The doubt of Perplexity, the mystics helped me to see, was just the fire I needed to purge me of previously unacknowledged arrogance.*
Brian McLaren

There is inherent sadness and tragedy in almost all situations: in our relationships, our mistakes, our failures large and small, and even our victories … grief and sadness are doorways to understanding life in a non egocentric way.**
Richard Rohr

Through Simplicity and even Complexity,
The ego may be found roaming happily, but
on encountering Perplexity,^ and losing certainty and
competence and getting and status, it may only continue
through its transformation, made possible through
humility and curiosity and learning and sacrifice.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt;
**Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things;
^Brian McLaren writes of four stages or seasons that the human soul journeys through: Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony. Perplexity is comprised of what does not add up and hurts and wrongs and even destroys in life, though ultimately serving us towards moving from the Ego to the True Self. Our response is a desire for rightness and goodness and justice.

To me, [Perplexity] was Inquiry: scholarship, education, critical thinking, and free, unlimited curiosity. What’s not to love about that?*
Joelle

I can’t undo an action regret like this. But one way to ease its sting is to switch from If Only to At Least.**
Daniel Pink

Perplexity, here, is worse than Complexity,
It’s bad and may never work out,
So what we have to decide is
whether we are going to accept this, or
we are going to work on ourselves and
the way in which we face how things are –
This is growing psychological flexibility rather than rigidity;
Though it is hard, it is not impossible, and
it begins with our curiosity towards discovery towards
learning towards experimenting towards
activeness.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt;
**Daniel Pink’s The Power of Regret.

Dialogical Convergence holds that reality emerges from the interplay of voices – material and immaterial, human and divine, historical and immediate, silent and spoken. Reality is neither purely imagined more fixed independently of our perception. Instead it dances within the tension of relationship, waiting for generative interaction.*
AleXander McManus

And yet we waste the freedom we each have. We waste it waiting for instructions, and we waste it meandering without a strategy. We each have the freedom to care, to connect, to choose, to initiate, and to do the work that matters.**
Seth Godin

When we find our voice and
join the conversation, then
things change,
Maybe not hugely, but
that doesn’t matter as much as
we’re bringing something that will
make someone’s world better –
Something we get to
continually explore.

*AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments;
**Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy.

essays … from the French essai, meaning to try, or to attempt*
Ross Gay

We all speak in rhythm. The rhythm of our own language is one of the primary things we learn.**
Kate Clanchy

The essayist, the tryer,
Continually open,
Identifying the natural rhythm for their life –
Being more articulate and poised than balance.

*Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights;
**Kat Clanchy’s How to Grow Your Own Poem.

we come out of the world … in the same way a tree blossoms, the universe ‘peoples’*
Oliver Burkeman

What is the new thing that is trying to spring forth from within us and among us?**
Philip Newell

It’s the way of the universe:
New things want to happen, but
a flower isn’t the telos of the tree, nor even
the fruit, rather
it is a new tree; and
new things want to come from you,
From everyone, not only the “special ones” –
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

*Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations For Mortals;
**Philip Newell’s The Great Search.

When you choose a behaviour, you choose its future consequences.*
Derek Sivers

What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time.**
Henry David Thoreau

It may appear a good choice right now, but
what will it look like tomorrow, in a month, or five years?

We’re thinking about eating, interactions, language, buying, and
how we use our time.

It’s important to be present in the now, but
it also pays to be able to visit the future.

I explore both the present and the future through
my story, comprising abilities, energies, and values.^

This shift from being to doing to becoming occurs as your thoughts, actions, and feelings align with your dreams and values. And what best governs your values? The story you tell yourself about yourself.^^

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope;
^Drop me a line if you would like to find out more: geoffrey@thinsilence.org;
^^AleXander McManus’ FutureU.

Learning how to read metaphorically was a major turning point in my life.*
Derek Sivers

It is impossible to go on as you were before, so you must go on as you never have.**
Cheryl Strayed

What if it were only possible to read or watch that
which directly pertained to our work or interest?^

How many new ideas, possibilities, and paths would
remain hidden to us?

Of course, the changes are not only out there,
The really interesting ones change us along the way.

*Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah Or No;
**Jonathan Hoban’s Walk With Your Wolf;
^My aim is to use the acronym TEASE to guide my reading and discoveries: Technology, Environment, Art, Society, Entrepreneurship.

Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.**
Mae Jemison

This shift from being to doing to becoming occurs as your thoughts, actions, and feelings align with your dreams and values. And what best governs your values? The story you tell yourself about yourself.^
AleXander McManus

In answer to the question:
Probably not long enough.

Some skills, we’re
honing for a lifetime.^^

Some of the experimentations in new areas and directions*^
needs to go on longer.^*

Thinking needs to become doing,
And then becoming.

Each person is capable of different, and
therefore, unique.

*Some musical accompaniment from Ace;
**Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments;
^AleXander McManus’ FutureU;
^^Which of your powers are just getting stronger?
*^What are the new things you sense that you need to pursue?
^*100 days is a good length of time; I began Thin|Silence with a one year experiment. Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes about making a PACT, an experiment that is Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous (repeatable), and Trackable.

Drawing is much more than GOOD OR BAD. IT IS A language FROM another part of you … Cartooning isn’t just a way of drawing, it is a way of seeing.*
Lynda Barry

Copying is how I learn, it’s a way to understand what’s really going on, and drawing is a way of slowing down long enough to really look at something.**
Austin Kleon.

Slow down,
Look and see,
Understand,
Find more of yourself.

Don’t let yourself
or anyone else, tell you that
you are no good at drawing;
All drawing is copying, whether
it is something in
front of you or in
your imagination, and if
in copying it becomes something else, well,
That’s part of the purpose and the fun –
That’s where the your originality begins.

Slow down,
Look and see,
Understand,
Find more of yourself.

*Lynda Barry’s Making Comics;
**Austin Kleon’s blog: Drawing to remember.

Doesn’t everything die at last and to soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life.*
Mary Oliver

My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.**
Oliver Sacks

Perhaps there is much
still to happen within and through us,
An unfolding, tendril-like, from
our deep gratitude and
residue of days,
Even for the joy of others.

*Kate Clanchy’s How To Grow Your Own Poem;
**Oliver Sacks’ Gratitude.