Thoughts on the season of writing grant notification

and the nature of fortune

Photo by Sorina Bindea on Unsplash

Here in British Columbia, both provincial and federal writers’ grant applications are due in the fall, and the results are released in late February.

We receive our annual PLR—Public Lending Rights, or “library cheque”—around the same time.

For me, this meant a “No” on Tuesday from Canada Council, and on Friday another “No” from BC Arts Council. And in my mailbox a cheque that will cover my building insurance.

Nightly centering

Before going to sleep I read a verse of the Tao. Last night’s was #73, translated by Jonathan Star. Here is the part of it that caught me up:

Good fortune, bad fortune
One seems to bring benefit
the other to cause harm
But Heaven rejects them both
Both, in the end, tether men to this world

Of note, the lines about good and bad fortune, and how both “tether” us “to the world.”

Yesterday I was feeling very “tethered to the world.”