Meanwhile.

A postcard sent with love from Lisbon.

I’m breaking my own cardinal rule of not working while on vacation. But it hardly seems like work to quickly dash a note to my readers.

Yesterday morning I visited the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon. An exhibit on the second floor — entitled Meanwhile — hit me as so much more than a collection of artworks. It is a rally cry to creatives everywhere to SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.

The placard announcing the exhibit reads as follows:

“Meanwhile inscribes itself in the praise of contemplation, pause, and deceleration in the creative process. Referring to moments of rest, procrastination, and a movement close to ‘I prefer not to do’, the exhibition reveals how these states of suspension are part of the artistic journey. What remains undone, the unfinished, and the projects that inhabit only in diaries take center stage, without the pressure of completion. Here, the studio is seen as a space of freedom and error, where time follows its own rhythm, and the ‘during’ is more important than the final result. Leisure, idleness, and recreation are celebrated, almost as a manifesto or revolutionary gesture, as inseparable elements of creation, highlighting the artist’s action in their suspensions, deviations and pauses.”

Amongst the images of artists in times of reflection, along with pages torn from Moleskins capturing early inklings of ideas, you could almost miss the most inspired thing of all. Interspersed throughout the exhibit were little bronze snails attached to the walls. Petit punctuations throughout the exhibit in praise of S-L-O-W.

So wherever you are on your current projects, take this as a message from the creative Gods that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. Let your ideas breathe. Let yourself rest. See every little offering as a victory.

Until next time, remember that creativity knows no bounds.