“The hardest thing about being alive is that we exist as accidents of chance, and the universe does not hand us meaning. Nobody and nothing will give us meaning. We have to make it. And I think love is an instrument for how to do that.”
— Maria Popova
From a beautiful conversation between Debbie Millman and Maria Popova.
“It’s possible that you were undermined, endangered, cut off or disrespected.
But if we begin with that, then the relationship gets shaky.
Perhaps the other person simply didn’t understand. It might be that they are focused on their issues, not yours. It could be that they’re dealing with something you don’t see. And most likely, they simply might not know what you’re expecting or hoping for.
When we assume misunderstanding, we open the door to better. We can find empathy and connection by giving people the benefit of the doubt.
Clarity, not grievance, is the solution to misunderstanding.
This works for customers, prospects, colleagues, friends, and family too.”
Assume misunderstanding, by Seth Godin
“Friendship, has always depended on a certain irrational generosity. A willingness to waste time together magnificently. To listen to the same anxiety for the fifth time. To sit through silence. To remain available without agenda.
And perhaps this is why adult friendship feels increasingly radical. It resists the transactional logic modern life rewards everywhere else. Because a real friend offers something profoundly rare: unoptimised presence. Family is structured by blood. Marriage by institution. Work relationships by utility. Friendship survives purely through mutual choosing. Nobody has to stay. And yet some people do.”
The quiet grief of adult friendship, by Pranav Jain
“For years now, I’ve just been bored, bored, bored, with evil,”… “It’s just not interesting.” “Evil wears a top hat and it has tap shoes and a cape and it’s on stage and it’s hollerin’. And goodness is always backstage, sort of waving, but [evil] takes up all the energy because it is nothing.”
– Toni Morrison
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
“Hope is not wishful thinking. It’s the dogged determination to do what is in our power to make the better future we wish for actually happen. Without hope, we fall into apathy—and do nothing. And the greatest danger to our future is apathy.”
“The ability to be wrong is one of the most important virtues, and it is extremely difficult. It should be emphasized in families and schools alongside standard virtues like honesty, sharing, and kindness, starting as young as possible.”
– Alan Levinovitz
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“The distance between deciding and doing is the single most reliable predictor of whether your life will be extraordinary or ordinary. Not talent, not circumstances, not even the quality of your decisions-but how quickly you collapse the space between intention and reality. Think of this gap as a kind of friction coefficient on your existence: the smaller it is, the more of your internal force actually translates into external motion. When you can move from “I should do this” to physically doing it within hours instead of weeks, you’re not just accomplishing more-you’re operating in a fundamentally different mode of being where your thoughts have immediate consequences in the world, where your inner life and outer life are in a constant, tight, conversation.”
– Derek Sivers
(via)
“I still think the [real] revolution is to make the world safe for poetry, meandering, for the frail and vulnerable, the rare and obscure, the impractical and local and small.”
– Rebecca Solnit
“The market for something to believe in is infinite.”
– Hugh MacLeod,
(Via this Seth Godin post speaking on integrity)
“There are two kinds of people after dinner:
Those who ask, “Can I help?”
And those who are already doing the dishes.One sounds helpful.
One is.This plays out on every team every day. Don’t wait for permission. Do the dishes”
(Via Zack Klein)
“Next time I’m about to cast a harsh judgement on a stranger who offends me, can I allow myself instead to see them as the flawed and complex human that they are? Full of heartbreak, loss, ambition and disappointment, walking a volatile path of all the things they’ve ever failed at?”
― Kae Tempest, On Connection
“Another word for creativity is courage.”
– Henri Matisse
point out the good
when you see it.in life,
in others,
in yourself.because the world
needs to remember
what kindness and
love look like.
“The prosperity of the community grows from the flow of relationships, not the accumulation of goods.”
– The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
(via)
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor”.
– Henry David Thoreau
“You’re looking for three things, generally, in a person,” says Buffett. “Intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two. I tell them, ‘Everyone here has the intelligence and energy—you wouldn’t be here otherwise. But the integrity is up to you. You weren’t born with it, you can’t learn it in school.”
– Warren Buffet
In the event that you wake up
and find your soul separated from source
and manifest into material form, don’t panic.
Your condition is only temporary.You have been selected for the opportunity
of human incarnation.This 3D simulation is designed
to break up the monotony of eternity
by giving you a fully immersive experience
as a distinct ego identity.Your body will serve
as your physical avatar
as you navigate a dense and dramatic reality.
There will be many distractions
causing you to forget your true nature and origin.
You will experience a range of emotions
from joy to loneliness to despair.But remember – no matter
what trials and traumas you encounter,
your soul remains perfectly safe.At times you may feel lost or afraid.
This is totally normal.
If you ever need guidance,
simply slow down your busy mind
and bring your awareness
to the quiet place
inside yourself.On this planet, nothing is permanent.
People and things will come and go.
You will fall in love and form sentimental attachments
only to lose everything you hold dear.So cling to nothing too tightly, even yourself,
and when it’s time to let go, let go with grace,
for nothing is owned, only borrowed.As you walk among
the people on the planet,
try to be a good guest.
Tread lightly. Remember
that you are only visiting.
Don’t make a mess.
Listen more than you speak.
Give more than you take.Don’t keep your soft heart
locked inside a glass cage,
protected from wear and tear.You’ll never make it out alive
and time passes quickly.
So come back with some battle scars
and good stories to tell.
“To listen is to place oneself in relation with uncertainty, with not-knowing, with the unknowable. Alchemists knew this well: the process could not be rushed, outcomes could not be guaranteed. Listening likewise resists certainty. It asks for a suspension of control, a willingness to not know in advance what will emerge. This is why listening feels risky. It exposes the listener to alteration. One cannot listen deeply and remain untouched.”
What an incredibly beautiful post on Listening as Alchemy.
(Thank you Vicki)
“At this pivotal moment in American history, Alysa Liu represents something that we all needed very badly. She is joy. She is hope. She is unity. She is the rejection of the patriarchy. She is authenticity. She is bodily autonomy. She is the antithesis of self-centered ivididualism. She is love for the people with whom we share space. She is the embodiment of everything the American dream is supposed to mean.”
– Draco Genesis
“The market for something to believe in is infinite.”
– Hugh MacLeod
From this Seth Godin blog post.
” I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen than it has ever been before. Certainly all any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy. Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call “American Virtues” who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.
– Charles Schulz
Letter to a 10-year-old fan, 9th November 1970
Via What we have got to have in this world is a change of heart
(Thank you Ruth Ann)
“Authoritarians cannot rise if there are strong communities and people are acting with joy. That is, you need despair and anger in order for an authoritarian to rise. Whatever those things are that you bring to the community, do them and do them with joy, and don’t stop doing the things you love because you’re scared, because that actually is a form of resistance.”
– Heather Cox Richardson
This is one of the many reasons why I am running CreativeMornings and we started a Clubs program in addition to the chapter events. The future is not lonely, it’s hyperlocal!
“May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful.”
— Mary Oliver