Rebecca Rebouché

Scroll to Info & Navigation

Wrestling the Angel

“It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absentminded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all.” - Mary Oliver

I culled this quote from Sunday’s Brain Pickings mailer, as I found particular solace in it, being that I’m in the throws of bringing this new body of work into the world. I take comfort in whatever reassuring words I can find through friends in real life, or in written form, that might resonate to the massive boulders of challenge I find myself climbing during this phase of creation. It happens every time I undertake a show, a collection, the production of a creative vision. All manner of normal life gets put on hold while I tend to the the enormous loyalty my vision requires. As of yet in my career, I have found no other way to get it done, to get it out, other than that reckless wrestling with the angel, as Mary Oliver puts it. Thank you Mary, for putting it into words, so that I might feel less alone in the process.