Let’s get rid of science class in school. Instead, beginning in kindergarten, we could devote a class to curiosity and explanation … Curiosity is a skill, and it can be taught.*
Seth Godin

For humility is … the only effective antidote to narcissism, and all its associated evils. It is, in essence, a readiness to admit its shortcomings coupled with a willingness to learn, be that from people, animals, plants, or even machines – whoever masters something we do not. The opportunities are infinite.**
Anna Katherina Schaffner

“I don’t know,
Perhaps you do,
Maybe you could show me, tell me?”

“That’s interesting,
I will look closer, deeper –
There is so much I don’t know.”

Humility begets curiosity, and
curiosity grows humility –
We can increase our ability in both.

In this game, we only get one choice, Once we are born we are players. The only choice we get is if we want to play with a finite mindset or an infinite mindset.^

reports have documented how “teaching to the test” curtails student curiosity^^

The more we grow our humility and
curiosity, the greater our possibility of becoming
infinite players, explorers of the forever more.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Why and how;
**Anna Katherina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement;
^Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

Looking at the work done and the work still to do, most people would have written the whole thing off as too much sweat for too little gain. But I didn’t want an easy life. I wanted a beautiful one.*
Ben Short

What a blessing to be in a position of doing great work and experiencing the unique stress that goes along with it.**
Gabe Anderson

The best work of all is seldom
stress-free and totally fun –
When we’re doing something that is
meaningful and rewarding to us and
for others,
The sweat and tears don’t seem to register in the
same way as when we’re filling a role;
Here’s a test for what qualifies:
Not only are you
successful,
And doing what is
intuitive,
But you are
growing,
And a
need
is being met in you;
If these four things aren’t met, keep
moving and making your meaning.^

James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: Two steps for better results, the qualities of a great career, and how to handle good luck;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: Good Stress;
^Meaning is made as much as found.

The midwife is the woman between: the liminal woman, the threshold woman.*
Mary Ruth Broz and Barbara Flynn

With our phones to our ears, life and our minds frequently feel like casinos now. There is no sun, no pocket of quiet, there don’t seem to be exits, and the reception is terrible. Connection to anything real, to the ancient, to the mystical, to the moment is weak, so there is bound to be existential exhaustion.**
Anne Lamott

Rush is life in the shallows–
if we don’t damage what we’re working on, we’re
likely harming ourselves and
those around us;
Slipping out of the rush and into a
quieter space may appear to be
a luxury you can’t afford, but it’s
really a life-basic, a space-between,
A special world of the bigger picture, of
uncovering and emergence –
There is an order to be embraced:
Divergence,
Emergence,
Convergence;
Humility,
Gratitude,
Faithfulness;
Anapana,
Vipassaña,
Metta.

The deeper the source we work from, the better our stuff will be – and the more transformative it will be for us and for those we share it with.^

*Mary Ruth Broz and Barbara Flynn‘s Midwives of An Unnamed Future;
**Anne Lamott’s Dusk Night Dawn;
^Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

The artist rarely says, “I’d like to do less.” Instead, she wonders how to contribute more, because the very act of creativity is the point of the work.*
Seth Godin

True perseverance … is flanked by the ancient values: courage and values.**
Anna Katharina Schaffner

To contribute is the point,
The desire to give and
somehow, somewhere, for someone
to make things better,
Beautiful, even,
Something mythical, leaving us in
no doubt that we are
alive.

*Seth Godin’s blog: But what could you learn instead;
**Anna Katharina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement.

Lao-tzu recommended that we let go of all those social conventions that interfere with our authenticity and that hamper our spontaneity and creativity.*
Anna Katharina Schaffner

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.**
James Baldwin

When you’ve been slowly but
surely working on your
humility and
generosity and
faithfulness, you can better trust
the solution you have to be
selfless and
generous and
wise –
The kind of things problems
don’t like at all.

*Anna Katharina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

If the One, the True, Being, the Good and the Beautiful were to vanish, the thought in the mind would have no pathway to the world.*
John O’Donohue

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.**
Alan Kay

We are always in need of
beautiful ideas to lead us out of being
trapped
caught
dead-ended
pointless
hopeless
pinched
depressed
repressed
unimpressed
overcome
clueless
directionless;
Not all ideas are equally worthy and are able to
align with:
Being – deepest reality of all that is,
The One – everything that exists is somehow
bound together,
The True – that whatever our reality, it is
true and our experience real,
The Good – participating in the soul
of the world,
The Beautiful – the truest and most
real expression that
lifts us, and, of course,
The idea is moving through
us.

*John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
**Seth Godin’s The Carbon Almanac.

what if we simply took whatever pain we couldn’t get rid of, and turned it into something else*
Susan Cain

With … choice comes a remarkable sort of freedom. The freedom to be still, to become aware and to stop hiding from the living that’s yet to be done.**
Seth Godin

Because our lives are stories, we
can rewrite them, not in
some fantastical way,
Nor, “This has happened to me” full stop! but as
“This happened to me, and now
I choose …”;
Writing it out is better than
thinking about it, using
pen and paper is better than
some electrical device,
Mornings are good times,
Reminding us that this will
need repeating;
It will be costly, but
time and effort always win.

*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
**Seth Godin’s blog: And maybe it’s enough.

You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its. kind in all of existence and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of the strings that somebody else pulls …*
Brian McLaren

It most likely boils down to
one thing, the
one thing behind everything else
that we imagine and do, the one thing we keep
returning to in order to
orientate our lives towards
meaning and purpose;
It’s useful to write it down
every so often, and then
make it happen in
any which we we can.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt.

No wonder some of our parents forgot to mention soul, as it is apt to distract from Serious Goals and Aspirations. It is as playful and illogical as a kitten, as watchful as God or a baby. It rubs its back lazily against trees. It stops and gasps at beauty and is bathed in it. And sometimes it begins to weep.*
Anne Lamott

Your soul is much larger than you!  You are just along for the ride. When you learn to live there, you will learn to live with everyone and everything else too.**
Richard Rohr

Who taught you about soul?

I bet they were bigger than the
people around them, more
fun, more
inquisitive, more
effusive, more
in wonderment, more
loving, more
forgiving, more
more.

*Anne Lamott’s Dusk Night Dawn;
**Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond.

What most of us don’t realise is that when a story grabs us, that conflict, and its resolution, becomes ours.*
Lisa Cron

The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.**
Loopy

Stories are how we live our lives, and we can even be drawn into
stories that are not ours – attentively listening to
a friend or watching a movie can find us anticipating and
experiencing what is happening;
We can find ourselves experiencing our own story as
we tell it or write it down, but,
As amazing as our bodies and minds are for transporting us
into a story, all of the imagining and feeling are there for one thing only,
And that is doing it.

*Lisa Cron’s Story Or Die;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: On the joy of losing, how to set expectations with others, and notes to myself.