💗 thoughts on failure 💗
in this fast & furious world
allowing ourselves to do
nothing
seems 100% un-productive, a.k.a., we’re failing.
(I can hear the “shoulds”
clanging around inside my brain)
and yet it’s like a little secret, that
puttering around
seemingly doing nothing, can be rather
therapeutic
restorative
healing, even
naturally, this is not the case for everyone
but dang
slowing down, and being
present
is pretty amazing — and can feel like
a bit of a nasty shock to our systems
when
we are accustomed to
go
go
going.
I’m a gen x-er and
was raised in an analog world
before zeroes and ones became
the EveryWay of ‘doing’ life
it’s true,
we knew not tiktok snapchat instagram;
we had to call our friends using a
phone that
stuck to the wall (wha??)
or we simply showed up on their doorstep
if their line was busy
(sometimes I wish we still had
a ‘busy signal’ option lol)
and
up until probably high school,
I was outside every. single. day.
when I got home from school
till the (street) lights came on —
whether playing kickball with
the First Ladies (you know who you are)
or trekking to
the Aunts’
the Walnuts’
Aunt Norma’s or
searching out my Nana in
downtown Vandergrift
(always check Isaly’s first,
then Weber’s,
then the Fashion Store)
ok, maybe on rainy days,
I wasn’t always outside…
I hung out in our attic a lot —
amongst the mess, the
proof
of lives lived before
and aside me…
an old love seat,
newspapers from the 1960s,
well-loved toys
(who remembers the Flip Wilson doll? Weebles?)
halloween, dance costumes,
encyclopedia set,
boooooooks,
spare headboards/mattresses,
scrap paper,
and lots other oddities…
all awaiting re-discovery re-imagining;
each creating its own
storied pocket in my heart
while this year in the cosmic timeline
2025
gifts us a mind-blowing number
of scientific and societal advances,
I wonder,
what will we leave behind when we’re
no longer?
if I’m honest, digital versions of
-whatever-
don’t always seem real to me;
I can’t feel their “human-essence-ness”
while looking at a screen — tiny or otherwise.
but in physical books,
actual pictures, artwork,
stuff
I can feel a human connection;
treasures, treasures, all
I know, I know I sound
old-fashioned
and perhaps I am. for one thing I have
learned in my advancing years, is that
time spent “bothering” with people,
time spent (however you define) creating art
and living in the company of it,
is not only valuable time spent,
but very, very necessary
so, write the poem
go for a bike ride
greet fellow humans (with eye contact!)
take the yoga class
paint the painting
make the shitty art
go visit.
I’ll say that again: go visit
and spend some time benefitting from Pooh’s
wisdom, for
“doing nothing always leads to the very best of
something…” *
I’ll leave you to it
💜
L.S. 7/6/25
* wise words courtesy of Winnie the Pooh
photo script: photo is, honest-and-truly, a glimpse inside my current attic/treasure keeper
Shoutout to the Inspired Collective – my class-family, full of lovelies, filled with artists of all kinds -where our teacher, Amie McNee, encourages us to be creative, and that making shitty art, is safe and goooooooood. xoxo
Click here for silly old bear (part 1 / the o.g.), in case you want to check it out.
laurie sliben, writer 