You're asking, "Are you ever going to get off the spiritual, metaphysical train for heavens sake?"

Welcome! It's Wednesday, December 18th.

Yesterday, I had very little motivation or clarity.

Hazy, slumpish weather reinforced my slow mood.

I had certainty that all was in order, but my mind was all over the place and couldn't nail anything down.

I had no plan for today's newsletter. But I could sense the answer, or the subject, hovering somewhere "out there". I couldn't name it. I didn't know what it was about. But I KNEW it would show up.

You know that feeling? When something wants to be born but hasn't quite announced itself yet?

So, I went for a walk. I was half-listening to a podcast, when I realized I could make a simple detour, grab my friend's key from my house, and water her plants as she requested.

But you know how these things go. Back at my house, my son wanted help with something fairly detailed.

I stuck around because, in the unusual situation that he's asking for my help, I'm all in.

I paused the podcast knowing I'd pick it up later.

By the time I picked up my phone again, it became clear I had NOT paused the podcast, and the algorithm had moved on to an entirely different podcast, different presenter, different everything.

And like a beacon cutting through fog, I heard something I'd never heard before.

"You are the abundance. The abundance is you. You are not looking for it outside of yourself. You're the resource."

Holy hell.

I am the abundance that creates the connections in the first place. "Are you sure? How do you know?"

The abundance doesn't exist outside of me (or you), waiting to be discovered or earned or manifested through the right morning routine or business strategy.

The abundance IS me.

It's like a game. We're not hungry Pac-Man eating dots that exist outside of us. We're not consuming what's out there to clear a maze and chase ghosts and win prizes.

We're self-generating. We ARE the game itself. We create the dots, the maze, the power-ups, the whole experience from within.

It's like being the game designer AND the player simultaneously.

The abundance flows FROM you, not TO you.

I say this with one pivot associated with my beliefs.

The abundance is me. But I believe that there's a great conductor of abundance who will surprise and delight us by connecting the dots. That is the actual Creator.

Regardless, how does this apply to us as artists, writers, designers, all creatives?

You can stop telling yourself "I'm not doing x,y,z because I don't have the resources." You are the resource.

Your perspective, your voice, your particular way of seeing the world- that's the abundance.

Your deep, internalized, nervous-system-soothing belief that you are the resource means that you know what to do.

And yes, it may be tiny steps to get things lined up to meet your mission and goals, but you know what to do.

You know who to ask. You know what to ask. You know who to ask about what to ask.

You know the one thing you can do to get started.

That creative risk you're afraid to take because you can't see how it connects to your "real" career? You are the connection.

Your willingness to follow what feels essential (even if you don't know WHY it feels essential) creates the bridge between where you are and where you're going.

That moment when you're wondering if you're "enough"- experienced enough, talented enough, ready enough? You are THE enough. There is no one more ENOUGH than you.

You don't need to see the whole staircase to know it will get you where you want to go.

A few other things happened yesterday that connected these dots for me. I'm going to write about those in a different issue.

Today, we're asked to ruminate on just this: "You are the abundance."

If I were you, I'd say it out loud. "I'm the abundance. Abundance is not outside of me. I'm the resource."

I’ve been entrenching that deep into my psyche by saying it out loud since yesterday.

BTW, there are those of you who already live this way. This is no news to you. Congratulations. You know who you are and it’s meant the world to me to see you live out your abundance every day.

But there are many more who don't.

I'm talking to those of us who don’t.

In a moment, you can change everything, with one mindset shift.

What are you searching for outside of yourself that's already humming happily inside of you?

Gmail shortens emails in awkward places. Read here. It’s better.

I was ruminating about the weather yesterday and how glorious it is to walk in the rain. (Remember the idea that there is no bad weather, only the wrong clothing? That’s how I started ruminating on walking in the rain).

I also was thinking about what to write to celebrate the life of Martin Parr who left us on December 6, 2025 at 73 in Bristol, England.

I was researching his work when this photograph popped up. And it turns out he has an incredible body of work from 1982 called Bad Weather.

Things always land.

“Bad weather is so British. There’s an obsession with talking about the weather all the time because it’s so changeable. I liked the idea of doing a project around a theme that people are obsessed with. So one day, while I was still in Hebden Bridge, I bought an underwater camera and an underwater flash gun, even though I’m a non-swimmer. They told me in the shop that I was the only non-swimmer who had ever bought an underwater camera. With this combination, I started to take pictures for my Bad Weather project. I’d go around different towns, looking for situations to photograph in bad weather.

Here, a man in a coat is walking down a hill in the rain. It was taken during what we call the magic hour, when the light is fading. By using the flash, I got blobs on the images – they were raindrops on the screen. The blobs were the most interesting thing about the picture, so I started to use this as a technique and incorporating them into photographs. Sometimes I’d even put water on the lens to give that slightly out-of-focus look.” - Martin Parr

I had to include this glorious passage from Jim Roche’s newsletter issue about Martin Parr (substack here).

That’s everything for today friends.

Next week, no newsletter. But a season’s greetings will be in your inbox.

Make something,

Clarissa

Martin Parr: Martin Parr: Bad Weather, Out of print, if you find a copy out there on your excursions, snag it.

Martin Parr, Wendy Jones: Utterly Lazy and Inattentive Martin Parr: My Words, My Photographs, A landmark visual memoir by of one of the world’s most important photographers who straddles the worlds of fine art and popular culture. Brilliant, understated, enigmatic, transformative . . . as one of the world’s leading documentary photographers, Parr is celebrated for observing, ironizing, questioning, and celebrating modern life and contemporary society, holding a mirror to the public.

I’ve put together a list that you’ll love of creators, artists, writers, technique, mindset, travel...dive in! I work with Bookshop.org whenever possible. Through its sales model they give back to independent books stores.

*I earn a commission on some of these links if you make a purchase. It doesn't cost you anything at all. I only recommend what I use or believe in.