Arielle Silver
  • Music
  • Yoga
  • Writing
  • Patreon
  • LIST
  • newalbum

Oh, Patience

5/26/2016

0 Comments

 
I woke yesterday to the news that I'd been honored with a great award by my MFA program, and 2 hours later learned that my critical research paper, "Wicked, Selfish, and Cruel: An Inquiry into the Stepmother Narrative," will be one of two graduate papers from Antioch University Los Angeles to receive the 2016 AULA Library Research Award. The award ceremony is in two weeks! What an honor! Or, as I'd say back in Boston -- wicked cool! Yet a deadline loomed for an essay I'd promised an editor, so I put off celebrating. But today I sent off the essay, knocked "revamp website" off my to do list, got in a yoga class, and now, now a glass of Storyteller Sauvignon Blanc.

Cheers!
0 Comments

The Weight of Waiting

5/12/2016

0 Comments

 
I've been carrying a weight for a month or more. It's furrowed my brow and interrupted my dreams. It's interrupted other things too, budging in when the other things needed time and attention. It's been a weight of wait, actually. Waiting. Waiting for answers to too many questions. Answers that would say whether I'd tossed fertile seeds into proper ground. The waiting tousled my thoughts.

This week, when I didn't think I could take another day of it, I received a check from ASCAP reminding me that I've done this before - sowed seeds, waited. Five, seven, ten years ago I wrote and recorded a pile of songs that are now licensed around the world, and every so often I receive a letter and a check that says, yes, you were an artist and the songs you created are worth something.

And I received an email from an editor saying, yes, we like this essay, we want to publish it, and we'd like another supplemental one as well.

And other email reminding me of another editor who had said yes a little while ago, and that my piece will be published very soon. Tomorrow, perhaps.

And I received a rejection about something, also, but it was a strange rejection. It said that the "no" was not because I wasn't valued or that my work wasn't valuable. The "no," they said, was because they see too much in me - too much artist, too much writer, too much vision for the small role I had asked to play. When I asked to be pinned down, they refused. I can't think of another time I've been told no in this way. Or was it a yes?

After so much waiting, it's been a strangely uplifting week. A validating week, you could say. It is forcing me to confront how wary I am of validation. Not validation of you - I love you. Validation of me. Wary of the world, of people appreciating what I bring to the table, valuing what I want to contribute, what I desire.

This week surprised me with its gifts of Yes. I'm forced once again to examine the story I've tried to extricate myself from many times - that old trope of starving artists and struggle and failure. If there's nothing else I've gotten from living in Los Angeles, it's that art is valued, creativity is valuable, and artists, writers, and musicians can earn a living creating. It's an expensive city, sure, but having a community like that is priceless. And, man, this week feels good. The waiting continues, because I've sown a lot of seeds. But this week offered a few answers, enough to encourage me to keep going.

This afternoon's soundtrack: "We've come too far to give up who we are." Cover by Daughter, The Cure's Love Song meets Bjork.
0 Comments

    Subscribe to our mailing list

    * indicates required
    Email Format

    Archives

    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All
    1000 Tiny Torches
    40 Days Challenge
    Antioch Mfa In Creative Writing
    Big Sur
    Books
    Boston
    Burning Man
    Creative Flow
    Criticism
    Door To The Shore Run
    Election
    Failure
    Faith
    Family
    Fear
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Half Marathon
    Happiness
    Injury
    Inner Voices
    Kickstarter
    List Of 100 Things
    Los Angeles
    Love
    Lovember
    Love Them Apples
    Marathon
    MFA
    Music
    New Album
    Recording
    Rejection
    Running
    Shed
    Sick
    Social Activism
    Songwriting
    Stepparent
    Success
    Swimming
    The Written Run
    Throw Back Thursday
    Tour
    Type 1 Diabetes
    Valentine's Day
    Workshops
    Writing
    Yoga

Worlds

Music
Yoga
Writing

Contact

MUSIC: booking@ariellesilver.com 
PRESS: amanda@TrendPR.com
RETREATS: alexa@getgurud.com
BHAVANA FLOW YOGA: darby@bhavanaflowyoga.com
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Music
  • Yoga
  • Writing
  • Patreon
  • LIST
  • newalbum