“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.”

                                                    - William Styron

I’ve noticed that the majority of you out there reading this seem to be doing so through a Feed system. I had tried to disable such the moment you all “discovered” this place, but it seems to not have had any effect.

There are many things that are missed if using a Feed, many textures and experiences I would hope the journey here would be worth, both in the past and to come.

That said, would this place become barren, an unintentionally private space once again were I to take the steps to disable the Feeds?

 Only a few of you bother to leave your mark here, and that is understandable. Many Read, few Write.

How do you feel?

(As an aside to make this post somewhat interesting, I’ve also noticed I’m on a huge Lady Grey binge lately. I love this tea. Love it.)

The time I spent with William gave me a new perspective on my work. I spoke with him at length about my Age. He had very many things to say, and a perspective on things that I value for how radically different it is from my own.

I was able to refine a great deal of clutter. William helped me realise that I should cut down on a lot of the things I would have thought essential. “After all” he said, “it isn’t supposed to be a place to live! Simply a place to visit and recharge.” Well said Will, I realise now on re-reading some of my older Journal entries (and the amazingly insightful comments left there) that my design had become bogged down with details, turning almost a complete 180 from my original intent.

I was too focused on the small, detailed brushstrokes, when I should have still been filling the canvas with colours and textures. I leapt in, anxious to create beauty as if I could simply open a container and pour it out, already made. I must create the foundation, plan, chart and map Luminesce from the bottom of the wine-dark seas to the very top of the sky. I’ve already begun anew. The planning process already filling me with an excitement and direction I hadn’t felt for a while.

The question now is, what to do with the book I have been so painstakingly ruining with my childish scribblings. My first thought was to burn it, lest someone stumble through this flawed mirror into a flawed Wonderland. However there is a small voice that decries such an action. Why, I cannot say. Burning the book and starting with a fresh one is only logical, neat and tidy. Somehow it tugs on me though.

I suppose for now, there is no harm in adding a fourth book to the stack. This one isn’t a One Word though.

I don’t know what to consider it.

Oh well, I refuse to dwell on the past. Instead of books I work in another medium for now. Thankyou Will, bringing me the tools I needed helped me realise what was next!

Will is heading back to the surface. He says he’s had enough of getting “sucked through books” and will make the trek up by foot. I offered to accompany him, but he refused, saying he would annoy me with his tuneless humming.

My work begins again. A longer post for details later on.

Thanks for sticking with us, friends.

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started… and know the place for the first time.”

                                                                         – T.S. Elliot