We’re all haunted by something deep inside of us, and often a lot of our best work is the result of trying to come to terms with this.*
gapingvoid

It’s our interpretation of, and approach to, our past that generates resilience … “Do not become a victim of your past.**
Vitor Strecher and Henry Nyombi

The past is never past – because of
how it records itself within us,
We know it is here in the present and is
capable of shaping the future;
How we live with it, then,
Is everything, as Brother Nassim would remind us,
It is not only possible to grow ourselves beyond being
reactive to our past – overcome by it,
Even more than being resilient to it –
more than bouncing back, we are capable
of using the past to be more, become stronger:
Wind extinguishes a candle and energises fire …
You want to be the fire and wish for the wind.^

*gapingvoid’s blog: Spiritual Redemption;
**Victor Strecher’s Life on Purpose (230), quoting Henry Nyombi;
^Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile (3).

Our lifetimes are specks in the universe, but they are the longest and only spans of time we will ever know.*
Beth Pickens

As Rilke says: Hier zu sein ist soviel – to be here is immense.**
John O’Donohue

It’s quite astonishing what we can do
with a little bit of time:
May we be playful with what we have,
Not regretting that we haven’t got more.

The point is to master the habit of showing up.^

*Beth Pickens’ Make Your Art No Matter What (6);
**John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us (186);
^James Clear’s Atomic Habits (163).

The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.*

You’ll find yourself working – thinking, making
sentences – in the brief intervals of your ordinary life,
In increments no longer than a few seconds.
How long does a thought take?
Or a sentence?
Verlyn Klinkenborg

I am grateful for those who helped me
identify my life-meaning –
Which turned out to be as close as my breath;
Let me know
if I can help you find yours.^

*A student of Viktor Frankl, from Jonah Lehrer’s A Book About Love;
**Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing;
^geoffrey@thinsilence.org.

Love enormously increases receptivity to the fullness of values. The gates to the whole universe of values are, as it were, thrown open.*
Viktor Frankl

This shift from being to doing to becoming occurs as your thoughts, actions, and feelings align with your dreams and values. And what best governs your values? The story you tell yourself about yourself.**
AleXander McManus

We can look at our stories in terms of the
abilities and the powers we use, or
our engagement in the things that energise us and
through which we bring energy to others, or
the values we seek to live for and
be know for, the greatest of which is
love, and when all of these align,
Then we have a pretty decent story.

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**AleXander McManus’ FutureU.

The doubt of Perplexity, the mystics helped me to see, was just the fire I needed to purge me of previously unacknowledged arrogance.*
Brian McLaren

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

Through Simplicity and even Complexity,
The ego may be found roaming happily, but
on encountering Perplexity,^ and losing certainty and
competence and getting and status, it may only continue
through its transformation, made possible through
humility and curiosity and learning and sacrifice.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt;
**Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things;
^Brian McLaren writes of four stages or seasons that the human soul journeys through: Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony. Perplexity is comprised of what does not add up and hurts and wrongs and even destroys in life, though ultimately serving us towards moving from the Ego to the True Self. Our response is a desire for rightness and goodness and justice.

To me, [Perplexity] was Inquiry: scholarship, education, critical thinking, and free, unlimited curiosity. What’s not to love about that?*
Joelle

I can’t undo an action regret like this. But one way to ease its sting is to switch from If Only to At Least.**
Daniel Pink

Perplexity, here, is worse than Complexity,
It’s bad and may never work out,
So what we have to decide is
whether we are going to accept this, or
we are going to work on ourselves and
the way in which we face how things are –
This is growing psychological flexibility rather than rigidity;
Though it is hard, it is not impossible, and
it begins with our curiosity towards discovery towards
learning towards experimenting towards
activeness.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt;
**Daniel Pink’s The Power of Regret.

Dialogical Convergence holds that reality emerges from the interplay of voices – material and immaterial, human and divine, historical and immediate, silent and spoken. Reality is neither purely imagined more fixed independently of our perception. Instead it dances within the tension of relationship, waiting for generative interaction.*
AleXander McManus

And yet we waste the freedom we each have. We waste it waiting for instructions, and we waste it meandering without a strategy. We each have the freedom to care, to connect, to choose, to initiate, and to do the work that matters.**
Seth Godin

When we find our voice and
join the conversation, then
things change,
Maybe not hugely, but
that doesn’t matter as much as
we’re bringing something that will
make someone’s world better –
Something we get to
continually explore.

*AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments;
**Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy.

essays … from the French essai, meaning to try, or to attempt*
Ross Gay

We all speak in rhythm. The rhythm of our own language is one of the primary things we learn.**
Kate Clanchy

The essayist, the tryer,
Continually open,
Identifying the natural rhythm for their life –
Being more articulate and poised than balance.

*Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights;
**Kat Clanchy’s How to Grow Your Own Poem.

we come out of the world … in the same way a tree blossoms, the universe ‘peoples’*
Oliver Burkeman

What is the new thing that is trying to spring forth from within us and among us?**
Philip Newell

It’s the way of the universe:
New things want to happen, but
a flower isn’t the telos of the tree, nor even
the fruit, rather
it is a new tree; and
new things want to come from you,
From everyone, not only the “special ones” –
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

*Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations For Mortals;
**Philip Newell’s The Great Search.

When you choose a behaviour, you choose its future consequences.*
Derek Sivers

What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time.**
Henry David Thoreau

It may appear a good choice right now, but
what will it look like tomorrow, in a month, or five years?

We’re thinking about eating, interactions, language, buying, and
how we use our time.

It’s important to be present in the now, but
it also pays to be able to visit the future.

I explore both the present and the future through
my story, comprising abilities, energies, and values.^

This shift from being to doing to becoming occurs as your thoughts, actions, and feelings align with your dreams and values. And what best governs your values? The story you tell yourself about yourself.^^

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope;
^Drop me a line if you would like to find out more: geoffrey@thinsilence.org;
^^AleXander McManus’ FutureU.