Ripening.

As I've watched the oranges fill the trees and the fall to the ground here in Athens, and seen the spring flowers start to unfold, it's made me think about how everything in life ripens at its own pace - and how I need to give myself the same amount of grace.

For all the years I've been putting out these letters, I've wrestled with a real tension: having a deadline every week means that I'm forced to put out honest work each week, regardless of whether I think a given piece is ready.

This is good, because it means that the things I make don't sit in a notebook somewhere; they actually get out into the world, however imperfect they are. It's also been good because, rather unexpectedly to me, it's meant the meat of this work, of these letters, has been an authentic glimpse into what life is really like.

But it's also bad. It's bad because on low-energy weeks, pretty much all of the creative energy I have goes into each letter. It's bad because sometimes they're not ready. But most of all, it's bad because in a life with finite time and energy, the time I spend having something ready every week is stopping me from taking some bigger swings at projects I'm really passionate about.

I built a buffer last fall, and that worked well, allowing the letters to show up sporadically, on their own time, and allowing me to work on other projects in the meantime. But life happens, and by this spring, the buffer is empty and I haven't been able to fill it back up.

And the root of the problem is simple: I'm a person whose creative work comes in bursts. And I've chosen to put my work out like someone whose creative work is rhythmic and consistent.

I know how I got here, why I chose this pattern - but I also know more now than I did then. And what I know now is that artists should choose forms and ways of engagement that fit who they are, not who they think their audience is.

Great work is work we, as artists, are happy with. What the world thinks of it is none of our business.

And so I'm going to try an experiment for the rest of this year. The letters will still come out at the same time - 10:05am Paris time - just not every week.

I'm going to let them ripen, let myself make and share at my own pace, and take some bigger swings at the projects that really interest me, in the finite days I - and each of us - get.

Thank you so much for coming along on the journey, and spending some of your precious life engaging with the things I make. I appreciate you so much. And I'm cheering for you, in your authentic journey, right alongside me.

With lots of love, -Steven

p.s. The best thing I saw all week was, relevantly, this 40-minute video essay on Kendrick Lamar, Drake - and the power of quality over quantity.