Each time the thought to give arises, act on it. Then notice what happens, in my experience, generosity never leads to remorse.*
Joseph Goldstein

Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thoughts come from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.**
Steven Pressfield

We may never know
the full out-workings of our moments
of generosity.

Many of these impulses
come from our deeper,
Better selves.

This is the Self we are becoming–
Where our talents and values
and energies meet.

We’re not looking for meaning
and purpose – we’re living it,
Dealing a blow to boredom.

*Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations For Mortals;
**Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

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

We most easily see a system when the systems bend under stress.*
Seth Godin

Systems transformation involves working with time in contradictory ways: with urgency and patience, with beginning and ending, with pressing on and relaxing.**
Adam Kahane

I’m a system,
You’re a system:
When something goes wrong,
It’s probably been headed that way
for a while.

Ongoing system-development
won’t cover everything that might go awry,
But it will catch most chronic issues
and even prepare us
for many acute ones.

We underestimate the need
for at least daily maintenance;
It doesn’t appear in many TV dramas
because it doesn’t make
the necessary angsty characters.

It is an oft forgotten art
for keeping to the drama
we want to be exploring
in our lives and
avoiding the unwanted kind.

*Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy;
**Adam Kahane’s Everyday Habits For Transforming Systems.

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Neurotic fatalism is only another disguised form of escape from responsibility; the neurotic fatalist is betraying his uniqueness and singularity when he seeks refuge in typicality and courts the unalterable destiny of belonging to a type.*
Viktor Frankl

To hope is risk. It’s to take a chance on losing. It’s also to take a chance on winning, and you can’t win if you don’t try …**
Rebecca Solnit

We are inventing
more “types” all the time–
But you are not a type.

To be you is a risk
and you may fail–
But real hope has no expiration date.

We need a hopeful expression
of you around here.

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
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The things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.*
James Baldwin

An increase in racial diversity by just one standard deviation increased productivity by more than 25 percent in legal services, health services and finance … Diversity isn’t some optional add-on. It isn’t the icing on the cake. Rather, it is the basic ingredient of collective intelligence.**
Matthew Syed

The great oneness,
As Mohandas Gandhi named it,
Is our great endeavour.

We are wrong
if we believe this only exists
in diversity, equality, and inclusion policies.

It is, as those
who have orbited our planet know,
Our reality.

I once was lost in a smaller world,
But, thank God, I keep being found
into a larger world.

*Ryan Holiday’s Right Thing, Right Now;
**Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas.

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Is it more useful to make others see your point of view, or make yourself see theirs? … Is it ultimately more useful to benefit only yourself, or benefit others?*
Derek Sivers

Jesus, whose life and death are marked precisely by excess, not the excess of violence but the excess of the gift, of finding the point of equilibrium and then recommending the step beyond so that to follow in his steps is to be committed to taking an extra step, to going the extra mile.**
John Caputo

Your gift,
your love,
Swing this world into
disequilibrium,
In spite of those things
and people who seek
to control–
Your “yes and” life
we need you to be
excessive with.

What’s your gift?

*Derek Sivers’ Useful Not True;
**John Caputo’s What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
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Most of us would do better if we became more adept at watching the fire under our work, if we watched more closely the cooking process for nourishing the wild Self. Too often we turn away from the pot, from the oven.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

We have not got enough time:
To read the book,
To go for the walk,
To meditate awhile,
To have that conversation,
To finish the course.

It’s more than thirty five years
since Peter Senge published his book**
on systems thinking,
Introducing us to the idea that systems
contain two loops:
The reinforcing one that we are most aware of
and the balancing one
where the problems usually occur.

Every person is a system
with reinforcing and balancing loops:
Once you know who you are
and what you must do,
There can be a temptation
to neglect what aligns you
and feeds your productivity–
What’s in your balancing loop?

The practice
that you cannot not do
gets you up in the morning
and keeps pulling you back
from distractions,
It adds to you
and opens new possibilities–
And tomorrow it will be there again.

*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
**Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.

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

One does not magically get one’s act together – it is a matter of individual choices … And make no mistake: while the individual action is small, its cumulative impact is not.*
Ryan Holiday

Keep in mind that finding your purpose involve uncovering something that has always been within you, rather than discovering something new and alien.**
AleXander McManus

Although we can spend time
working on the negative things
in our lives,
We could try
living towards
our most important
and positive things.

As we identify
our deepest joy
and bring this to
the world’s deepest need,^
We find direction and
occupation and consistency
and grit.

We feel good
when we do good,
So we want to do more–
This will be
our salvation,
Making us strong to deal with
whatever negatives persist.

You are supposed to be generous. You are supposed to be kind. The fact that no one is rushing to throw you a parade is its own compliment in a way. We’re not surprised … because we know you. We know who you are.^^

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**AleXander McManus’ FutureU;
^Each sees a different “greatest need”;
^^Ryan Holiday’s Right Thing, Right Now.

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Scarcity of creation and scarcity of distribution have been replaced by a surplus of both.*
Seth Godin

Capitalism is a poor employer
of imagination and creativity,
Producing stockpiles
of talent and stockrooms
of redundancy and landfills of waste.

Yet it is hard to imagine a world where
an overflow of love,
a mountain of unused mercy,
an unused warehouse of care
will ever exist.

Beyond our sophistication,
We rediscover the wildness
of our nature that will not
waste anything
of human creativity and giving.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Small changes to big systems.

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

Researchers distinguish between active acceptance and resigning acceptance.*

Experimenting with your emotions helps you move from self-judgement to self-curiosity**
Anne-Laure Le Cunff

A bad night–
Major past mistakes
crowding in on me.

I rushed toward feeling
bad about them, feeling
bad about me.

I thought that I’d learnt
from my errors,
But still they haunted me.

This morning after, I read
how emotions unfold
through four stages:^

Encounter, attention, appraisal, feeling and behaviour–
How, at any stage,
I can bring my curiosity and inquiry.

I cannot go back
but I can go forward
with the time I have left.

An agent of curiosity
continuing to learn,
Living knowledge into wisdom.

*Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments;
**Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Ness Labs newsletter: Experimenting With Emotions;
^The research of psychologist James Gross.

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The Self is not a punitive force that rushes about punishing women, men, and children. The Self is a wildish God who understands the nature of creatures.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Flight from the self allows for avoiding a confrontation with the void of self … We need new types of leisure that allow for contemplation and meditation. To this end, man needs the courage to be lonely.**
Viktor Frankl

May we not run away from ourselves,
There is nothing to fear,
Only a wonderfully plastic being
capable of great compassion,
Who can learn from failure,
Begin again countless times,
Keep dreaming, and, finally,
Bring something wonderful and
beautiful into the world,
Someone’s world.

*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
**Viktor Frankl’s The Will to Meaning.

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