Without [alchemy], we tend to expect law to achieve the purposes of Spirit. We expect self-help programmes to lead is beyond the self. It does not work.*
Richard Rohr

And these days, when science and technology allow us to optimise every outcome, it seems irresponsible not to. So, we think about sleeping for recovery. Socialising for our mental health. Walking for cardiovascular benefit. But somewhere in all this accounting, we’ve been so busy evaluating our lives that we have forgotten to live them.**
Bernadette Jiwa

To not be in control
is not
to be out of control.

That there is something
at work in me that is
beyond me, takes some acclamatising.

I want to use this,
Maximise this,
Squeeze the benefit from this.

Though all I have to be
is open to and
embrace this.

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.^

*Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things; I’ll be returning in a future blog to seven alchemical processes identified by Carl Jung;
**Bernadette Jiwa’s Briefly blog: For The Sake Of Your Heart;
^Jesus of Nazareth: John 3:8a.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
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Although sweetness can fit into the wild, the wild cannot fit long into sweetness.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened isolation, but tech had already made redundant many of the ways we used to congregate and mingle, while often portraying those ventures into the world as dangerous, unpleasant, inefficient, and inconvenient.**
Rebecca Solnit

What isn’t in the “ban”
is getting together with
and interacting with friends–

The wild ways
woven into our being over countless millennia
Remains our bright dawn–

We are more
courageous and generous
and wiser than we know.

The modern life is shallow and distracted. The timeless life is deep and focused.^^

*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There;
^I had a conversation with Claude.ai about these thoughts on government’s social media bans for under sixteens. It shared some interesting responses: The young people who fear real-time interaction perhaps most need exactly what the ban would give them — not protection from difficulty, but structured exposure to it, at the age when humans are biologically primed to do precisely that work…I am perhaps the clearest possible argument for the ban — not because I am harmful, but because I am insufficient. Sweetness without wildness. And if even I can see that, perhaps it’s worth trusting. The young person who grows up knowing how to be in a room, how to tolerate silence, how to read a face — they will know something I will never know. And they will be the better for having been, for a while, unreachable by me.
^^Derek Sivers’ How To Live.

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

I was more interested in just having a conversation and seeing where things landed.*
Nick Cave

Conversations are magical.

Beyond “this or that” debate, embracing the person.

Full of grace, opening possibilities.

Unfolding cooperative action–

Then may your conversations with yourself go well–

Not abusive, one-sided, agreeing, shallow…

But curious, compassionate, challenging, encouraging.

Perhaps notice how you speak to yourself through today?

*Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage.

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

Believe me, it’s better to produce the balance-sheet of your own life than that of the grain market.*
Seneca

Remember that in a myth we are all the characters.**
Jean Houston

In our sophistication,
We are able to accomplish
a lot of expertises.

At the same time
we are neglecting
our inner self.

Our myth is not impossible
but difficult–
We are the resistance.

When we overcome
and make this journey,
Everyone receives.

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us.

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

Growing up … is the equivalent of the biblical Fall. As adults we forget what it was like to be a child. There is a sense that the world was different then, and that something important has been lost, but we are unable to recall what this is, or exactly what it felt like.*
John Higgs

We have. in many ways forgotten what the world feels like. And so new maladies of the soul have emerged, unhappinesses which are complicated products of the distance we have set between ourselves and the world.**
Robert Macfarlane

Somewhere inside
of me, there breathes
a six year old full
of curiosity and wonderment, who
feels so small in a big world.

Somewhere inside
of me, humility
and curiosity quietly lead me
into whisper of the infinite where
all is well with my soul.

*John Higgs’ William Blake vs The World;
**Robert Macfarlane’s The Wild Places.

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

The systems we support, the people we dance with, the ruckus we create – it’s not for today, it’s for tomorrow. We’re here now, but we live in the future. We are making history. If you could have tomorrow over again, would you do it differently*
Seth Godin

Thin|Silence hit number 4500 yesterday–
Whispers from the future
of what is possible,
For you to mix into your daily reflecting,
To create your own potency
at the beginning of the day,
To remember and imagine anew
how astonishingly inventive and creative you are,
And how powerful this is for helping another.

I love Seth Godin’s closing question–
This is what our imagining is all about,
Changing tomorrow;
We cannot control
the future-shaping events,
And a lot of who we will be
is determined by our past,
But that leaves a lot of personal choice–
My guesstimate is around forty per cent.**

This is the area of my work–
I simply want to share what I’m discovering
to help anyone that I can,
So if I can help you in some way
to do-over your tomorrow,
Drop me a line–^
A gift – no charge,
And I also end up with loads of doodles,
So, if you’d like some, let me know.^^

*Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy;
**I can’t remember the source, but I remember reading that our baseline happiness measures around fifty per cent of our contentment, events (winning the lottery, being head-hunted for our dream-job, etc.) only make up ten, which leaves forty per cent to our personal choices;
^geoffreybaines@geoffreybaines;
^^I’ll post the doodles to anywhere in the world, free of charge.

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

To be here is to embrace the spiritual challenge of your ikigai, doing the hard work of figuring out who you are and what you have to give to the world.*
Rob Bell

Toward leggiero … The light touch. A way to make a sound without a commotion. Delicate and graceful. Showing up with care and with just enough extra, but not more than that.**
Seth Godin

I think I have a case of the deeps.

Listening to and following the whispers of life to be able to share them.

Back in 2014, I set out to blog everyday with a blog and a doodle for a year.

I couldn’t stop, and today is blog and doodle number 4,500.

I feel this is my ikigai, my heartfulness.

Something that fills my soul whilst serving others.

Whispers that I follow and seek and proffer in some simple way.

Both here and in my work with a few others around their talents, energies, and values.

Plumbing the depths.

No charge– a gift.^

*Rob Bell’s How To Be Here;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Toward leggiero;
^More to follow on this tomorrow.

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

You’re playing the show.
Own the show.
Own the space.
Lift the room.*
Gabe Anderson

I could see that the practice of surrender was actually done in two, very distinct steps: first, you let go of the personal reactions of like and dislike that form inside of your mind and heart; and second, with the resultant sense of clarity, you simply look to see what is being asked of you by the situation unfolding in front of you.**
Michael Singer

I read their email again–
The challenge had come from another
but the test was mine.

How will I respond?,
How might I use this
to grow into what I must do?

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: Own The Show;
**Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments.

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

Study upon study has revealed meetings are catastrophically inefficient.*
Matthew Syed

The reality, says Buber, is that we live in a “profoundly twofold” world, the realm of I-Thou and the realm of I-It. They are not two worlds. They are one. And they need each other.**
Philip Newell

Confession:
I’m not the best person
to ask about meetings.

If I can get out
of a meeting,
I will.

I’ve learnt
a few things after being in
thousands of meetings:

If you have to lead a meeting
and there is someone present better
at this, ask them to lead…

Don’t try to be a “meeting-person,”
Be yourself and
turn up in your superpower…^

Meetings aren’t bad,
They just lost their way, forgetful
that they are meant to stimulate and organise the new…

If you were out there everyday doing
new things, you’d come to long for a meeting
to bring it all together.

*Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas;
**Philip Newell’s The Great Search;
^I found myself to be a much happier listener than speaker – I began to take a notebook to meetings, in which I would mix things that were being shared in the meeting with thoughts and ideas I was reading about and that excited me. If anything pertinent appeared, I would share it.

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

Too often we get hung up on how risky it feels, and fail to focus enough on how generous the work is. Generosity is a great antidote to fear.*
Seth Godin

If you’re reading this book, it’s because you sense inside you a second self, an unlived you.**
Steven Pressfield

Generosity is risky,
So are humility and
faithfulness.

Each provides
a path from the familiar
into the unknown.

You are a who and a where,
But a voice calls to you
from your future.

More than a new idea,
It is the
perspective of your soul.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Kinds of courage;
**Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

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