Seth Haines's Blog, page 3

Writing in a Flow State: How Creating Creates Connection With Something Bigger

An email on the weekend? Yes. Yesterday got away from me and I couldn’t post the third piece in my creativity series. After you read the piece, make sure to check out some great weekend links.

Writing Like Running, Like Butter, Like Flow

Head cocked, listening to the wind, writing what I hear—this closest explains the act of writing. There is some voice just on the other side of reason that comes whispering. I channel it, perhaps translate it. It’s the voice that belongs to the page. It comes in ...

Writing as the Art of Connection

Why write? Why create? Artist, authors, and actors have given hundreds of words to the topic, but last week, I laid hands on a copy of Jeff Tweedy’s new book, How to Write One Song. In it, he writes,

“At the core of any creative act is an impulse to make manifest our powerful desire to connect—with others, with ourselves, with the sacred, with God? We all want to feel less alone, and I believe that a song being sung is one of the clearest views we ever have to witness how humans reach out for wa...

My Creativity is Broken. Is Yours?

I’ve broken from my own conventions. After writing and publishing every day for several months, after building an entire routine around the practice, I found myself in a pandemic rut. COVID came and with it a by-God dry spell set in.

This is not to say I didn’t write. I pecked out words here and there, words about the pandemic and the election and what it means to be sober in it all. I shared both depth and pith on Instagram, Twitter, and in Newsletters. But that marvelous streak of daily writ...

On Political Sobriety: Part III

I’m continuing my series, “On Political Sobriety.” You can read Part I in my Newsletter and Part II by following this link.

"I'm worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized there is a risk of civil unrest."

~Mark Zuckerberg

During a break in our meeting—a liminal space generally reserved for small talk in business circles—the executive leaned in and said, “This has the potential to get ugly.” A rational woman, a business leader and ...

On Political Sobriety: Part II

We’re moving into the last week of a fraught season. Yesterday, I sent a newsletter to my Substack subscribers, in which I called for political sobriety as we draw to the close of the 2020 election. If you haven’t read the newsletter, follow this link.

In the last 48 hours, I’ve had a handful of conversations in which the person on the other side of the table invoked the very real concern that our country is headed into a season of violence. I cannot say whether this is melodrama or a legitimate...

Strangely Different - A Reader's Near-Death Story

Yesterday, I asked whether any of you had a near-death experience, a sort of resurrection story. It seemed like a stretch, but because I have the most interesting readers in the world, I thought I’d take a shot. The shot paid off.

Lisa responded. As a toddler, she had her own near-death experience while in the hospital. And though she doesn’t remember the details, she shared this: “Strangely my parents said I was different. Liked different foods, had a different personality, mannerisms. Like a d...

A Near-Death Story, a Bright Light, and a Hope for the Resurrection of Democracy

Two weeks ago, I sent a newsletter about cultivating a “Resurrection Imagination.” There, I argued the world was in an unrelenting cycle, one that’s “all spinning negative.” This, of course, was before the Hindenburgian experience that was the Presidential debate and before President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. It was before whatever melodramatic event unfolds this week.

2020—It’s can’t catch a break, man.

While walking the dog, I found myself waxing melancholic about near-death experience...

Social Media and Politics of Attention

Consider the things that disrupt your attention, that break you out of routine. Is social media among them?

I’ve been writing about social media distraction for some time, but today, consider a different angle. Consider how attention-grabbing social media networks are influenced by political power, how those political powers influence the algorithms, and how those algorithms influence you. What do I mean? In an article published today on Bloomberg, Sarah Frier shows how Facebook’s attempts to ap...

Recovering Routine (In the Insanity That is 2020)

If you haven’t heard, it’s National Recovery Month, so I’m zoning in. Recovery is about regaining control, choosing the outcomes you want for your life. And as I’ve written before, during this pandemic season (and the insanity that’s been 2020), my routines have fallen by the wayside. I’ve been overworked and less given to creative work. I’ve indulged in more social media consumption than I’d like, too. So now, I’m aiming to fix that through:

Capturing the first hour of the day to create, meditat...

I Might be Insane, But I'm Inviting You Along for the Ride

I’m writing this update from my office, and one story below me, a concrete saw and jackhammer offer alternating distractions. One moment screeches. The next quakes. I am not living my best writing life. It is par for the course of 2020.

Writing has been difficult in this insane milieu. But it’s not just writing. Just about everything takes more effort in 2020 than in previous years--eating healthfully, exercising, spiritual disciplines, fighting smartphone addiction. If this year were to be tagge...