Medals are small things in the light of the stars […].   There’s only one thing in the world of any real importance, and that is goodness.**
Maria Mitchell

[Good’s] existence is the unmistakable sign that we are spirit creatures, attracted by excellence and made for the good.^
Iris Murdoch

It may not gain as many followers, register
as many hits, it may even go unnoticed, but
there will be a way in which you can bring
what you love to be about into the world
of another and make something better –
What is this for you?

*A play on the title of Jim Collin’s best-selling book Good to Great, with a choice between greatness and goodness, where goodness is notoriety and celebrity status, and goodness is making the world better;
**Maria Popova’s Figuring;
^Iris Murdoch’s The Sovereignty of Good.

When we set up pleasure as the whole meaning of life, we insure that in the final analysis life shall invariably be meaningless.*
Viktor Frankl

Our goals are often not even our own; we borrow them from peers, celebrities, and what we imagine society expects from us. French philosopher René Girard called this mimetic desire: we desire something because we see others desiring it … our goals mimic the goals of others.**
Anne-Laure Le Cunff

There’s no escaping it –
or is there?

In many ways I am the product of
a wealthy Western culture.

And more: I am a sixty six year old
white male married for forty five years.

My list could go on,
But no-one is a list.

We will ultimately be defined by
our curiosity, openness, and ability to change.

When we learn from others – cultures, genders, ages, species –
We reset our limits:^

Here’s where our role as an author becomes vital. The constraints of your life are the womb of your creativity.^

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments;
^I just wish it could make me younger;
^^AleXander McManus’ FutureU.

Worry less about making a mark. Worry more about leaving things better than you found them.*
Austin Kleon

“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and can be just as frightening … Getting to know requires caring enough to make a difference and being brave enough to tell the truth.**
Seth Godin

One day,
We’ll want to say “yes” to
the thing we really must do,
But if this is simply a yes added to
all the other yeses then
it’s probably not going to happen,
At some point
we’re going to have to say
“no” –
The really important stuff
demands our soul.

*Austin Kleon’s Keep Going;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Getting to no.

Happy is the man who can make others better, not merely when he is in their company, but even. when he is in their thoughts.*
Seneca

We’ve built a circle of reactions about the latin word for ‘throw’ but we rarely say the word itself. When we ject on behalf of others, creating possibility and connection, the effort pays off.**
Seth Godin

Does this [idea/thought/gift/action] come from the best me I can be?
Will it really improve the life of another?
Especially those who are different to me?

Before we throw something “in there” or “out there,”
It’s going to be helpful to search for the truth and
be open to some surprise and redirection.

*Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Ject!

You’re doing it wrong.  But at least you’re doing it.  Once you’re doing it, you have a chance to do it better.  Waiting for perfect means not starting.*
Seth Godin

Doodles are a great way of reminding myself that
I don’t need perfect, I only
need to begin –
I didn’t know what this was going to be
until I started,
Then a 1970s sitcom came to mind,
Leading me to the problem with perfection …
And the great thing about doodling.

*Seth Godin’s blog: “You’re doing it wrong.”

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men and women.*
Joseph Campbell

The hero transformation begins when the hero takes responsibility for their life and for their story. The hero becomes the hero only when they decide to accept the facts of their life and respond with courage.**
Donald Miller

You can still be more the person only
you can be, enwrapped and absorbed
in the things only you can do for
the sake of others without
using the word hero;
When you own how things are and
what must be done^
you have already placed a foot on
your heroic path, and
you will change and
you will begin to make change.

*Joseph Campbell’s Myths To Live By;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
^This is how it began for me, though it was to be many years before I came to ideas of myths and heroes. It began with journaling about things that were happening around and through me – writing these things down helps the path unfold.

Here’s the thing: the story you think is too small to matter is often the one that changes everything.*
Bernadette Jiwa

These are your precognitions:
whispered memories of a future that
remembers you. Let them lead you. Not with
force, but with the subtle gravity of
something sacred calling you home.
AleXander McManus

It’s not big, nor
is it noticed by the masses,
But this is your story,
Unrepeatable, beautiful, alchemistic.

*Bernadette Jiwa’s Briefly blog: The Quiet Power of Untold Stories;
**AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments.

In a contest between “I Have a Dream” and “the advancement of creative dissatisfaction,” we all know which words win. The emotional ones. The ones that speak to a universal human experience: dreaming and yearning for something more.*
gapingvoid

Emotion alerts your cognitive unconscious to the events you need to remember because they contain info that might come in handy in the future and allows everything else you experience to evaporate into the ether as if it had never happened.**
Lisa Cron

Martin Luther King Jr. was about to
tell his audience to “go back to [your] communities as members of
the international association for the advancement of creative dissatisfaction,”*
But he paused, a friend on stage asked him
to tell them about his dream –
The rest is history, and more:
The dream is still alive today.

Our emotions may get us into trouble
at times, leading us down false paths,
But we need them –
Vulcans can only exist in Star Trek’s imagination,
At best they would only be a chaotic species –
We’d struggle making even
simple decisions without them.

Which brings us to the importance of dreams,
And how they play upon our lives,
The emotions they evoke,
Prompting stories we want to explore beyond
the hard facts of life;
Dare to express your dream, then
follow where it leads.^

*gapingvoid’s blog: No Emotion, No Justice;
**Lisa Cron’s Story Or Die;
^Let me know if I can help with dreamwhispering: geoffrey@thinsilence.org.

If myth accomplishes only one thing, it is to expose human beings as multidimensional creatures … No one volunteers to be insignificant. No one yearns to be powerless and without purpose. The self craves one thing: to express its potential.*
Deepak Chopra

Each day holds
opportunities to do something
purposeful and significant;
These actions may be small but
we don’t know where they’ll lead –
Permission isn’t out there,
It’s within us.

*Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us.

Humans are smart because we have evolved to connect with other brains.**
Matthew Syed

If you read books on different topics an different genres at the same time, your brain can’t help but find weird connections between them.^
Austin Kleon

I’m not claiming to be smart,
But I do hope to be smarter through being
open to others for the sake others.

Every morning, I am met
by a random group of writers and thinkers,^^ and
I never know what’s going to emerge.

*The bookshelf doesn’t have to be a physical one; it can be digital, visual, audible.
**Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas;
^Austin Kleon’s blog: Letting books talk to each other;
^^I have a shelf of twenty eight open books at the moment, which shuffle as I read from about four of these each day, together with around three or four blogs. Today’s randomly included Richard Rohr, Matthew Syed, Bina Venkataraman, Adam Kohane, Seth Godin, Gabe Anderson, Deepak Chopra, and Austin Kleon. When ideas are coming together within us, we are shaping our permission to do something – we don’t have to wait (something that spills over into tomorrow’s blog).