To understand the narrative character of one’s own life is therefore to understand its inherent mysticism.*
James Carse

Sometimes a prayerful, painful approach to a difficult day may mean stopping and starting a hundred times until we learn, like a virtuoso, the thorough, attentive, rhythmic presence of the true musician.
David Whyte

The most powerful of stories–
Those with the complexity
and tenacity of a myth,
Form around an experience
of awe and wonder,
Whether awesome or awful.

The story’s power is forged
in talent and grit,
In the struggle
and discomfort
of living our tale into the everyday,
Proffering into someone’s world.

I saw that those who are supposed to be powerless – writers and scholars, grass-roots organisers and movements, visionaries, the disparaged and overlooked – have changed the world again and again.^

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory;
**David Whyte’s Crossing the Unknown Sea;
^Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There.

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I learned this, at least, by my experiment: if you advance confidently in the direction or your dreams and endeavour to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with success unexpected in common hours. You will put things behind you and pass an invisible boundary.*
Henry David Thoreau

None of them has outrun uncertainty. They’ve simply found a way to stop treating it as the enemy. It turns out that not knowing is a necessary part of being alive in the world … Not knowing is part of the adventure.**
Bernadette Jiwa

Your imagination promises some escapade,
But you’ll need to experiment^
to avoid falling into a daydream.

You don’t know where this will end
or even if it will work,
But it’s as though you’ve awakened.

*Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (adapted by Nicholas Bone);
**Bernadette Jiwa’s Briefly blog: On Certainty;
^What would be the smallest iteration of what you’re imagining?

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Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them.*
Marcus Aurelius

Our keys (skills, talents, traits, interests) are best utilised when we try enough things to figure out some doors that they’ll open.**
Gabe Anderson

Have you ever wanted
someone else’s talents, role, status, reward?

Have you ever wondered
if someone else is looking at you in the same way?

Downplaying and undervaluing what we have and do
is a damaging, even dangerous, game to play.

Better to notice and develop what we have
so that adventures may open through our deepest joy.^

(Deepest joy being a way
of describing where our talents, energies, and values meet.)

This is our power and love
for bringing change to someone’s world.

Radical engagement works with power and love to collaborate to bring about fundamental change.^^

*Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: What Good Is A Key …;
^Frederick Buechner suggests that we find our purpose where our deepest joy meets the world’s greatest need,
^^Adam Kahane’s Everyday Habit For Transforming Systems.

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Nature runs on sunlight. Nature uses only the energy it needs. Nature fits form to function. Nature recycles everything. Nature rewards cooperation. Nature banks on diversity. Nature demands local expertise. Nature curbs excesses from within. Nature taps the power of limits.*
Jean Houston

We’re surrounded by problems. Problems create the arc of our days, and so solving them creates value for ourselves and for others.**
Seth Godin

Earth is smarter than us–
When we think of ourselves as
some super-species apart.

Though when we understand ourselves
to be Earth, we get to
be smart, too.

The journey into the heart of the natural world is a journey into reverence. It is a journey into seeing the I-am-ness of every life-form and every human being, and never reducing the other to a category of being, whether that be of gender or religion, of race or nationality. I am who I am. And I will be who be who I will be.^

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The Knot;
^Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul.

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The secret to designing growth loops is not better knowledge or skills, but your ability to think about your own thinking, question your automatic responses, and know your mind.*
Anne-Laure Le Cunff

We’re thinking all the time,
But do we make time to think
about what we’re thinking?

However we go about it,
Thinking about our thinking
will slow us down– and there’s the problem.

Thinking about thinking in a fast world
feels like a luxury,
But “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” works in practise.

How we think not only affects the direction
of our growth in what we see as positive,
It also enables to deal with our anxieties and stress.

Some write their thoughts out
in lists and/or journals, others
speak them out to hear what they sound like.

There are many ways–
Some label it slow thinking,**
Others write about elephants and their riders.^

Explore, experiment,
Beyond knowledge and skills,
Towards your deepest way of thinking.

*Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments;
**Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow;
^Chip and Dan Heath’s Switch.

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Another obvious case of a call to adventure occurs when something – or someone – has been taken away and you go in quest of it into the realms of adventure. Always the realm of adventure is one of unknown forces and unknown powers.*
Joseph Campbell

I must know that I am, at least in part, the very thing I am seeking.**
Richard Rohr

Perhaps we find our life
most of all
through quests–
Something is missing
and we set out to find it.

The universe asks
what will we do with our lives,
And whilst some answers come to us,
It is more likely a question will ask us
to trust our discomfort and need.

There’ll be companions and guides
along the way,
But we will likely be joined
by a more selfless, generous,
Wiser form of ourselves as we progress.

The question to always ask is what is everyone ignoring right now?^

*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
**Richard Rohr’s Eager to Love;
^gapingvoid’s blog: Go your own way.

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Montaigne said he made bouquets out of other writer’s flowers…People who continue to blossom also need to carry on processing fresh thoughts and experiences.*
Austin Kleon

Meaning and purpose are nourished by hope as the sun nourishes a seed in the earth.**
AleXander McManus

Ah, so this is why
I enjoy gathering the words of others.

They have caught my attention,
But I wonder if they may also capture yours?

Flower arrangers employ the “rule of odds”–
So I offer up three to mix with the “blooms” you’ve gathered.

This is more about curations than carnations:
New possibility through selecting, arranging, and enhancing.

I’ve shifted away from the dogma that “real” engagement means you must always summarise or restate things in your own words. If copying was good enough for history’s countless keepers of commonplace books, it’s sometimes good enough for me.^

*Austin Kleon’s blog: A spring bouquet;
**AleXander McManus’ FutureU;
^Oliver Burkeman’s The Imperfectionist newsletter: How to forget what you read.

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Stay stupid.
Trust the soup.
Start before you’re ready.*
Steven Pressfield

“I knew I should have listened to my intuition…but I didn’t listen.” We feed the deep intuitive self by listening to it and acting upon its advice.**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (quoting a thousand women)

Remain a beginner,
Believe something will happen,
Don’t wait for the right moment.

Your intuition is there for a reason,
Give it some time to play,
See what happens.

Imagination is a skill and it takes effort.
It’s not useful to say,
“I’m not imaginative.”
It’s accurate to realise
that we might not care enough
to get good at it,
or to put in the effort it takes.^

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
^Seth Godin’s blog: Imagination is work.

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I believe with unshakeable faith that there will always be something in the box.*
Steven Pressfield

The way in which the world attempted to shape Blake was very different to the way Blake attempted to shape the world…William Blake versus the world, we will discover, turns out to be a far more interesting story than the world versus William Blake.**
John Higgs

I believe there is something
in the box for everyone,
The result of nature
and, especially, nurture.

Your curiosity,
Your interest,
Your exploration,
Your learning,
And your making
means you are ready to make your move.

Through powers, energies, and values,
You know how to provoke the future
into showing itself–
Better than “the way things are,”
For the sake of others–
You are made for Versus.

There is a reason it’s called a cursor.
We all have a blinking line.
Your blinking line
is whatever sits in front of you
waiting to be brought into existence.^

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work;
**John Higgs’ William Blake vs the World;
^Rob Bell’s How To Be Here.

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Ultimately, blue moments are about relationships. They forge connections between the surface experience – the “text” of the moment – and the profound realities this living hyperlink reveals when we press into it.*
AleXander McManus

To put it more directly, what is mutual in mutual aid is not in the goods and services delivered; it’s in the underlying belief in the deep connections between those who give and those who receive.**
Rebecca Solnit

Everything,
Every thought,
Every person,
Is waiting for relationship,
To open and expand
in conversation with you.

We will not know until
we begin.

Beliefs are a stance on what’s inconclusive.
You have to say say “I believe …” because it’s not the only answer.
It’s not a fact.
(Not yet.)^

*AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There;
^Derek Sivers’ Useful Not True.

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