dear friends,
I’ve been thinking about the difference between friendship and community — and how the web of relationships we weave (and unweave) over a lifetime sometimes resist being cleanly sorted into a taxonomical structure.
it makes more sense for me to think of relationships as nodes, like stars in a constellation. sometimes our orbits intersect. sometimes they don’t. sometimes we make an effort to remember, to ask, to bottle a thought into a message, and send it across the void. and even if the sending only takes a moment, the distance can still feel significant.
friends
when you work for yourself, it gets more confusing. “work friends” and “internet friends” and “readers/listeners” and “audience” and “internet strangers” and “community members” or “clients/customers/students” — all of that language is an attempt to define proximity. to establish intimacy, or to create distance.
I have cherished life friends with whom I rarely talk to about work. what we are bound by is experience, memory, and an emotional understanding of each other across many lifetimes. they have no idea what I mean by “containers,” but they know the sudden swing of my emotions, and that I like my noodles with extra vinegar.
I address you as “friend,” by which I mean, “creative friend,” by which I mean — a person I may never meet, or share a meal with, but with whom I am likely to share something essential, significant, and important — values, practices, questions, interests, commitments, obsessions, dilemmas, challenges.
shared problems
to choose a specific creative life is to choose a specific set of problems. and how wonderful, to know that you are not alone in the turmoil! it’s like we’re all solving sudoku puzzles together, only the numbers don’t always add up, and sometimes, it feels like we have to keep starting over.
I’ve come to my own definition of community as that of shared questing. it is about offering each other companionship on our mundane, daily quests — making the work, sharing the work, carving space out for a creative practice, when so many other demands hover and enroach in our lives.
we witness, together, the textures of a daily creative life. this texture informs so many other relationships — with time, with process, with fear, with visibility, with money, with our own ideas and inspirations, and with our personal freedom and power; with a sense of what is possible for us, in our lives.
in sharing our problems, we share our dreams. then we walk onwards.
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I’ve been thinking about all of this, as I prepare myself — emotionally, mentally, spiritually — for Season 2 of Labyrinth Library. tomorrow, I’ll also release a podcast episode about my complicated relationship to community.
Labyrinth Library — we start on Monday!
Labyrinth is a 12 week, nonlinear communal space for navigating our creative practice & process. the season 2 focus in Labyrinth is “creative companionship” — everything that I wrote about above. it’ll feel like:
supported devotion to deep creative practice
presence of communal support (+ my support)
asking and untangling hard questions together
sharing and learning from each others’ obsessions, process, and passions
weekly 15 min audio teachings + 2 live workshops
spontaneous unfolding things we create together
witnessing my secret notebooks, systems, inspirations, messy overflowing processes
explore from season 1:
labyrinth as a hiking trail map
community reflections
my season 1 reflection notes
artifacts library
dates: Feb 16 - May 11, 2026
Do I do Labyrinth, or Digital Abundance?
Labyrinth Library — if you’re interested in gentle containers to deepen and follow your creative practices and see where it leads you this season, while receiving and giving to a community of inspired, creative beings, and witnessing my real-time creative process & metabolizing. you’re looking for some soft guidance, but more curious to explore.
Digital Abundance — if you desire a structured, immersive journey for reimagining, reshaping, re-creating your business — as a generative vessel that feeds your creative energy. there will be a syllabus/curriculum, weekly assignments, workshopping sessions. you’ll be a part of a live group, evolving our businesses together.
either way, both experiences will have wonderful, creative, kind people in them. you are in safe and gentle hands.
🌑 Recently ~
spring itinerary for the unknown
an atmospheric map for our slow transition from winter into spring, through astrological archetypes. I'll share why thinking in seasons has become such an important practice for me, my intentions for this coming season, and grounding theme words — Pisces (dreaming), Aries (instinct), Taurus (embodying). this itinerary is the 12 week map for Labyrinth.
spring itinerary for the unknown — kening zhu
creative practice with the energies of Pisces, Aries, Taurus
the work is the medicine you need
this is about trusting in the work you need, and how creating from necessity is a form of creative power, because it keeps you close to what's vital, alive, and electric -- more than any "should" energy ever could.
I'll explore how generative discomfort can be used as fuel for excavating creative potential, and how to sense into what's ready to be metabolized -- into medicine. I'll share concrete examples from my 11 years of obsessions.
the work is the medicine you need — kening zhu
generative discomfort as creative power
poisoned apple as seer, Aquarius II
poisoned apple as liminal space; as a portal between worlds
poisoned apple as seer, aquarius II — kening zhu
a portal between worlds
exile of the black sheep, Aquarius I
this one I related to deeply, in blood. the black sheep can be certain they will experience loneliness — in pursuit of a vision only they can see.
exile of the black sheep, aquarius i — kening zhu
there is no certainty they will be victorious, only lonely.
blue tree shadows on sun lit snow
a moment I saved in my mind
blue tree shadows on sun-lit snow — kening zhu
a visual poem, a few sketches
january, a deconstructed calendar
my visual recollections of a month, from last week’s letter
january, a deconstructed calendar — kening zhu
a month of snowy sun, blue shadows, dark holes
🔮 Curations from the Archives
this week’s curations is about my very long gestating process of imagining a community. I’ve been teaching creative classes and leading small groups since 2020, but Labyrinth is the first community I’ve committed to, over time.
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6 years ago — giving to self vs. to other
from my era of pendulum swinging between over-giving + ghosting (2020)
giving to self vs. other — kening zhu
finding the balance in making art for myself and for others
3 years ago — a hermit growing creative community
the first time I articulated my complex feelings about community, and the tension (my false binaries) between solitude + community (2023)
a hermit growing creative community — kening zhu
reflections on the tensions of solitude vs. community -- being myself vs. being with others; being free vs. being in relationships -- and how I've changed my mind about all that.
2 years ago — intentions for a creative community
I wrote this 1 year after the previous post. I barely recognize my voice here, but the ethos still feel right. Labyrinth feels like a matured evolution of this.
intentions for a creative community — kening zhu
exploring my intentions and desires for building community
4 months ago — imagining labyrinth library
finally doing it. how I sketched out this offering by starting with its heart core
imagining labyrinth library — kening zhu
the beginning of communal mystery studies
🧧 Digital Abundance — sign-ups open next week
Digital Abundance is the business course I’ve been preparing my whole life to teach. I’ll guide you, step by step, through imagining, planning, creating, sharing, and releasing a paid offering — and to build the infrastructure for a business ecosystem that feeds your world.
course begins — March 9, 2026
registration will (definitely! I promise!) open next week.
I will also share the syllabus/curriculum for the journey.
📝 Notes & Misc.
thinking about ~ nothing. just kidding.
but i’m in an end of cycle mood, which looks like this, so my mind is both blank and full of static. I am thinking about…
the disney-ification and over-simplification of fairytales and myth — like our collective cultural richness has been reduced to something basic and meager.
how creative practice needs a vortex / gravitational pull, or it will be over-run by more urgent things.
how sometimes, having a business feels inherently, structurally relentless and tiring, even if you love it. aka, why can’t I stop making new things? designing for boredom and creative restlessness.
once again… I am not sure what rest is, especially when everything feels like a practice, with purpose. is rest purposeless?
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wishing you deep time for getting lost in something nourishing and pleasurable, this week.
until soon,
🪼 kening
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🍃 podcast: botanical studies of internet magic
🦋 join the spring season of labyrinth library
🏔️ explore my courses: house on the webs | creative systems | sharing space camp | money juice cleanse | digital abundance
🪷 advising with me: liminal leap, and intensive sessions
🌔 otherworldly: a web alchemy studio
💧 send me a gift: water my world
You just read issue #73 of kening's letters. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.