"Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours." –– Jane Kenyon (1947-1995, American poet and translator
* I found this in Dani Shapiro's Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, 2013. One day I'll track down this poem and read it directly. Dani Shapiro quotes Kenyon's opening line "Be a good steward to your gifts." Several online sources quote "Be a good steward of your gifts."
After a very busy summer, I am following Kenyon's advice by working in silence and limiting my internet usage and movie watching (despite the fact that I do most of my stitching while watching movies on the computer). Silence and solitude are drawing me back into the much-missed rhythm of my work.
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