(The embed code was disabled, click though to watch over on YouTube)
I am writing this post, with my bare feet firmly planted on grass, outside a Swiss farmhouse where I currently spend some vacation time. This documentary blew my mind and most likely explains why I have been craving so much time in nature, touching and being in close connection to soil.
Mary Oliver’s instructions for living a life.
“There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.Years ago in the Hebrides,
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to themand how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly
so Biblically
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to loveso that when
we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and everything confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all this struggle
and all these years
you simply don’t want to
any more
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness
however fluid and however
dangerous to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.”
I recently shared over on my Instagram that so much of my energy these days is spent on catching the moment my thoughts start getting anxious.
When I catch myself starting to fear-worry-spiral, I take deep breaths and remind myself of all the blessings and of what is going right.
I had one of these moments last week while food shopping and the simple act of taking a selfie with my kids snapped me right out of it.
Michael Singer of ‘The Untethered Soul’ once said “whatever you do, don’t close” and it has become my daily mantra. (You can hear him talk on this in the above video!)
How do you all stay in your hearts these days?
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I know what I am doing this week: Architecting a life in 100 post-its and 1 Afternoon. Life audit is an exercise in self-reflection that helps you clear the cobwebs of noisy, external goals and current distractions, and revisit or uncover the real themes & core values that drive and inspire you. Also known as: spring-cleaning for the soul.
Claudia Dawson says the process allows for your priorities to come to light and helps you to see the patterns of your life. Also, she apparently could only fill 50 post-its in one sitting and as she discovered new dreams and she will go back to his remaining post-it pack to add more. She found that once she had written down all the desires inside of her and, in a sense, got them out of his system, it freed up space for completely new and weirdly fun wishes to show up. Love this!
(via Kevin Kelly)
“Maybe, when it comes down to it, love is not about chasing another human being. Maybe, love is about chasing yourself. Chasing your growth. Chasing your hope.
Maybe love is about learning how to be gentle with yourself, how to believe in the way the Universe has removed certain people from your life. And maybe love grows within you when you learn how to trust your own heart, when you learn how to walk away from the things that have not cared for it. Maybe, love is about learning how to accept that sometimes even beautiful things end, that sometimes the timing isn’t right. And maybe love is about learning that endings aren’t something to regret; maybe it is about learning how to let go, how to appreciate the things you experienced at the hands of caring that were real and hopeful and light in a world that sometimes fails to be soft.
Maybe, love is about learning how to be alone. Maybe it is about learning how to wake up in the middle of the bed. How to make just one cup of coffee in the morning. How to hold your own heart, how to take up space. Maybe there is beauty to be found in falling in love with your growth, in learning how to stop filling voids with other human beings, and instead, in slowly having the courage to heal those voids yourself.
Maybe love is about learning how to be proud of the person you are stretching into, is about embracing the beauty and the depth that exists in trying for something while you are here. And maybe within that, love is about honoring your heart. Maybe the truest, and most honest, extension of love exists in the way you learn how to love yourself, exists in the way you learn how to be compassionate towards the parts of yourself, and your journey, that no one else claps for.
Maybe, love exists in the way you fight to be here, in the way you crash your heart into this world. Maybe, love is about you — being your own strength, being your own safe place. Maybe, when it comes down to it, love is about finally learning how to give yourself the same love you so beautifully give to others. Maybe, love is about embracing the person you are becoming, and believing in your heart, on even your hardest of days.”
What does transformational leadership require?
—An awareness of the shifts underway in your world
—A purposeful vision for what could be
—A commitment to bring your vision into being
—The creativity to leverage the shifts at play
—The willingness to start with yourself— Kristen Lisanti (@kristenlisanti) June 22, 2021
I love the idea of being in companionable silence with friends.
Well done Google: When you type PRIDE across Google Sheet columns it does this!
“Don’t work for people you don’t want to become.”
– Shane A. Parrish
This article on how many close friendships one can maintain just made me block out time on my calendar today to map out my friends. What an excellent and thought provoking read.
These two facts made me perk up:
“Falling in love will cost you two friendships.” and “It takes about 200 hours of investment in the space of a few months to move a stranger into being a good friend.”
(via my friend Casper who shares the best stuff on Twitter)
In this beautiful CreativeMornings/Ottawa talk singer-songwriter Kellylee Evans talks about the importance of exercising courage in everyday life.
Brené Brown and Priya Parker talk about the real, big and small challenges we’ll see when we return to workspaces, the need we’ll have to use our creativity and ingenuity to figure out how to be together, and the opportunity we’ll get to ask how we can be together better.
Astronaut roundtable featuring unfiltered and down-to-Earth perspectives on what it feels like to go into space — emotions and all.
(viaBailey)
Celia is an environmental activist and consultant who shares resources and builds community around the topic of zero waste and the circular economy over on Litterless.
This morning I woke up and remembered this interview with the remarkable Anand Giridharadas, which I was lucky enough to see live at the House of Beautiful Business in 2018. Well worth a listen if you haven’t yet.
I find myself getting lost in the visual content shared by Chicago based Graphic Designer Estefania Loret de Mola.
(via Patricia)
Google Earth is one of the most magical offerings on the internet if you ask me. And now time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years.
Loving with video where Erick Wilberding digs into the technique known as the Socratic Method.
(via)
A wonderful listen all around.
Esther Perel on the lifelong art of feeling worthy of wanting and worthy of receiving.