Last month (yes, it's the next month already!) I attended one of my favorite events of the year, namely Louisiana Literature 2025. I have learned to do it "my way" — I explore all authors' work upfront and then during the festival I focus on just a handful of them, those that I expect will inspire me the most. And yes, inspiration was generously flowing my way this year. I feel it still, plus, I have my notes. As I review them in this very moment, this one draws my attention the most. In a conversation between Hwang Sok-yong and Richard Flanagan one of them said something along these lines:

I realized that the world is changing and so my writing had to change too.

This reverberates in me in many ways, in terms of writing (that is changing for me quite radically) but also in a recognition of something bigger.

While we live our fairly ordinary lives, day by day, week by week, the world is changing rapidly. We know it, but do we notice whether and how it affects our own lives, the way we think, feel, work, create, relate to each other?

I am so used to change. All my life has been about change, and I never got to stand still too long, never got to live a so-called “normal life.” Given my contemplative/introverted nature I always saw these changes as something personal, dictated by the nature of my unique journey through life. But then again...

Along the way the world has changed greatly, and these days it’s changing more radically and rapidly than ever. Perhaps, I am more affected by it than I realize… Perhaps this is why this question, this invitation speaks to me today. Does it speak to you?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨.

Is it true?
What is it that has to change, now, or is changing already?
And what is it that has to prevail rather than change?

I find myself not so much thinking about it as feeling into it, with curiosity...