The myth and its accompanying rituals were a reminder that often things had to get worse before they could get better, and that survival and creativity required a dedicated struggle.*
Karen Armstrong
*Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth.
It’s good that you’re feeling bored. Bored is an actual feeling. Bored can prompt toward motion…Bored is what empty space feels like, and you can use that empty space to do something important…I’m glad you’re feeling bored, and now we’re excited to see what you’re going to do about it. *
Seth Godin
Once you’ve truly settled into the anaesthetising effects of boredom, you find yourself enroute to discovery. … You let your mind wander and follow it where it goes.**
Pamela Paul
When did you learn the word boring?
My six year old grandson has begun to use it.
I’m gently letting him know being bored is his responsibility.
And boredom can appear before an adventure.
*Seth Godin blog: Thoughts on “I’m bored”;
**nytimes.com: Let Children Get Bored Again.
It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing or dance while the music was being played.*
Alan Watts
The blue community** does not stand as guardians at the tombs of yesterday; it walks as midwife to the birth of tomorrow.^
AleXander McManus
Universe
plays the music–
We find the words to sing,
The steps to jig.
We
bring the meaning–
A contribution to make,
Our deepest wisdom.
We
harbingers of dawn–
Not recycling the past,
Believing in possibility.
*Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments;
**Those who are open to the the transcendence to be discovered in all things;
^AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments.
Nothing happens until someone feels something.*
gapingvoid
Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering – or find someone who makes it for you.**
Susan Cain
There are meanings born
in the simplicity of joy.
Others, though,
derive from the difficulty of complexity.
Yet others are forged
from the pain and endless despair of perplexity.
Our brains
need our feelings to know what to do.
A conversation ensues,
No misleadings, please.
Then the brain
moves us into action … with all our heart.
*gapingvoid’s blog: The Secret Key To Success;
**Susan Cain’s Bittersweet.
When it comes to our life stories, nothing is ever final.*
Dan McAdams
Even though pop music uses many similar chords and structures, sometimes it still gives pop shivers…when moving to a certain chord hits just right, with just the right voicing, with just the right chord preceding it, with just the right melody over it.**
Gabe Anderson
Postmythic
is an option–
As I grow older I could be content to review my myth.
It’s one option–
Another
is to grow and develop my myth as long as possible.
As long as possible–
A euphemism
for the rest of my days, and the best day to begin is today.
Mythic–
A mystery
worth continuing– different people, situations, challenges … new shivers.
*Dan McAdams’ The Stories We Live By;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: Pop Shivers.
They found that people who identified their core characteristics or Superpowers and deliberately and intentional focused on Activating those Superpowers were more resilient and fulfilled.*
Todd Herman
When we go deeply into the personal, we go beyond the personal. We achieve something that is collective.**
Anaïs Nin
It turns out
that finding out
more about ourselves
ends up
not being about us
but connecting to
and serving others–
Who knew!
*Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect;
**Suleika Jaoud’s The Book of Alchemy.
Happy, smart and useful.*
Derek Sivers
What you trade your attention for is what your life becomes.**
James Clear
What is your intentional story in three words?–
Your words, not someone else’s;
If these do not warm your heart,
Change them–
They’re your words.
Three words are practical–
Not too simple, not too complex –
In appraising and deciding,
And when you stray,
They call you home.
*Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah Or No;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On making the most of what you have, how to make a convincing argument, and embracing danger.
In the Extraordinary^ world, your “orientation” has been set to “positive.”*
Todd Herman
This is what they want from you, that mysterious, momentous thing. The unwild want consistency. They want you to be exactly the same today as you were yesterday.**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Positive
because in the extraordinary
world,^ you not only
inhabit your strengths
and values most fully,
You are also facing
your weaknesses and incompleteness
without hiding–
You struggle and transcend.
*Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
^Herman’s Extraordinary world equates to a myth’s Special world, where we understand and connect to our life in a deeper way.
Effortful conscious action can be transformed into wu-wei.*
Edward Slingerland
Which of your strengths have you been under-deploying?**
James Clear
It turns out there are seven
alchemical “magicals”–^
Rather than with metals,
I see alchemy as part of Human development:
Conjunctio –
Living with contradictions and tensions.
Solutio –
Exploring by removing story elements to create a new life myth.
Sublimatio –
Developing and elevating some ignored talent.
Coagulatio –
Turning ideas into practices.
Calcinatio –
Embracing pressure to create substance.
Mortificatio –
Letting go and letting come.
Putrefactio –
Exploring with passion the extremes others consider to be ugly and unpleasant.
You probably imagined something in your life for each of these:
You are an alchemist.
*Edward Slingerland’s Trying Not To Try;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On finding someone wonderful, emphasizing your strengths, and letting go;
^Richard Rohr’s The Tears Of Things.
Picasso painted with passion,
Mozart composed with it.
A child plays with it all day long.*
Steven Pressfield
When a powerful new technology arrives it offers us wishes. Too often we waste them…We’re in the biggest moment of technological change of our lifetimes. What are you using your wishes for?**
Seth Godin
To be enthralled
is not the same
as being impassioned.
To be enthusiastic
is not the same
as being impassioned.
There are lots of bright
shiny things to be enthralled by–
That is, “to be in bondage to.”
There are many things
to be enthusiastic in–
Though this waxes and wanes.
Passion is not the way
of a few, but the birth-gift
of the many.
It faces difficulty
and discomfort,
But these are the making of it.
It is not made worthy by size
or some scale of feelings,
But by its singularity.
It is not found or pursued,
But uncovered
and allowed to breathe.
All that we are and all that we have
will serve it–
Not the other way round.
*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The banal djinni.
THIN|SILENCE 
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