The Encouragement Files

(3-25) Celebrating Others, Weekly

This is the 3rd Edition of ‘The Encouragement Files’, fun cousin to our non-Substack newsletter Field Notes for Curious Minds. This weekly offering is a celebration of the inspiring words, publications and people that have caught our eye. Hopefully, it will prove to be an encouragement for you to shout up for the creativity that lifts your spirits and counterbalances the downbeat in a world gone mad.

---

Last week, we created a virtual gallery, a celebration of ART in all its forms; but we have so many interests - no finding our niche here - so today we’ll gather up an eclectic mix of curiosities, offering trails of breadcrumbs that head off in all manner of unexpected directions. If it feels like there’s a golden thread, that is serendipity at work. Think of this as a magazine to dip in and out of when the mood suits. We’re certain you’ll find something you love … someone else might too so please ripple out the good stuff.

---

E X P L O R E

There is a network of remote shelters that have provided succour for weary visitors to the most isolated regions of the United Kingdom. Many an adventurer craves personal challenge and the solitude that dials up their endeavour to the max. These photographs by Nicholas JR White emphasise the isolation but leaven it the companionship offered by the knowledge that others have ‘walked this way’. Given the extreme isolation and hardship they represent, that shared endeavour heightens the sense of achievement these basic shelters represent.

---

Bothies are a safe place from the elements, from wind and weather. But more than physical refuge, bothies are a respite from life’s grinding rhythms, stress, and work.

Kat Hill - author of ‘Bothy - in search of simple shelter’

Image by Nicholas JR White (Ignant Magazine)

---

I N T E R I O R S

We live in an old farmhouse in France. It has been modernised - not always stylishly or sympathetically - but there is more that could be done. How then do we combine new and old, making a place more liveable and efficient, but staying true to the history of a building many generations in the making? This selection of properties in Dezeen shows how old and new can blend seamlessly to achieve balance - homeliness and provenance, side-by-side.

Photo by Tamás Bujnovszky (for Dezeen)

---

---

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.

—  René Descartes

---

---

L E A R N

We are often drawn to The Marginalian a labour of love by

Maria Popova

. It is consistently fascinating, a glorious archive of learning, often about creativity, the arts, and what it is to be human. When there is a risk that we are worn down by polarised politics and opinions, or driven to homogeneity through algorithms that hoover up our collective creativity, it is an act of resistance to be ourselves:

Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself. To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

E.E. Cummings

---

C R E A T E

I spotted that

Andy Adams

(check out Flak Photo) had picked up his copy of ‘The Creative Act’ by Rick Rubin. That got me rummaging around; as we are away from home, I couldn’t reach for my own copy … I found myself unearthing a piece by Ian Sanders (author of the excellent 365 ways to have a good day - also on my bookshelf). In it, Ian highlights ten lessons on the creative process by Rick Rubin … we are particularly drawn to ignoring the rules:

“Rules direct us to average behaviours. If we're aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don't apply. It's a healthy practice to approach our work with as few accepted rules, starting points, and limitations as possible. Often the standards in our chosen medium are so ubiquitous, we take them for granted. They are invisible and unquestioned. This makes it nearly impossible to think outside the standard paradigm. If you want to paint, you're likely to begin by stretching canvas over a rectangular wooden frame and propping it up on an easel. Based solely on the tools selected, you've already exponentially narrowed what's possible, before a single drop of paint has made contact with the canvas. Similar conventions are woven into most art forms: a book is a certain number of pages and is divided into chapters. Embedded in each medium, there are sets of norms that restrain our work before we've even begun.Think beyond what's been done before. The world isn't waiting for more of the same.”

Rick Rubin - The Creative Act

Photo Credit: Ian Sanders

---

C E L E B R A T E O T H E R S

In December, we shared Recommendations about the

Substack Writers

bringing joy to our feed, artists, writers, photographers, community-builders, and thinkers who inspire and uplift. Substack is that sort of community.

We gathered them into a single post, a compendium of encouragement¹:

---

---

Who will you encourage today?

---

WE LOVED THIS … YOU MIGHT TOO

Let’s kick off this encouragement to explore the best of

Substack

with a journey into ‘science, curiosity and wonder’ with

Mike Sowden

whose words soared, lifting us to the very edges of the Earth’s atmosphere with two intrepid balloonists. From our earliest days, we have been huge fans of Cosmographia, where

M. E. Rothwell

prods our curiosity and shows us the world and our place in it. This week, Mickey was sharing the photography of Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky, astonishing glimpses into Tsarist Russia. There was a welcome reminder from

Emma Gibbs De Oliveira

to be grateful for what we have, as a counterbalance to what is missing, or difficult, or challenging. Finally, what about some contemporary fiction racing down the track towards you? No worries,

Bill Adler

has got you covered.

---

Maybe tell us in the comments about your favourite writing this week. Who are you recommending?

Back next week, same time, same place.

Barrie and JoJo

1. We know you know already … but just in case … sorry for banging on about it … we do a whole lot of encouragement here and here including mentoring sessions (for FREE)