Surprise is the great enabler of seeing.*
Alan Jacobs

*Alan Jacob’s Snakes and Ladders blog: Architectural Thoughts.

Enough comes from the inside.*
Ryan Holiday

*Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key.

The best way to achieve freedom is to take responsibility for the actions you’re taking. And the best way to be clear that you’re taking responsibility is to highlight the externalities and own them.*
Seth Godin

*Seth Godin’s blog: Embracing externalities.

Perhaps most awe-inspiring of all, our brain allows us to imagine.*
Jonah Paquette

*Jonah Paquette’s Awestruck.

rules only make sense in the service of love*
Brian McLaren

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt.

I don’t wait for inspiration. I’m not, in fact, quite sure of what inspiration is, but I’m sure that if it’s going to turn up, my having started work is a precondition of its arrival.*
Quentin Blake

Successful people figure out how too trade their time and their effort for the change they seek to make in the world.**
Seth Godin

Turning up is always a good strategy towards
something happening – investing time and effort is productive – but when we do this smarter,
Filling the space with multiple (re)sources, are humble and open, practice divergence
and delay convergence, then
something wanting to emerge may appear –
It feels almost magical, but we know it isn’t.

Just begin the work. The rest follows.^

*Quentin Blake’s Words and Pictures;
**Seth Godin’s This is Strategy;
^Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

Far more frequently … the life-enhancing route is to think of decisions not as things that come along, but as things to go hunting for.*
Oliver Burkeman

What happens because of what happens next?**
Alex McManus

Not all decisions are equal –
Some carry a five exclamation-mark (!!!!!)
risk score whilst
others hardly register one.

What are some of your best decisions? –
I’m guessing these are !!!!!:
your life-partner?, the work you do? –
And when you look more closely,
are they actually multiple decisions within a strategy? –
To find someone to share life with and work at it?,
To create work you love that makes a difference despite resistance?

Decisions are great for getting us
moving, but it’s unlikely that one decision will
get us to where we want to be, so
better to conceive of a series of decisions.

Are you in? –
Careful how you answer.

Good process leads to good outcomes.^

*Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals;
**Alex McManus’ Makers of Fire;
^Seth Godin’s The Practice.

In terms of character traits … studies have found that awe is correlated to traits like gratefulness, a love of learning, creativity, and appreciation of beauty.*
Jonah Paquette

Ecoutez le murmure
De la lune et soleil
A l’aube, ils chantent
‘Accueil, accueil’ 

Listen to the whisper
of the moon and sun
At dawn, they sing
‘Welcome, welcome’**
Lemn Sissay

To the non-human
the world is full of signals,
To the human, it’s
full of signs, feeding
curiosity, questions,
Imagination, inventiveness.

Does awe grow gratitude, learning, creativity, and beauty?,
Or is it the other way around?:
Yes, yes –
We are awe-extenders.

*Jonah Paquette’s Awestruck;
**Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in.

Now, from business to education to psychology, we are remembering that failure has always been part of every human story of success. … failure and vulnerability are the very elements of spiritual growth and personal wisdom.*
Krista Tippett

We have to embrace vulnerability because creating a story, and then trusting that it will work, exposes not only to the possibility of failure but also to the possibility that our story might expose things about us, which is even scarier.**
Lisa Cron

Risk, vulnerability, and failure,
These things we need in order to grow and develop and
live wisely.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**Lisa Cron’s Story or Die.

It always comes back to silence for me.  Taking myself to silence.  Inviting others to silence.  Frequently.  Quiet our busy minds.  Set aside our relentless chatter. Just be quiet.  And then do something.  And then get quiet again.*
Bob Stilger

We know our discourse is meaningful not by what we have said but by what has yet to be said. Soul draws our speech forward in the direction of the unspeakable. Only thus can it remain speech.**
James Carse

silence leans us towards
openness
awe
curiosity
discovery
humility
repleteness
wholeness
integration
activeness
becoming

*Brandy Agerbeck’s (ed) Drawn Together Through Visual Practice;
**James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory.