maukamakai

they told me not to get lost in the weeds, but these are lush, beautiful, and ecologically necessary native plants so it's probably fine

don’t forget that it’s your life. it’s not school’s life, it’s not work’s life, it’s not your family or your partner’s life—it’s perpetually your life, for better or worse. what do you want from this life? forget happy, what motivates you to live? why are you here?

forget happy, what motivates you to live

dont take bird noises for granted

next time ur outside and you hear birds just think about how awesome that is and how much it would suck if they were gone

i think about this soooo much in hawaii because so many of the birds are critically endangered or have gone extinct mostly due to habitat loss and invasive species. and yet if the introduced birds that are all over the place where i live -- the cardinals, white-eyes, finches, francolins, parrots, doves, and many others -- were to one day no longer be there, it would become a very quiet and strange sounding landscape. only ocean waves and car traffic, punctuated and then overtaken by coquí frog calls as the night deepened.

eclectic taste (not to be confused with good taste) is the only thing you actually need to be a good artist. i don't care if you like the right things, i literally only care abt the multitude of experiences and practices you have ingested.

so many common anxieties about art just crumble when you finally step into the wild side and make consumption as much a part of your job as creation. "my art sucks" gain a taste for art that sucks and employ it with intent. "i don't have a style i can call my own" consume everything and deliberately pick the elements you like. "i'm afraid of accidentally plagiarizing" plagiarize a second thing at the same time and then its yours

haunted by the decisions i've made by not choosing

asking "hey is it fine if I smoke in here" and before you're able to answer I've already set up a full rack of salmon over a fire in your living room