throughout adulthood, we maintain the ability to grow myelin* Angela Duckworth
This fact keeps changing everything; Myelin is layered around our synaptic connections as an insulating coating when we practise our skills – The more insulation, The faster the electrical signal, The more developed and skilful the activity.
We may say, then, today is bright, and tomorrow, Brighter, Especially when we action our stories – The things we have come to understand that we must do if we are to fully live our lives and contribute to others.
Have others told you how they wish they could have your energy and enthusiasm?
But that’s not possible – They really need to find their own, And the difficult part isn’t finding it, But letting it out – Maybe today will be the day.
Are situations that seem to have no satisfactory solution challenging me to grow, to change, to become more than I have been – stronger, gentler, more responsible, more loving? Are they inviting me, perhaps, to come alive in a whole new way?* Bessel van der Kolk
Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.** Jesus of Nazareth
A little faithfulness goes a long way – Each day becoming an opportunity to express in multifarious ways, Who we are and what we have in response to the needs we find around us.
We begin to create the future one small faithful act after another, And we know what we must do.
This is an important theme for me at the moment, as I am about to step out of work and into something new; I have some ideas about dreamwhispering and doodling, but these will need some faithful support, some activeness.
The closer we look at what people believe and do, the more clear it is that our view of the world doesn’t precisely match theirs. It never has but now it’s magnified. No one believes what I believe, not exactly.* Seth Godin
The question then is how to get lost. Never to get lost is not to live, not know how to get lost brings you to destruction, and somewhere in the terra incognito in between lies a life of discovery.** Rebecca Solnit
We can be too serious when we first meet each other; Perhaps we first ought to be playful, Maybe using the “Yes, and …” game so we can become lost in each other.
Inherent to this is vulnerability – Taking time, letting go of agenda, shelving opinions, willing to explore the unfamiliar.
Yes, we’ll get things wrong, But hopefully, when we do, there’ll be forgiveness.
respect (n.) late 14c., “relationship, relation; regard, consideration” (as in in respect to), from Old French respectand directly from Latin respectus “regard, a looking at,” literally “act of looking back (or often) at one,” noun use of past participle of respicere “look back at, regard, consider,” from re- “back” (see re-) + specere “look at” (from PIE root *spek- “to observe”).
At its core, the idea of purpose is the idea that what we do matters to people other than ourselves. … In my “grit lexicon,” therefore, purpose means to contribute to the well-being of others.* Angela Duckworth
I found that my purpose began with an irritating question: What do I do well and should focus on?
It’s a question I have asked in a refining way over many years, and it has led me to focus on helping others find their purpose.
Always have the courage To change, welcoming those voices That call you beyond your self.* John O’Donohue
Living things must change on order to stay the same. Or more precisely, living things must change to remain themselves. … Life is the ongoing process of self-making. It is that which continuously changes itself in order to continue being itself.** David Rome
We change to remain ourselves because within each of us lie many possibilities, Many futures: In a word: one ought to turn the most extreme possibility inside oneself into the measure for one’s life, for our life is vast and can accommodate as much future as we are able to carry.^
Where to begin?
How about identifying that most extreme possibility within you, And imagining its smallest iteration so that you can do it.
This is how it works. Each morning I take a running leap and I dive into words. I hunt under the surface for the right ones and emerge with the catch. … A daily practice. My meditation.* Lemn Sissay
We live our lives so poorly because we arrive in the present always unprepared, incapable and too distracted for everything.** Rainer Maria Rilke
How might we awaken to the infinite at the beginning of the day?: how to contain the serious within the playful; that is, to keep all our finite games in infinite play.^
Together with my porridge, I dive into ideas, Like the BFG gathering dreams: Every morning I is going out and snitching new dreams to put in my bottles.^^
Some write their morning pages to connect with what they love, Their infinite, Others use the time between home and work to reconnect with what matters most to them.
It’s not about the time spent, Or the method used, But providing ourselves with the gift of preparation.
Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.** Dacher Keltner
Thus, awe’s ability to increase compassion and altruism appears to be one of the core reasons for its prominent place in our emotional repertoire.^ Jonah Paquette
I love questions, And the adventures they open before me, But I am appreciating more the important part that mystery has to play within my life, As Lao Tzu pens so well: From wonder into wonder, existence opens.*
Joseph Campbell would tell us that this relates to the metaphysical function of myths, A connecting with the ground of our being – The other three functions being the cosmological, sociological, and pedagogical; Indeed, we might connect awe as a benefit to each of these: At the universe science is opening up to us, In the exploration of human connectedness, and, By inspiring and guiding us through the stages, Or non-linearity, of our lives.
There are a million different things that bug billions of different people … so the bugs that stick out to you might be worth listening to. They’re your bugs. They just might be guiding you toward your proper path.* Gabe Anderson
When a musician, a playwright or an entrepreneur takes a risk, they’re betting someone will care enough to hear them and engage with them. They do the work because they care, not because someone handed them a manual.** Seth Godin
Are you waiting for someone else to come along and do something about that thing you can’t help but notice?
Whether it’s something that really gets on your nerves, or you’ve always wanted to do, Don’t wait, find the smallest way for doing something about it today.
It’s how I got into dreamwhispering, and today I will be with a small crowd of people in the university I’m about to retire from, who are wanting to see whether they can connect it with their work in some way or other.
How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?^
THIN|SILENCE 
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