The paradox is that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, leads to anhedonia, which is the inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind.*
Anna Lembke

The median narcissism score has risen 30 percent in the last two decades.**
David Brooks

Could it be
the pleasure-seeker requires more and more
to feel less and less, yet
the one who shares gains pleasure
in others?

The ancient ways and philosophers
and scriptures and mystics –
And all their children –
Will help us find who we can be,
Will help us remember what we can do.

The Koreans call it nunchi, the ability to be sensitive to other people’s moods and thoughts. The Germans (of course) have a word for it: herzenbildung, training one’s heart to see the full humanity in another.^

*Quoted in Arthur Brooks’ The Meaning Of Your Life;
**David Brooks’ The Road To Character;
^David Brooks’ How To Know A Person.

SOME RANDOM THINSILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals.*
Brené Brown

Reality does not provide meaning. Stories do.**
Robert McKee

Compassion is a story
we co-create–
Though one may write
the first line and the other
the last,
If written alone
or on behalf of another,
It isn’t compassion.

*Brené Brown’s The Gifts Of Imperfection;
**Robert McKee‘s newsletter: Why Reality Is Not Enough For Writers.

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

Nonlinearity means that the act of playing the game has a way of changing the rules.*
James Gleick

That’s what changes us. Tension is the feeling we experience just before we grow.**
Seth Godin

If you wonder what you will become,
What others will become,
What the world will become,
You are an apprentice–
Of course you may insulate yourself
and settle for mastery.

*Quoted in Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In The Transitions;
**Seth Godin’s blog: “Please create more tension”.

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

I have said that man does not care for pleasure and happiness but rather for that which causes these effects.*
Viktor Frankl

We all ultimately yearn to feel that something became better because of our contribution. And that maybe, potentially, hopefully, we helped someone in need.*
gapingvoid

What if we are here to do good,
And in this we find both our meaning and pleasure,
Each of us having something unrepeatable to bring?

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor And The Soul;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Ritz-Carlton Was Right. Karl Marx Was Wrong.

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

When you’re beholding someone, you’re seeing the richness of this particular human consciousness, the full symphony – how they perceive and create their life.*
David Brooks

Goodness isn’t something that going to be delivered in the mail. You have to dig it up inside your own soul. You find it within your own thoughts, and you make it with your own actions.**
Ryan Holiday

Everyone is worthy
of being beheld, including you–
Don’t forget to behold yourself.

You will find deep veins
of your particular and peculiar
goodness to share.

*David Brooks’ How To Know A Person;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

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

When you write something down or create an image of it, that thing becomes real to the mind and body. You are giving it power and attention.*
Jean Houston

Jean Houston’s The Wizard Of Us.

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

But to be what I am, to live, to want to sound like no one else, to yield the blossoms dictated by my heart: this is what I want and surely this cannot be arrogance.*
Rainer Maria Rilke

*Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters On Life (w).

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

Getting it right the first time. How unlikely is this? … Evolution is powerful. It gives us a chance to revise, edit, and do what works while removing what doesn’t. … Got it wrong the first time? Then make it better.*
Seth Godin

Perhaps we think of ourselves
on the human evolution timeline,
A small life lived against a background
of big numbers–
Nothing changes much on a scale such as this,
But our lives are all about evolution–
When we mess up or fall short
or find it hard to learn or struggle
to control our emotions or grow an attitude,
Here’s another day to try
yet another way to better–
Forgiveness is an incredible human power.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Getting it right the first time.

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

The cause of irritation – or our notion that something is bad – that comes from us, from our labels and expectations.*
Ryan Holiday

Honesty is reached through the doorway of grief and loss. Where we cannot go in our mind, our memory or our body is where we cannot be straight with another, with the world, or with our self.**
David Whyte

I can jump to a conclusion very well
from my many years of training
in blaming something “out there”–
Though sometimes it is,
If I take a moment more
to check “inside here”
I may find a desire to have my own way,
To control the outcome,
For my assumptions to be realised–
Sometimes a moment allows
to see what is and desires to emerge–
And in this moment I am gifted
with growth.

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**David Whyte’s Consolations.

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

People do much better when they don’t think they’re being artists…if you don’t call it art, you’re likely to get a better result.* Brian Eno

The thing you do–

And usually call work, or a job–

It may be worth asking–

How can I do this more artistically?

You may be surprised–

I won’t be.

*Quoted in Austin Kleon’s Don’t Call It Art.

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