Life is a day…A good day happens by design.*
Bernadette Jiwa
What you love to do will grow in you, so long as you stay true to who you are and all yourself to change and develop freely.**
gapingvoid
Perhaps,
Even now,
There are parts of
who we are that
we haven’t allowed
into the light of day
to grow.
Even now
it’s not too late–
After all,
Here’s another day.
*Bernadette Jiwa’s Briefly blog: Life Is A Day;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Life Without Dissonance.
If gifts and responsibilities are one, then asking “What is our responsibility?” is the same as asking “What is our gift?” It is said that only humans have the capacity for gratitude. This is among our gifts.*
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us…You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.**
Marianne Williamson
Taking up the responsibility
of your gift is to find
your greatest freedom:
If you are stuck,
It is your lifesaver.
Gratitude notices what this is,
Responsibility lives it for the world.
(If you were to name your gift, your responsibility, what would it be?)
*Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass;
**Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.
This is what pilgrimage into the heart of the natural world does to us. It invites us to be.*
Philip Newell
For so many of our destinations, no straight road takes us there.**
Rebecca Solnit
I look forward
and believe
I need to find the most direct route.
I look backward
and see
this has rarely been so.
If I am prepared
to turn this knowledge into wisdom then
I may slow down,
Take a break from an idea,
Allow Earth to renew me,
Play a little,
Enjoy the company of others,
Allow the road to lead me where it will.
We don’t have to arrive breathless
or hurried
or broken
or hurting
or disagreeable
or jaded
or alone.
*Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There.
Throw out your conceited opinions, for it is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.*
Epictetus
I brought the right words but there was something missing in the speaker I came to be: a listener.**
James Carse
Perhaps we are pondering the same thing…
Yet I am unable to see
what you see,
Nor feel as you feel
what is deeply
formed by your experiences.
Forgive me if I forget this,
And I will–
But hopefully you will find me listening
as hard as I can.
*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory.
The need for adventure is a blue moment. We embark on the adventure of life with hope and optimism, believing that something indescribably beautiful awaits discovery. And we’re willing to risk the ultimate disappointment.*
AleXander McManus
Many of the important things in life are endless. Do not approach an endless game with a finite mindset. The objective is not to be done, but to settle into a daily lifestyle you can sustain and that allows you to make daily progress on the areas that matter.**
James Clear
I read somewhere that we don’t so much
go on an adventure as
we are met by adventure.
If so, then to live with
openness, hope, and optimism
readies us for when it arrives.
We do not know whether it
will unfold or not, but there is
a daily possibility for surprise and new birth.
Perhaps our continuing openness
is the ultimate adventure.
*AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments;
**James Clear’s On ignorance vs. genius, the history of every day, and the process of becoming yourself.
By focusing on our experiences from the perspective of a narrator who has to create a story, journaling creates distance from our experience. We feel less tied to it.*
Ethan Kross
By learning compassion, we learn how to activate a particular state of mind and brain pattern in us associated with caring and nurturing that have soothing qualities.**
Paul Gilbert
I found direction and purpose
when I began to journal.
I guess this included compassion,
Although I didn’t name it as such back then.
It felt like I was giving myself time
to reflect and to start over.
To be able to face my errors,
To learn from them and to grow.
What I found was an emerging purpose–
Getting things so wrong hadn’t lost this.
Obversely, it appeared to clarify and distil purpose
when I took the time to notice.
This won’t be for everyone
but it may be for you.
*Ethan Kross’s Chatter;
**Paul Gilbert’s The Compassionate Mind.
I still hope that the best days are ahead for you me, not because of being able to buy things or go places, but because of what I can bring into the life of another.
There’s never any closure in an awe-inspired life. We’re never allowed to know when this fantastic voyage might end … but that’s part of the life-disorientating chaos that makes this choice so thrillingly difficult.*
Paul Pearsall
The traveller does not fixate on arriving,
Everything and everyone
between where we begin
and where we end, holds
the possibility of discovery.
How difficult could it be
not to focus on “getting there”
or completing the task,
But remaining open to wonder
all around us?
*Oliver Burkeman’s The Antitdote.
Both meaning and purpose are acts of self-transcendence. They are both about supplying a reason for being and action.*
AleXander McManus
To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’**
Jesus of Nazerath
You are the problem and
you are the solution.
It’s okay for children
to want others to join their games.
As we advance in years
we discover it’s about serving others.^
We get over ourselves
and discover another “me.”
A transcendent “me”–
We each have one.
Meaning and purpose^^
will lead us there.
*AleXander McManus’ FutureU;
**Matthew 11:16-17;
^Check out the elemental truths: life is hard, you’re not as special as you think, it’s not about you, you’re not in control, you’re going to die (Richard Rohr’s Adam’s Return);
^^How might you write out your meaning and purpose? Where are they leading you?
Our best chance is not to have but to be.
The comforting fantasy will kill us dead for certain. You know how lethal fantasies go: “Some day …” and “If I only had …” and “He will change …” and “If I just learn to control myself … when I get really ready, when I have enough xyz, when the kids are grown, when I am more secure, when I find someone else, and as soon as I …” and so on.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
There will always be something
we haven’t got.
If that means we don’t begin
or take the next step,
Then this can be comforting.
We can let ourselves
off the hook for another day.
There’s always
what we have got.
Who we are
and what we have
right now
is likely more than enough to
move forward.
But perhaps
we didn’t want to hear that.
*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.
Here’s an idea for journalers:
I’ve begun to seed the pages of my journal–
Anything from my reading that captures my attention,
I sow them into the waiting pages.
An idea, a question, some explanation–
Cross-pollinating with other words I bring,
And I wonder each day what new varieties of
imagination and possibility might grow.
THIN|SILENCE 
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