Do the things that are delightful to you
Weekly things (new format!)
“You do not have to be good,” wrote Mary Oliver.
We’re reading the poem “Wild Geese” together in a class with Devin Kelly, noticing how we feel, noticing what surprises us.
I notice relief—I don’t have to be good. This doesn’t have to be good. I only have to let the soft animal of my body love what it loves.
Why don’t we always let it?
Reflecting on a play I saw last week, Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen, I thought about how to be human is to be at odds. We can overthink yet avoid feeling. We can be self-conscious, yet lack self-awareness. We can want something, yet sabotage opportunities to get it.
Speaking to the play’s writer Marcelo Dos Santos, we delve into how its protagonist—a permanently single, professionally neurotic stand-up—grapples with such paradigms.
In short, we can get in our own way. But, I’ve often wondered, what part of us is getting in the way?
Perhaps it’s all the thinking instead of feeling. As Marcelo told me, “If you stay with the feeling long enough, you see it will pass. But if you’re constantly overthinking, it can keep perpetuating it.”
I asked Marcelo if he also grapples with overthinking.
“In the early days of writing the play I wondered if it was enough. It’s not based on social or political issues—it’s a composite of my own and my friend’s feelings and experiences, and I didn’t know if I could just grapple with these ideas.”
I keep encountering this question—is it enough? Good enough. Smart enough. Original enough. Cool enough. Impactful enough. Is there such thing?
It’s something Marcelo put to the director of the play Matthew Xia: “Are the ideas big enough?”
“Well, is it true?” Matthew questioned back. “Is it what you want to say?”
The answer from Marcelo was yes, without hesitation.
“Then that’s enough.”
Maybe that’s what we can ask when we are caught up in thinking: What do you feel? What is true? What do you want at this moment?
This week, while running to a remix of an Alan Watts lecture, I felt affirmed listening to the line repeat: “Do the thing that’s delightful for you.”
That’s it. When you get the chance, just do the thing that’s delightful. Be it in a spare moment, in a creative project, in a relationship—let your soft animal body love what it loves.
And let it be enough.
Meeting some of you in one-on-one sessions is quickly becoming my favourite thing—and I’m so thrilled for
who launched her brilliant new Substack after our first meeting!It also happens to be one of the most touching, funny, and tender newsletters I’ve read. To me, this is such a tangible example of why doing the thing that’s delightful you is so important—what we create with full-feeling can be so moving to others.
Be sure to read this beautiful entry on how we show love and subscribe to Hotel Pens for more enlivening notes.
“I am amazed at how quickly Madeleine was able to unlock things that I had been stuck on for months […] Madeleine is truly an enthusiastic, encouraging, and inspiring mentor. She brings poignant questions and powerful insights that were invaluable to me. Her guidance was exactly what I needed to sprint forward in the right direction. I could not recommend her more!” — Megan Edmiston
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