The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.* William James
“Hayah asher hayah.” Those words are mistranslated in English as “I am that which I am.” But in Hebrew, it means “I will be who or how or where I will be,” meaning, Don’t think you can predict me.** Jonathan Sacks
We are all capable of glorious unpredictability – The only thing to beware is unpredictability goes down and predictability goes up if we try to do and be everything.
Nothing kidnaps our capacity for presence more cruelly than longing. And yet longing is also the most powerful creative force we know: Out of our longing for meaning came all of art; out of our longing for truth all of science; out of our longing for love the very fact of life.* Maria Popova
The problem with getting what you want is that now you have a hole, because you don’t want that thing anymore, you have it … There’s a more resilient path: To commit to wanting what you have.** Seth Godin
To be present to something in life is the most important thing of all, Too many focus on the hole in their life rather than celebrating the fullness – What they have and what they can do with it; Carlos Castenades, in passing on the shaman wisdom of Don Juan, suggests we ask a question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.^
It is important to find a path with a heart, The telling confirmation of what you have rather than What you do not have; It doesn’t matter what it is save for this one thing – It must have a heart: Nothing has inherent meaning. It is what it is and that’s it. We choose to project meaning onto things. It feels good to make stories.^^
We are meaning-making creatures, responding to a universe which asks the questions of us: What will you do with your life?, and so, To turn our meaning into something we can live out over a lifetime, we turn it into a story: We do not go to a storyteller to learn what we already know. We go with a prayer: Please let me gain insights into life I’ve never had before; let the characters be originals I’ve never met before.*^
One study found that people who were directed to doodle while carrying out a boring listening task remembered 29 percent more information than people who did not doodle, likely because the latter group had let their attention slip away entirely.* Annie Murphy Paul
I like to share this information wherever it feels appropriate and helpful.
Everyone can doodle, so this is a superpower we can all develop.
As well as doodling to listen, I also aim to create a doodle that represents what I’ve been hearing.
Here are a few other benefits to add to listening and creating that I enjoy:
Doodling derives from dawdling, so it helps me slow down.
I can then be present and absorbed in what I’m hearing and doing.
It provokes imagination whilst it exploring representation.
It legitimises adaptation and anticipates transformation.
Don’t start a business until people are asking you to.* Derek Sivers
By escape into the mass, man loses his most intrinsic quality: responsibility.** Viktor Frankl
In the “mass” there are those who tell and those who are told, And to those who are telling, all those who are told look the same; In a community, there are those who are asking and those who are giving, And those who are giving have many different gifts, so the important thing is to respond to the right ask.
Those who are told say, It’s your responsibility, but you already know what those who are giving say – after which there is only who? and when?
I’ve always believed in the power of poetry to explain people to themselves.* William Seighart
Budded from the matrix of psyche, we bloom out of imaginal worlds from which we arise coded in myth and symbol.** Jean Houston
Poems are not wasteful with their words, Their locution is expansive and sharp, Fullness and calling, Honest and hopeful; Our lives are like poems – When the extraneous is removed, we see both who we are and yet can be.
I tried to get mad at people. They lied. They betrayed me. They disappeared. Do you hear the pattern? “They this, they that” … But one day I tried thinking of everything as my fault … What power! Now you’re the person who made things happen, made a mistake, and can learn from it. Now you’re in control and there’s nothing to complain about.* Derek Sivers
How would I live if I was exactly what’s needed to heal the world?** Rachel Naomi Remen
The apostle Paul counsels, Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger^ – But how?
Wisdom takes anger on a journey through opening the mind, the heart, and the will: How did I contribute to this? What does the other want to see happen? What can I now make happen to improve things?^^
Anger is a sign that something is wrong, but when we take it on a journey, we can make it count, we can arrive at a better place, even to identifying the contribution we can make in the world.
Two thousand years ago, Paul was telling people that if they took anger for a walk it could even become kindness, gentleness, and forgiveness – Which is godlike.
I guess we didn’t expect to get there from here.
*Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No; **Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise; ^Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 4:26; ^^There are plenty of questions for opening the mind, heart, and will; these are only for starters; *^Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 4:32.
Keep death and exile before you every day, along with everything that seems terrible – by doing so, you’ll never have a base thought nor will you have excessive desire.* Epictetus
Imagine what it’s like to be the silver medalist. If you’d just been one second faster, you could have won the gold! Damn! So close! … Now imagine what it’s like to be the bronze medalist. If you’d just been one second slower, you wouldn’t have won anything! Awesome!** Derek Sivers
A friend shared how his old job had recently been split into three, and he had been hired for one of these roles; I asked him if he got the part he enjoyed the most – he did.
This got me to wanting to ask you a question – I’ll ask it in a few parts, and perhaps take a moment to reflect and write out each response:
If your present job was reimagined as three new roles, What would they be?
Which of these is the role you’d want to be rehired into?
How would you walk with this, then run, then fly?
Here’s your bronze medal^ – You already have this job, so why not begin to make happen what you have just imagined; My guess is that it will change the other two parts of your work.
At some point the big reasons run out and then all you’re left with is your own quiet decisions … Big reasons run out. The power of your decisions does not.* Gabe Anderson
Anything that can be prevented, taken away, or coerced is not a person’s own – but those things that can be blocked are their own.** Epictetus
This is about the difference between musts and shoulds: The reasons, or the shoulds, come from outside of you, but those sending them your way aren’t bothered enough with you to keep telling you everything you ought to be doing; The decisions, or musts, are always coming from inside of you, fed by your talents, energies, and values, they’re always there to guide you and keep you going when the way becomes tough – just when the reasons are likely to say as they flee, “Estás solo mi amigo.”
Awe is a feeling we have when we encounter the monumental or immeasurable. We experience a sudden shrinking of the self, yet a rapid expansion of the soul.* Nick Cave
In silent companionship with the life of the Galapagos, I had come to the conclusion that our personal identity, which we think is based on our beliefs and opinions, is actually more of a function of our ability to pay attention to the world around us. If we had very little in the way of attention for the world, then we actually had very little in the way of real existence.** David Whyte
I had just read these words when it was time to pop my wife into work because I needed the car to get to my volunteering in a university one town over … And there it was, A gentle giant sky with clouds painted in soft oranges and mauves, and, when a break appeared between the buildings and trees, A molten bank of clouds wearing pale yellow and cream, Embracing the newly born sun.
THIN|SILENCE 
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