I think there is more going on than we can see or understand, and we need to find a way to lean into the mystery of things – the impossibility of things – and recognise the evident value of doing that, and summon the courage it requires to not always shrink back into he known mind.*
Nick Cave

The very moments that make us go “wow!” are the very same moments that can change our lives.**
Oliver Burkeman

Stay a while longer,
Stretch your unbelieving,
See what is happening,
Reflect on it some,
Be open to the possibility,
Allow the unknown to enfold you,
You’re learning to dance with mystery,
Transfigured by life.

*Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks.

participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world*
Joseph Campbell

Something in us wants to be distracted, whether by our digital devices or by anything else – to not spend our lives on what we thought we cared about most. The calls are coming from inside the house.**
Oliver Burkeman

Reply to that text,
Complete the job in the garden as it’s stopped raining,
Find that item that you need (probably under the stairs),
Here’s a good moment to touch up the paintwork,
Got to put some petrol in the car,
Make the shopping list …
A moment ago, you were excited by something,
A difference you really wanted to make,
To bring a little more brightness into the world –
Into someone’s world –
You had felt the power that came from imagining how
this aligns with your talents and passions and values,
But now you’re distracted, and you realise that
something inside of you is relieved, because joy doesn’t come without
time, effort, and sacrifice.

The bittersweet is also about the recognition that light and dark, birth and death – bitter and sweet – are forever paired.*

*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks.

Equidistant from the atoms and stars, we are expanding our exploring.*
Carl Sagan

All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills, we need guides to show us how. Without them, our lives get made up for us by other people.**
Ursula K. Le Guin

First of all,
Our forming happens to us, and then
our forming is meant to happen through us;
If we are not mindful of this, then in subtle ways,
For the rest of our lives, the forming will
happen to us.

The conditions for imagining and shaping our lives have
never been more propitious, including the very real
possibility of inventing ourselves again
today.

*Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time;
**Ursula K. Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter.

Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of responsibility – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener want to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.*
Krista Tippett

I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!**
Hafez

This is quite a journey,
From our discovery that
curiosity is an expression of valour that
any may develop until
it becomes instinctive, a growing of
openness towards, rather than against,
Surprise!, we let go of assumptions, agendas, and
self-interest,
Asking generous questions that invite
generous answers which are
intrinsic to the astonishing light each must
share;
Deep, generous listening is
generative –
We let go of ourselves in order that the
new may come to birth.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**From Hazef’s My Brilliant Image, William Seighart’s The Poetry Pharmacy.

Gratitude works.  Gratitude scales.  Gratitude creates a positive cycle of more gratitude.  When in doubt, default to gratitude.*
Seth Godin

*Seth Godin’s blog: If every day were Thanksgiving.

You can’t just be you. You have to double yourself. You have to read books on subjects you know nothing about. You have to travel to places you never thought of travelling. You have to meet every kind of person and endlessly stretch what you know.*
Mary Wells

Everything worth doing is difficult.**

You know that
I am capable of more, and I know that
you are, too;
There are so many ways in which
we can double ourselves in today’s world
(I am thinking of things like selflessness, generosity, and wisdom) –
Mary Wells’ list is only a start, and there’s a list of
many things natural and peculiar to you that you could pursue –
The only thing stopping you
Is that they are hard –
It’s the same with my list –
But we also know, the opposite of a double life
is not a single life,
It is a half life:
Three things differentiate living from the soul versus
living from ego only.
They are:
the ability to sense and learn new ways,
the tenacity to ride a rough road,
and the patience to learn deep love over time.^

*gapingvoid’s blog: Always Open Self;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Follow the Yellowbrick Road to Greatness;
^Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.

I am a visible original
A pinnacle of miracle
Critical untypical and
All but inexplicable*
Lemn Sissay

You can discover overlooked value by measuring things that are difficult to measure.**
Seth Godin

How do you measure a miracle, the
untypical, or the
inexplicable?

Begin by identifying your
talents, then follow up with your energies – the things
you are passionate about, topping these off with
your values – the beliefs that
cannot be torn from you;
Discovery can then be followed by invention
As we choose what next:
Our lives are a process of
constant discovery and invention.
Each of us lives
a unique human life.^

*Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The easy measurement;
^Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons.

I devote a significant amount of my time thinking about and agonising about something that may well not exist. So, in a way, it may actually be the doubt, the uncertainty and the mystery that animates the whole thing … there is a kind of gentle scepticism that makes belief stronger rather than weaker. In fact, it can be the forge on which more robust belief can be hammered out.*
Nick Cave

Dan Ariely explores the decline of trust and the rise of misbelief
in his latest book,
Whereas the philosophical principles of Occam’s Razor states that
when it comes to there being a number of explanations for something,
The one with the fewest elements or assumptions is
usually correct.

However, now it seems that the opposite of this informs us –
Just search “Kate’s photo” and see what happens,
Never mind 9/11, JFK, Princess Diana, Covid, the 2020 U.S. presidential election, or
your favourite conspiracy theory.

I value doubt and scepticism as they can lead to
important questions that, ultimately, can bring us to a
better understanding and place, but Ariely highlights four groups or elements
that it’s helpful to know are at play when it comes to doubting, there’s:
An emotional response – emotions precede beliefs, but emotions can mislead us,
A cognitive response – but we can be irrational if confirmation bias kicks in,
Our personality’s disposition – meaning we can be more or less prone to misbelief, and,
The social forces – the dangers of surrounding ourselves with people who think the same.**

All this said,
Please have doubts and raise questions.

*Nick Cave and Séan O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage;
**Dan Ariely’s Misbelief, written partly as his response to discovering he’d been implicated in a conspiracy theory.

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.*
James Carse

We have unlearned the patience and attention of lingering at the thresholds where the unknown awaits us.**
John O’Donohue

Lingering, attention, and
patience are necessary for surprise;
Consider their opposites, all possible ways
to train against surprise:
Hurry, distraction, disinclination –
These should do it.

However, as people who linger and
pay attention and
are patient, we are
able to let go and let come –
I-in-Now people, able to bring
curiosity and
interest and
learning and
playfulness and
imagination and
creativity and
making to our discoveries;
We may even become a
surprise to others.

*James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games;
**John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty.

Every single moment contains thousands of possibilities – and I can only choose one of them to actualise it … everything I realise through them, or “bring into the world,” … I save into reality and thus protect from transience.*
Viktor Frankl

By being what only I can be, I give humanity what only I can give. It is my uniqueness that allows me to contribute something unique to the universal heritage of humankind.**
Jonathan Sacks

Pluck the moment –
Everything can change in a moment,
For you, or through you
for an other;
Noticing the possibilities in a moment isn’t
some magical power –
Although it can seem so –
Rather, it is an ability we can all develop
through practise.

Here are Jonathan Sacks words again,
Slightly altered:
By being what only you can be,
you give humanity what only you can give.
It is your uniqueness that allows you
to contribute something unique to the universal heritage
of humankind.

*Viktor Frankl’s Yes to Life;
**Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise.