The Creative Grind

Showing up day after day (after day after day)

rhymed in ice

the valley trees—

altars for emptiness

Preview: Episode 28 with Holiday Mathis

“In 1995, I showed up and knocked it out.” That was Holiday Mathis’s approach to her daily writing gig twenty-five years ago, writing horoscopes every day. How has her approach changed over the years? She still shows up and knocks it out. In fact, she is working on the Guinness Book World Record for the most consecutively published words by a single author in newspapers, having currently been published every day since 2005. Mathis writes the syndicated daily horoscope column for hundreds of newspaper publications internationally including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and in her hometown, The Tennessean. In this week’s episode, we learn how she stays fresh, how her muses matter, and her daily practices for “eliminating the drag.”

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Things We’re Reading:

Rosemerry:

• It is perhaps always a great idea to read Mary Oliver, but right now, I’m taking it in as if it’s the best medicine in the world. I’ve been reading her collected works in Devotions, a book she curated before she died. What a gift to myself right now to be steeped in her attentiveness and curiosity.

• Can we meet death and loss with love? I got an advance reader’s copy Susan Tweit’s new memoir Bless the Birds: Living with love in a time of dying. Oh friends. It's such a ripe time for this book about how to meet fear, loss and sorrow with courage and grace and most importantly, love. It’s a book to break your heart open.

Christie:

• I’ve been enjoying Julie Beck’s series at the Atlantic, The Friendship Files. The latest piece is about two friends who have been writing and sending each other haikus during the pandemic and I loved it so much it inspired me to write a haiku to Rosemerry.

• My friend Shannon recommended Rumaan Alam’s new novel, Leave the World Behind, and I’m loving it just as much as she did. The narrative of two families grappling with race, family and class feels like the perfect story for this moment.

• As I was preparing for my upcoming workshop on business planning for freelancers, I picked Louise DeSalvo’s book, The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity, off my shelf and am remembering what a lovely guide it is.

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November 2, 2019

This solar year, you will actually become the one you wished for. 

            —Holiday Mathis, horoscope

And so when Holiday Mathis tells me

that this is the year I will become

the one I wished for, I decide to believe her.

If it’s true, I will become sky, become river,

become aspen. Peace in my actions, truth

in my words, love in my every breath.

And though I’m unsure about horoscopes,

I decide to do everything I can to prove

her right, my thoughts already perhaps

a bit more fluid, a bit more blue.

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Two Questions:

(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)

1. What daily rituals do you have for refreshing your creativity?

2. What is your relationship to your muse?