But if the patient should object that she does not know the meaning of her life, that the unique potentialities of her existence are not known to her, then we can only reply that her primary task is just this: to find her way to her own proper task, to advance towards the uniqueness and singularity of her own meaning in life.*
Viktor Frankl

Attention without feeling is only a report.**
Mary Oliver

Our unique and singular meaning comes to us en route,
As we pay attention to
why this excites us, but not that, why
we are prepared to persevere, even fail, at
that, but not this;
Often requiring that we move from
the familiar to unfamiliar, even the unknown,
There will. be much to be attentive to:
In the new person we encounter, the fresh ideas
in what we read or listen to, the different
experiences we engage in, the new places we
travel to –
We cannot expect to discover the soul-deep meaning
available to all of us by
circling within the familiar.

Life is created by the onwards rush of life over the curved wing of the soul.^

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul; italics to indicate a gender change;
**Maria Popova’s The Marginalian: The Art of Divination: D.H. Lawrence on the Power of Pure Attention;
^Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways.

Silence is audible to all men … She is when we hear inwardly, sound when we hear outwardly.*
Henry David Thoreau

By the pressure of reality, I mean the pressure of an external event on the consciousness to the exclusion of any power of contemplation.**
Wallace Stevens

Here are three powers that can developed and employed by anyone:
Silence, solitude, and slowness –
Allowing for reflection and imagination to be brought to
The increasingly forceful pressure of reality we find ourselves facing:
personal identity, workplace
challenges, relational issues, cyber
crime, climate
concerns, loss of
meaning, political forces, world
events, and everything in between.

*Lewis Hyde’s Common As Air;
**Wallace Stevens’s The Necessary Angel.

In my experience, boredom is often close to epiphany, to the great idea … boredom is boredom until it’s not.*
Nick Cave

In a world fearful of boredom, cluttered with the stimulation of
endless noise and busyness,
Boredom comes to us as space,
Space for all kinds of possibilities to come to heart and
to mind.

*Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage.

But the myth also offers powerful, soul-changing ways of healing the wasteland in ourselves as well as in our society. For we are all the wounded Fisher King, each one of us is Parsifal, and every human being is a Grail of the most sacred life.*
Jean Houston

What had to be done here was to lead the particular person in her concrete situation to the unique and singular task of her life.**
Viktor Frankl

Yes, the grail is a myth –
That’s the point, and the myth is
your meaning, containing what you require to
make you whole, whilst also contributing to
the wholeness of others;
Viktor Frankl would probably call our particular “grailness” our
responsibility to life, our singularity –
Name it, write it down, develop it,
Play it every day.

*Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
**Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul.

To share your weakness without caring what others think is a kind of superpower.*
Arthur Brooks

When you admit that something went wrong, your audience is thinking, Wow, me too! I make that kind of mistake all the time. We’re more alike than I thought.**
Lisa Cron

One thing for sure is that we all have weaknesses,
We all make mistakes;
Of course, the first person we need to admit these to are ourselves,
Be a little more empathetic towards ourselves,
Because empathy is one of the things that occurs when we share
our stories with others –
You too, I thought it was only me –
And what we want to do is learn and grow.

We’re in this together,
We’re human.

*Arthur Brooks’ From Strength to Strength;
**Lisa Cron’s Story or Die.

Commitment gets us through frustration, and frustration is the partner of learning.*
Seth Godin

Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, whatever joy you can’t contain, make it your joyful offering.**
Susan Cain

Learning isn’t easy, but
the pain and frustration may be telling you that
you’re exactly where you need to be, and
something important is about to be born
through you.

Values which are realised in creative action we should like to call ‘creative’ values.^

*Seth Godin’ blog: While standing on one foot;
**Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
^Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul.

In Japan, there is the term wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi posits that the beauty of an object is found in its imperfection. In direct contrast to the western perspective which tends to conflate perfection with beauty, wabi-sabi celebrates transience, individuality, and the flawed nature of a thing. These are the qualities that make it unique, genuine, and beautiful.*
Ryder Carroll

*Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method.

Might be a good idea to make a list. And if you need to give it a second glance over, go for it. But remember, making the list isn’t the work. Even though it kinda feels like it.*
Gabe Anderson

Meaning is only experienced in motion.**
Donald Miller

It’s also worthwhile making sure the
right things are on the list,
That we’re not completing a whole raft of tasks that
are all about avoiding what matters most;
The more important the actions, the more
time and space and silence we need In order to
reflect on what are the right things for us to do –
What we have to say “yes” to, and, maybe more importantly,
What we have to say “no” to.

The list can also hide the unwelcome truth that
we do not know what to do with our lives, so
more lists, more busyness, more noise,
Fearful of silence, fearful of being;
What we find is that the silence is
not silent at all – rather it is replete with
better hopes and ideas and possibilities that come
to us in the form of questions:
They’re how we know we are alive.

Life never ceases to put new questions to us, never permits us to come to rest … every day, every hour makes new deeds necessary and new experiences possible.^

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: He’s Making a List …;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
^Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul.

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’.

Life as an art and art as a game – as action for its own sake, without thought of gain or of loss, praise or blame – is the key, then, to the turning of living itself into a yoga, and art into the means to such a life.*
Joseph Campbell

The finite player competes against,
The infinite player plays with;
One serves division, the other
oneness –
Life-in-all-its-fullness is
a journey from the finite to the infinite.

*Joseph Campbell’s Myths to Live By.

I’ve found that the growth mindset and grit go together.*
Sandra Duckworth

*Sandra Duckworth’s Grit.