Comments on: Pursue It Well

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 02:35:02 +0000

In reply to brookeshaden. Thank you! It is exciting, isn't it? Have fun on your journey, I will be eagerly awaiting your creations! :)

By: Tim Stephens

Tim Stephens — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 16:12:48 +0000

In reply to brookeshaden.

The thing about masters is you don’t always know what they’re teaching even as you learn it. So I try to surround myself with people I respect, knowing that at some point the light will go off in my head – there will be an “Aha! moment” that pulls everything together. Thank you, Brooke for being one of my more important masters – and one I’m fortunate to have recognized early on. I continue to learn a lot from you in so many disciplines! Happy New Year to you and yours! I’ll be thinking of you frequently and I’ll see you in the Ether until we meet again, which I hope will be sooner rather than later. 🙂

By: Frederique

Frederique — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 15:36:26 +0000

Wow. This post is exactly what I needed to read to start the new year. I so resonate with your words, especially this part : “I want every passion I have to shine with the excitement I have for it.” I feel like I spent most of 2017 wondering what craft was my real calling. I dabbled in lettering, illustration, design, writing… Until this fall where I rediscovered your art (I’ve known your work for years now) and bought all your CreativeLive classes so I could reconnect with my long lost photography practice. I now finally understand that there is never just one craft we’re supposed to do… rather, like you said, it’s the passion and purpose we bring to the craft that matters.

This year, there is so much I want to learn. I want to keep honing my photography, I want to write with patience and purpose… I also want to learn how to weave and how to make little felted animals (for no particular reason)… I’m sure the list will grow in the next few days. Like you said, we can do anything! (As long as we do it well… I will take that to heart as the year unfold)

I would turn into non-evil horcruxes all the little thoughtful gifts that my friends and family gave to me over the years… My late grandmother’s cameo necklace, a plush doll that a friend gave me when we were fifteen, the silver bracelet with my name carved on it that my godmother gave me when I was born… I feel like by keeping these memorabilia close… it’s a part of their soul and their love that I carry with me… I don’t know.

Anyway, thank you for your healing words and your passion. You are a real inspiration to me. I can’t wait to see what you’ll create this year!

By: Rudra

Rudra — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 14:42:23 +0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts…it felt wonderful reading them…
I am probably a student of everything I find interesting…and I find many things interesting…
About Horcrux…I am more like staying invisible and observing without getting observed…I don’t want to touch anything just watch them in their natural form…so don’t want to create Horcrux….

By: brookeshaden

brookeshaden — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:13:07 +0000

In reply to Gallagher (Fit BMX). A tree!! Yes! I imagined that as one of my horcruxes, too :)

By: brookeshaden

brookeshaden — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:12:43 +0000

In reply to Tim Stephens. What an incredible horcrux!! You must read or watch Harry Potter if you're not up on horcruxes! Happiest ever new year Tim, I can't wait to see you next year! And, what amazing advise about finding mentors. It inspires me to look deeper.

By: brookeshaden

brookeshaden — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:11:43 +0000

In reply to Amy. Good luck with starting a new photography direction! I feel I am doing the same, it is so exciting :)

By: Gallagher (Fit BMX)

Gallagher (Fit BMX) — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:06:39 +0000

This is a great post that really hits home for me! I have been working on a novel on and off (more off than on) for a few years now, and I make far too many excuses on why I “Don’t have the time” to work on it. So thanks for the kick in the pants!
1) What are you a student of? Writing and fine art photography.
2) What object would you turn into a Horcrux? This is really a hard question….. I think I would have to go with a Tree, a nice big old one. Because when I think of the few things in life I truly live, nature is at the very top of the list.

Thanks for the book list, I am looking for something right now so thanks! 🙂
Wishing you the best for the new year! 🙂

By: Tim Stephens

Tim Stephens — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 23:31:43 +0000

I’m a student to every master, just as they themselves are students to others. The master is not necessarily “better” or more advanced than the student, but rather has journeyed in a way that the student has not and has unique and insightful perspectives to share. They speak their truth and only theirs. And that truth will elevate those who are eager to learn. I’ve met masters under cardboard in alleyways, found them in books, been randomly seated next to them on business travel flights, and ended up sitting across from them at coffee tables in the aftermath of parties at 3am. Too often, the time is all too fleeting. But too often I don’t realize they are masters until they are gone.

The concept of a horcrux is new to me and I had to google it. I’m going to coin the term “white horcrux” – forged in the wake of good – just so there’s no confusion, lol.

There is an artists’ village in New Jersey called Wheaton Arts. One of the things you can do there is work one-on-one with a master glassmith to make a one-of-a-kind piece of art glass about the size of a baseball. You choose the shape – spherical, ovoid, etc., the colors and how they will be twisted and distributed in the glass, the inclusion or exclusion of bubbles, etc. At the end, you have something almost permanent, formed by your mind and your body, by choice and by chance. In a sense, a physical representation of what we ourselves are. This 900 gram lump of crystal glass would be my white horcrux. I wish I could share a picture of it here. 🙂

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 22:19:08 +0000

Brooke, thank you for your words! I feel like you took them straight from my heart and made them eloquent. You are such an inspiring person, I always look forward to hearing what you have to say, and this post is the best! I am currently starting out in a new direction with my photography (I have dabbled for years, but only in the last few months have I really put in the work, the learning, the grit, as you say) and I’m feeling so passionate and driven to create my own Horcruxes! I understand having multiple passions as well, as I recently took up drumming and fell madly in love with it. Music is my Horcrux, and I want to thank you for reminding me to WANT to learn, and not to be blinded by the end goal. To allow our love of what we do to guide us, as that is where we really find ourselves and grow. I don’t think anyone should have to choose one passion over another, and yes, doing it well, with passion and determination, is all that matters. You are such an inspiration, and I can’t wait to read your novel one day!