Spirit needs form.
That was the giant truth I was feeling my way into.
Spirit needs form,
and form needs Spirit.
That was the other truth I was finding my way into.
Both are needed.*
Rob Bell

This may be the hardest of skills
I am learning:
That what comes new to me
and what prompts change for me
appearing in pictures or words
must become a first expression
and eventually an openness of form
urging more pictures and words–


*Rob Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Shallow happy is pursuing pleasure.
Deep happy is pursuing fulfilment.*
Derek Sivers

When we lose our tolerance for discomfort, we lose joy.**
Brené Brown

Strange how happy starts me full and leaves me empty
whilst joy starts me empty and leaves me full–

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**Brené Brown’s The Gifts Of Imperfection.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Great teachers set it up, and great students find the aha.* Sooner or later, we’re all self taught.**
Seth Godin

Use other people’s ideas.
Ideas are worth almost nothing.
Execution is everything…
Better to be filled with action than ideas.^^
Derek Sivers

To open ourselves up
to learning in body, heart, and soul
(as well as mind)
is one of the most
powerful things we can do.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Don’t steal the revelation;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Aha!;
^Derek Sivers’ How To Live.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

He had no notion of the preciousness of life – the fragility.  He had no idea how difficult, but essential, it is to love the world and to treat the world with mercy.  And like I said, he had no idea what was coming down the road.  He was entirely innocent of all that.*
Nick Cave

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

I cringe when I think of some of what I did
or thought or said when I was younger
and what I avoided, too,
And I hope I’ll still be cringing in the future
when I think about now,
Meaning I’ll still be learning,
Becoming–

*Nick Cave’s Faith, Hope and Carnage; describing himself as a young man;
**Richard Rohr’s The Tears Of Things. 

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Remember, once you eliminate what you wish would happen or what you think should happen, then it becomes clear that the particular is where the ultimate and the universal have the chance to appear, in a moment of time and space, and become concrete.**
Bill Barrett and Dave Evans

*Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’ How To Live A Meaningful Life.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

On the journey toward “true home,” though we may, from time to time, turn back to record or measure from whence we came, we do not turn back in order to turn back.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With The Wolves.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

I’ve come to believe that wise people don’t tell us what to do; they start by witnessing our story. They take the anecdotes, rationalisations, and episodes we tell, and see us in a noble struggle.*
David Brooks

If you would come closer
and listen, then you no longer
are information or even knowledge–
You are wisdom to me.

*David Brooks’ How To Know A Person.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

To cross a threshold is to leave behind the husks and arrive at the grain.*
John O’Donohue

You have wrenched some knowledge from the deepest abyss of your unknown self, and now the demons have been closed to wreak their revenge.**
Joseph Campbell

This journey is not over–
After realisation and resolve
rfor what this lifetime can be,
There can be no time or space
for ease–
The Furies and Gorgons
begin their pursuit.

*John O’Donohue’s Benedictus;
**Joseph Campbell’s Pathways To Bliss.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Beliefs exist to guide your actions. If you’re not acting in alignment with your beliefs, you’ve missed the point of beliefs.*
Derek Sivers

Ritual is simply a myth enacted; by participating in a rite, you are participating directly in a myth.**
Joseph Campbell

If I don’t live it
I don’t believe it
not really–

I form
my ‘liturgy’
build foundations–

To be playful
be creative
today–

Learning a skill and caring enough to implement it, again and again, can give us the firm foundation to see what others might miss.^

*Derek Sivers’ Useful Not True;
**Joseph Campbell’s Pathways To Bliss;
^Seth Godin’s blog: In defense of the hard parts.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO

Now it is basic mythological principle, I would say, that what is referred to in mythology as “the other world” is really (in psychological terms) “the inner world.” And what is spoken of as “future” is “now.”*
Joseph Campbell

It is far better for us to return to our own unique and soulful cycles regularly, all of them, any of them.**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Each day
sweeps us away
from ourselves,
Out out towards others,
A big fussy world,
So we need
our way
back
to our self,
To our deeper place
of gathering
and pondering
and renewing–

*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways To Bliss;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With The Wolves.

SOME RANDOM THIN|SILENCE
THIN|SILENCE FROM A YEAR AGO