresh. This week, receipts turned into artworks

Copyright © Wang Ruijia

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So Good We Saved It

1. We are drawn to architecture for the rich variations in styles and we stay for the knowledge that keen students of history generously share about the buildings they admire. Take

   David Perrine
   whose ‘On Architecture’ posts are a delight, both in form and function.

2. There is an infinite variety of styles to choose from in art appreciation.

   Art Every Day
   is a particular favourite guide, and this recent piece not only sprinkled our day with colour but also introduced us to Paul Klee.

   

3. We love these sentences by

   Elif Shafak
   who writes wonderfully:

   Believe in the healing power of words. For they are kinder and older than us, and definitely much wiser. They gift us stories and timeless truths from distant lands and bygone eras, connecting us with ancestral knowledge that, somewhere and somehow along the way, we have lost.

4. As

   Matthew Long
   explores ‘life and literature’ he takes the time to generously lift others up, celebrating and amplifying their work through the notes he takes and the fascinating curations he shares monthly.

5. Bread and Butter Pudding Quintessentially English? Maybe. Enticingly rich? Undoubtedly. An indulgence. All the better for it. Thank you,

   Mark Thomas

6. We absolutely love the case made by

   Grant Faulkner
   to use writing as a powerful tool of defiance, to use words to tell your story, unapologetically:

   Creativity as an Act of Defiance

   The world gives little approbation to those who choose to be artists. You’re questioned, scrutinized, and sometimes even looked at with disdain. This feeling can make a writer want to go into hiding when just the opposite is necessary. Let your candle burn, and even pour gasoline over it if necessary. A writer needs to create with an outlaw sheen to boldly escape the snares of others’ expectations.

   Grant Faulkner Creativity as an Act of Defiance

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In The Meadow

I heard the grasses talking, talking,
Down in the meadow, one summer day,
The prettiest things I heard them whisper,
Nodding their heads in a quaint wise way.

Whether they knew that I was listening,
And would tell to you their story sweet,
I know not; but surely they would not chide me;
For the gossiping winds their words repeat.

They told how they loved the golden sunshine;
How once in the gloom of a strange long night
They feared they were lost, until angel fingers
Touched them with life, and they found the light.

Ella Fraser Waller

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PS

We don’t always talk about our thing - perhaps encouragement is meant to be one of those things that sits quietly in the background; it is a way of being, every bit as much as it is a thing you do. But it is always worth talking about - and we are not the only ones who think so. This week we quietly compiled and shared a list of quotes about encouragement. Maybe you’ll find something that hits a spot.

Artwork: © Cadi Rhind

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“Be an Encourager: When you encourage others, you boost their self-esteem, enhance their self-confidence, make them work harder, lift their spirits and make them successful in their endeavors. Encouragement goes straight to the heart and is always available. Be an encourager. Always.”

― Roy T. Bennett The Light in the Heart

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Back next week, same time, same place.

Barrie and JoJo