Repetition

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Repetition

This quote from Haruki Murakami in 2004 is one of my all time favourite quotes (emphasis mine):

When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation.

The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

Left to my own devices, I happily sink into routine—eating the same food, doing the same tasks—day after day, year after year. When I worked full-time in town and caught the same early train every morning, Eve could tell the time down to the minute based on where I was in my morning routine. It wasn’t just habit; it was rhythm.

When I was young and first read about what life was like inside a Monastery, it sounded like a dream. ‘When I’m older maybe I’ll be a monk’ is still a thought I haven’t ever fully taken off the table. There’s great appeal in the structure: rising, working, and living within a pattern that repeats beyond you, in service of something far bigger than yourself.

I’ve done a lot of meditation in my life—experienced a lot of mantra, practiced ceaseless prayer. Repetition carves focus, creating clarity and stillness.

For me, writing a daily journal isn’t about streaks or hitting milestones, nor are the 1,000 consecutive photos I’ve taken. It’s about doing the doing. I’ve told people learning to meditate or pray before that i think routine and repetition are scaffolds we build around ourselves to climb higher. Doing the same thing over and over keeps the chaos of the world at bay, and allows us to rise above it and reach beyond.

It’s not about ambition or some imagined outcome. It’s about the present moment: showing up, doing the work, and letting the repetition reshape me.

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OTB

On this blog this week:

Yaelokre’s Meadowlark

I wrote about ‘worlds as a medium’, though the lens of Meadowlark a world created by the artist and musician Yaelokre.

worlds are not just collections of stories or multimedia projects but shared realities held together by narrative rules or systemic coherence. They invite participation, co-creation, and deep engagement from audiences who are eager to inhabit spaces that aren’t fully mapped out.

However, as these worlds capture the imagination, they present unprecedented challenges for creators. Artists find themselves juggling multiple roles—world-builder, community manager, moderator, and copyright enforcer, legal department etc etc. The enthusiasm of engaged audiences brings not only energy but also complexities that require careful navigation.

This is why world running should, and needs to become a discipline.

You Copied Me

No podcast, but I still wrote and posted something. If I had made an episode this week, it would have been this:

It’s surprising how quickly “You copied me” appears in a child’s vocabulary. It’s one of the first phrases we learn to defend ourselves—not our bodies, but our ideas. A drawing, a turn of phrase, a knock-knock joke recycled too soon. The accusation is swift and cutting. To be copied is to feel seen—but in the worst possible way.

It’s a primal reaction to a perceived infringement on ones identity, creativity, and autonomy. Whilst imitation is essential for learning, as we develop our sense of self, we begin to guard our ideas as extensions of our identity.“You copied me” reflects a deep fear: that one’s uniqueness is being diminished or stolen.

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Two writing sprints on PROJECT FORK
• Got totally lost in the depths of python one evening this week working on PROJECT DIVE
• PROJECT ENTRY: Published some marketing copy, 2 hour design review meeting, had a long call with the funder and started research for what’s coming next
• Tearing my hair out on the edit of Issue 12 of my zine.

Terminal Access

Really recommend you click through and check out against the dark forest by Erin Kissane.

Global mega-platforms under capitalism are structurally incapable of handling the business of civilization: of governance, of providing genuinely public infrastructure, of making knife-edge decisions about the balance of liberties and securities. It’s not what they do or what they want to do, and in many cases it’s in opposition to their actual interests. But even if they wanted to, even if they pulled off the trick of freeing themselves from the gravitational pull of capital and extraction,

Reading

Still reading: Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World, Wisdom – Letters of St. Joseph the Hesychast, Puppets, Gods, Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan, The Solace, Nourishment, and the Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by the poet David Whyte. A lot on deck.

Respite For The Tulpamancer – Colin Self

Colin has a new single out, signalling the sound of the new album next year. We haven’t spoken in a while, but I emailed them immediately after listening to it. I know ‘Operatic Art Pop’ isn’t for everyone but I think Its just incredible, the video is beautiful too. You won’t know what is being sung however, as the whole album is going to be in Latin and Polari.

Here’s the creative statement about the upcoming album:

In a statement about the new album, Self said: “People around me might not know what [the Latin and Polari vocals] mean, but all of these trans or queer ghosts that are listening to the music or watching the performance are having a really good time,” Self says. “These songs sound gorgeous, but they’re all about police, eating ass, and sex work, these profane things. I wanted to find a way to breathe life into this act of hiding the explicit in the quotidian-sounding atmosphere of pop music.”

Remember Kids:

say, you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and the example of good works, and in every other respect in which your neighbour may be seen to be in need; counselling him exactly as you would yourselves

The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena