Getting it right the first time. How unlikely is this? … Evolution is powerful. It gives us a chance to revise, edit, and do what works while removing what doesn’t. … Got it wrong the first time? Then make it better.*
Seth Godin

Perhaps we think of ourselves
on the human evolution timeline,
A small life lived against a background
of big numbers–
Nothing changes much on a scale such as this,
But our lives are all about evolution–
When we mess up or fall short
or find it hard to learn or struggle
to control our emotions or grow an attitude,
Here’s another day to try
yet another way to better–
Forgiveness is an incredible human power.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Getting it right the first time.

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THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

The cause of irritation – or our notion that something is bad – that comes from us, from our labels and expectations.*
Ryan Holiday

Honesty is reached through the doorway of grief and loss. Where we cannot go in our mind, our memory or our body is where we cannot be straight with another, with the world, or with our self.**
David Whyte

I can jump to a conclusion very well
from my many years of training
in blaming something “out there”–
Though sometimes it is,
If I take a moment more
to check “inside here”
I may find a desire to have my own way,
To control the outcome,
For my assumptions to be realised–
Sometimes a moment allows
to see what is and desires to emerge–
And in this moment I am gifted
with growth.

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**David Whyte’s Consolations.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

People do much better when they don’t think they’re being artists…if you don’t call it art, you’re likely to get a better result.* Brian Eno

The thing you do–

And usually call work, or a job–

It may be worth asking–

How can I do this more artistically?

You may be surprised–

I won’t be.

*Quoted in Austin Kleon’s Don’t Call It Art.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Characters in stories are trying to accomplish what we are all trying to accomplish in our lives. They desire, as we do, to expand, preserve, and enhance the self as a powerful and autonomous agent in the world, and to relate, merge, and surrender the self to other selves within a loving and intimate community.* Dan McAdams

A little thin|silence–

A counterpoint to your uniqueness and delight–

A helpsake to your day–

Nothing more, nothing less.

*Dan McAdam’s The Stories We Live By.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

If there were no problems, it wouldn’t be much fun.* Alan Lightman

The world is full of particular opportunities and experiences that can change our lives…Acceptance of reality is the only choice that can result in making meaning and finding our way to being fully alive.** Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Is this a real problem?

Is it my/our problem?

Do I/we accept the problem?

What is it teaching me/us?

Am I/we the problem/part of the problem?

What kind of opportunity is this?

What do I/we bring to the problem?

It’s never just a problem.

*Alan Lightman’s A Sense Of The Mysterious; Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’ How To Live A Meaningful Life.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Doodles can be called mindless drawing. It’s one of the last places drawing still exists in a person who gave up on art long ago. A place where one line can still follow another without plan.* Lynda Barry

*Lynda Barry’s What It Is.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.*

I feel like there are powerful structures in our world that benefit from keeping us fearful, despairing, hopeless and busy. We are more easily manipulated and controlled that way. We might not be able to change those powerful structures, but we can push back against them by actively cultivating hope, joy, rest and slowness in our own lives.**
Rebecca Horn

*Genesis 2:2-3;
**Resistance is a small, playful collaboration with my friend Rebecca, who showed me her screenprinting project
exploring four forms of resistance– I loved it so much I offered to doodle each word for her. Today’s resistance is rest.

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The realm of invention and imagination…is also where we attain the realisation that we are made of God stuff, that we are not separate from the Creator.* Jean Houston

Well, I think that the only way I can fully give myself to an idea of God is to have room to question. To me, the gift of God is that He provides us with the space to doubt. For me, at least, doubt becomes the energy of belief.** Nick Cave

(Apologies, but I still haven’t been able to figure out the formatting problem, even with the help of a WordPress “Happiness Engineer” – basically “Shift” and “Enter” together aren’t dropping the cursor to the next line)

If you question and doubt what is–

If you imagine what could be–

And if you set out to bring this into being–

You are more like god than you know–

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard Of Us; **Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope And Carnage.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

What do we mean by the real world? Because isn’t that ours to create? Don’t we get a say in what the real world even is? Who says we can’t make something new?* Rob Bell

You don’t have to be particularly brave. You just have to be a tiny, tiny bit more interested in something than you are frightened of it.** Elizabeth Gilbert

(My apologies for formatting today – something has gone wrong with my blog editor, and I’m trying to sort it out.)

Some may not want you to know this-

When you imagine something, and then do it, you alter reality.

It’s going to work best when it’s something you are interested in.

Obsession is even better,

*Rob Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual; **Quoted in Suleika Jaoud’s The Book Of Alchemy.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE – THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

In every crowd there are Diminishers and there are Illuminators. Diminishers make people feel small and unseen…Illuminators, on the other hand, have a persistent curiosity about other people. They have been trained or have trained themselves in the craft of understanding others.*
David Brooks

Such an abundance–
So many different people
with a contribution to make–
Some begin earlier,
Others join in later–
Everyone important–
Scarcity isn’t someone lacking
but a life untried.

What do you bring?

*David Brooks’ How To Know A Person.

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THIN|SILENCE FROM YEAR AGO