Inviting the past to dance
Issue #35 💃 Creative Quests wrapped 2023 + this weeks best finds
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers,
Sam here 👋 It’s mad to know we are coming to the end of another year. In true reflective style - we put together our own CQ23 Wrapped! Check the whole thing out here.
This is our third full year of running Quests and they continue to surprise & delight. Not bad for a 3 month experiment.
However - all good chapters must close!
Our next Quest, in January 2024 (number 12 in the series), will be our last of this format for a while. Likely the only Quest of this style that we run next year. Sign up will open next week.
We have some ambitious and collaborative plans for 2024 that I think will take this project to the next level - ensuring we keep growing our mission to be a booster pack for people’s creative lives all around the world. More on this in due course!
🎭 Inviting the past to dance
The origin of Creative Quests is a reconnection story. I started Questing as a way to explore my creative self beyond my day to day work. I liked my job - but it wasn’t feeding that hungry, curious, artful part of my soul. Returning to my once flourishing practices of writing music and theatre didn’t feel right either. I started trying out new things each month - and well - the rest is history.
Maybe you’ve felt the same?
That there is some part of your creative self that you feel has got lost along the way. A practice, an outlet, a spirit, a passion - that is frozen in time, somewhere in the past.
Maybe, like me, you’ve tried to reconnect with those past outlets - but the spark is gone. Your skills not what they used to be. Inspiration not there.
I’ve been there and I know it hurts.
To feel that distant from a part of your true creative self.
However - if nearly 8 years of Quests has taught me anything - it’s that our relationship to both our past and future selves is fluid. Non-linear. Or ‘Poly-temporal’ - ‘of many times’. A great term I learnt from the brilliant Long Time Academy podcast.
When it comes to creativity, the past is only the past until you invite it into the present…
As I wrote in our short film ‘Waiting In The Wings.’
“Our lives are like an evolving performance.
Who you are now is centre stage.
The person you were.
The person you could become.
Always there, waiting in the wings.
At any point we can invite those past or future versions of ourselves onstage - not to take the spotlight - but to meet us where we’re at.
Move, flow, work out how we can serve each other best. ”
Last week I took my own words very literally.
For the first time in 10 years - I performed a new, original song I’d written (unheard by anybody) on stage at an event called Song Salon where I live.
After a decade long hot/cold (mostly cold) period with music - it felt like coming home to myself. A lost puzzle piece back in my hands.
Fittingly, the song is called ‘Devotee’ - and it’s about having your faith tested by the things you believe in most.
I’m glad I kept my faith. I’m glad I didn’t give up on myself. I’m glad I was patient. I’m glad I was gentle with my feelings of regret. I’m glad I was brave enough to share. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the voice that told me ‘It’s too late’.
I’m glad I invited my past to dance with my future.
I’m looking forward to music-filled year ahead.
If you’re feeling this way about something in your creative life: Keep the faith. But know that you are the only person who can make the invitation!
A round up of illuminating discoveries from our world…
🌳 How time outdoors transforms our memory, imagination and logic
💌 Letter Loop creates personal newsletters based off of prompt questions to send to your friends, family and teams. Smaller, slower, social media - I’m here for it!
🔺Speaking of poly-temporal… residents of a German town, are working on a public sculpture… until 3183 A.D
📜 A great piece on the act of preservation in a digital age… a small hint at a collaborative Creative Quests project for 2024 :)
📸 What if you could see the invisible movements of the natural world? Artist Doris Mitsch (@DorisMitsch) found a way to do just that using a technique called photo stacking.
🗿 New fav IG account: Pebble of the Day
🧸 I’ve been loving this newsletter… Objet: Stories about objects in our lives and what they mean to us.
✋ Interior design inspo: Cecil Beaton hand drawn outlines of his friend’s hands as bathroom wallpaper.
Finally…
January’s Quest sign up opens NEXT WEEK! The Quest will kick off in mid-January.
The most community fuelled, fun, creative way you could dive in 2024.
More importantly than that - don’t wait till January 1st to make the creative change you want in your life. Start now and you’ll be 26 days ahead 😉
Big love,
Sam x
Quest Guide / Founder
@saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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Props for getting on stage! Great links you’ve shared, and looking forward to the next and final quest!!
awww 🥰 thanks for the shout out 🙏