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.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

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.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

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.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

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?

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

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.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

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.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

The only thing that happens every day is the opportunity to do the work. There are other energising forces but they’re less reliable. If the simple opportunity to do the work each dy is enough to renew your energy to do the work, you’ll always havre an energy source.*
Gabe Anderson

A crash means we have to grow. A crash means we’re at the threshold of learning something, which means we’re getting better, we’re acquiring the wisdom of our craft.**
Steven Pressfield

Something wants to appear, but
the more you pressure yourself
the harder this will be.

You may be idea-less,
Inspiration evading you,
But if you turn up here again there are
at least two things waiting to greet you:
Your love for what you do and
the experience that you bring–

Even when this time is bad
it’s good because you’re learning,
Which means you have more experience to bring
next time.

(Perhaps shape a form of remembering
what it is you love to do, for when you enter your workspace,
Also, bringing to mind the last
learning experience you have known.)

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: Energizing Force;
**Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

When our future rearranges us, then our past becomes the fuel for our art.

Remember, every time God forgives sins, he is saying that relationship matters more than his own rules. Think about that. Forgiveness honours disorder while still naming it disorder.*
Richard Rohr

Forgiveness restores our future to us,
Severing us from a heavy past
and uniting us with something brighter–
Not to deny what has happened,
Rather altering our relationship to it.

No longer are we held back, but
with a new heart are fuelled
forward, enabled
for creativity and beauty
as only each of us may deliver into the world.

Where does your forgiveness come from?–
How has it provided your future
and reshaped your past?

*Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

The thing you’re good at is valuable and needed by your family and community. Don’t belittle what you’re good at. Own it and use it to your benefit and the benefit of the world around you.*
Gabe Anderson

I’ve come to recognise that changing the story, dismantling the stories that trap us, finding stories adequate to our realities, are foundational to finding our powers and possibilities.**
Rebecca Solnit

We can’t say this too often:
What you’re good at doesn’t have to be huge.

It doesn’t need to be adored by thousands, but
it must matter to you;
If it does then it’s likely to be
valuable to someone else, too.

This is a story shift–
Not from reality to fantasy–
If you’re good at something and telling yourself
it’s nothing then that’s the fantasy.

Ditch the story you’re telling yourself–
Find a better narrative that allows you to use what you’re good at.

(What are you good at, what’s the story you’re telling yourself?–
Try writing these out – do they match up?)

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: Realizing You’re Good At It;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE

Manage your weaknesses with boundaries and support while you focus on your strengths.*
Katherine Morgan Scafler

Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on – it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier…The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.**
Marcus Aurelius

There are two kinds of strengths and weaknesses.

There are strengths and weaknesses of talent and ability:
Identify what you are good at and develop these–
You have already invested tens of thousands of hours
for them to be so strong.

Perhaps counterintuitively,
You need to identify what you are bad at because
these will rob you of your time, energy, and joy–
Unless you can find a passion for these and are willing to invest
years of practise, they are never going to be a strength.

If you can, stop doing these things,
If you cannot, explore how can you
manage them through your strengths?

There are strengths and weaknesses of character:
We need to work on all of these,
Selflessness, generosity, and wisdom being our goals–
Each orientated towards others, not ourselves.

Humility, gratitude, and faithfulness are always
helpful places to begin.

(Life isn’t simple. What will you add to your plan to further grow in who you are and what you can do?)

*Katherine Morgan Schafler’s The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE