chance favours the prepared mind*
Louis Pasteur

We all prep for spontaneity
differently, but there are
a few things in common:
We learn and train,
Turn up,
Are open …

*Keith Haring’s Keith Haring Journals.

Life has much uneasiness; that is certain. Always remember that and it will never surprise you.*
James Boswell

You really learn only when you’re surprised. If you’re not surprised, then everything is fitting into your existing thought patterns. So to get smarter, you need to get surprised, think in new ways, and deeply understand different perspectives.**
Derek Sivers

I try to act as though I’m not surprised, but
if I’m prepared to be open and reflect on what
has just happened, maybe my knowledge and
understanding can grow – though the real measure is
what I may do with this …
I might even surprise you.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.^

*Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals;
**Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah Or No;
^Ben Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now.

Life is not short but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but we are wasteful of it.*
Seneca

Whenever you are stuck searching for the optimal plan, remember: Getting started changes everything.**
James Clear

Eternity is presence to
those things most meaningful to you, is
now, and to find and move “here”
sooner rather than later is critical, otherwise
life reduces, dissipates –
I’ve learned the hard way.

*Victor Strecher’s Life On Purpose;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On practice, the soap opera of your life, and the danger of choosing the easy path.

When we arrive on earth, we are provided with no map for our life journey. Only gradually, as our identity forms and we get an inkling of who we are, do possibilities emerge that call us.*
John O’Donohue

To be a good human is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond dour own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertainty, and on a willingness to be exposed.**
Martha Nussbaum

Whilst no one possesses a completely blank piece of paper
on which to write their story,
It is increasingly possible to select the environments
we wish to expose ourselves to;
These may be best delineated as certain and uncertain,
The former leading to a closedness, the latter to an openness,
One leading to a smaller world, the other to a very large world of worlds,
One excluding others, the other increasingly including the other.

I will not live an unloved life,
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise …^

*John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us (Dan McAdams – The Stories We Live By – writes similarly: Existential philosophers say that each of us is “thrown” into the world at birth at a particular point in time and space, with certain inborn capabilities and limitations, and our personal challenge is to make something meaningful out of our lives;
**Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote;
^Dawna Markova, from the Northumbria Community‘s Morning Prayer Day 18.

Nothing is lost to us. Everything that happens to us in the world passes into us. It all becomes part of the inner Temple of the soul and it can never be lost.*
John O’Donohue

Today’s world is unpredictable, and this is as stable as it will ever be again.**
Seth Godin

If we’re waiting for things to get better then
we may be here for a while, and that just feels like
a waste of time;
Perhaps we’re more than enough to keep moving –
Even the difficult things we’ve experienced,
When given space and kindly valued – rather than
fighting against them or trying to ignore them –
Somehow bring enablement.

*John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Notes to myself.

The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.*
Brother David

When we are in rhythm with our own natures, things flow and balance naturally.**
John O’Donohue

What’s your wholeheartedness? –
What it is you want to bring through the
powers you have honed,
That something with an
an endlessness and limitlessness to it;
It’s quite different to willpower, which at first appears to be
just what we require to do what we have to do, but is in
limited supply, running out sooner than
we need it to –
Those around us know when
we’re running on wholeheartedness or willpower.

*David Whyte’s Crossing the Unknown Sea;
**John O’Donohue’s Eternal Echoes.

creativity is a journey, not a destination*
Bernadette Jiwa

When in doubt look for the fear**
Seth Godin

I like
arriving
accomplishing
completing,
Though,
I think I feel more
alert
open
alive
when I’m in the
journey.

*Bernadette Jiwa’s blog: The Story of Telling: Creativity Is A Journey;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Notes to myself.

Children know something most people have forgotten. Children possess a fascination with everyday existence that is very special and would be very helpful to adults if they could learn to understand and respect it. I am now 28 years old on the outside and nearly 12 years old on the inside. I always want to stay 12 years old on the inside.*
Keith Haring

The philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that humans have three ways to spend their time. The labour required to feed ourselves and survive. The work of doing a craft that we are proud of. And the action of organisation and possibility.**
Seth Godin

It was Anne Lamott who suggested that
we carry all of our ages inside of us;
I will soon be 66 years old on the outside and
I am very aware that I must choose carefully
the age I want to be on the inside –
I don’t only want to spend my time in
one way.

*Keith Haring’s Keith Haring Journals;
**Seth Godin’s The Song of Significance.

Your awakening is a gift to this world that needs you now more than ever.*
Jean Houston

The important thing isn’t to achieve your dreams, but to keep dreaming.**
James Clear

How does the saying go:
Give a person a dream and
they have something to do for the next
week or two, teach a person to dream and
they have a life of unfolding meaning and purpose.^

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On daily discomfort, the power of acting early, and life’s greatest pleasure;
^If I can help with some dreamwhispering, let me know.

We regret foregone opportunities more often than unfulfilled obligations. Yet we also know that a wholly realised life involves a mix of both dreams and duties.*
Daniel Pink

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.**
The prodigal son

Regret was a gift to one son but
not the other:
One chases home,
Regretting the choices he’d made, the other,
Still at home, hadn’t made the most of
what he had all along, and
because there’s no regret,
It remains lost to him.

*Daniel Pink’s The Power of Regrets;
**Luke 15:17-18