As you savour the taste of honey, remember that the production of one pound of honey needs 2,000,000 flowers and on average, a bee visits 50-100 flowers on each flight. The average bee makes just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime … Bee populations are becoming increasingly at risk due to habitat loss, temperature changes due to climate change, pollution and agricultural practices … What can we do to help protect the bees?*

After many weeks of warm, dry, sunny
weather, this morning was cold, and I noticed
a bee lying on the drive, motionless – a worker bee
that had died hard at work, as its pollen baskets, or corbiculae,
Were still intact, so I
thanked my fellow Earth citizen for its service.

*The Carbon Almanac: The Buzz About Bees.

The diary is the heart of my practice, the place where most of my work is made or at least first conceived.*
Austin Kleon

Work nourishes noble minds.**
Seneca

For some, their special world is a diary or journal,
For others, more disciplined in their thoughts than me,
It may be a corner for meditation,
Or a walk for reflection, but in these places
we gain a different perspective on what
we are doing for our work,^ why
we are doing it, who
we are doing this with or for, and when
we do our best work –
Above all, we reconnect to our greatest work:
What is your vocation?
To be a good person.^^

Austin Kleon’s blog: A walkthrough of my diary;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
^This is work in its widest sense; it may for may not be something we are paid for, but it definitely is something we must do that requires talent and effort.
^^Marcus Aurelius, from Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

None of us are authorised to solve interesting problems. And there are no guarantees. Do it anyway. Generous creativity is the only way things can get better.*
Seth Godin

The earliest artists worked within the outlines of their imaginations, the later reworked their imaginations.**
James Carse

Who knows where the thought or notion
comes from: maybe the universe, the BFG,^ or
your god – who trusts you to use your own imagination
rather than being told what to do, therefore
that thing that’s always on your
mind and heart, and brings
your best talents into play
somehow,
Somewhere, for
someone,
Maybe, just
maybe that’s your workship,
Your most sacred work,
The reason you are here^^ –
Praise be.

There is only one age: alive.*^

*Seth Godin’s blog: The hubris of creativity;
**James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games;
^‘I is a dream-blowing giant,’ from Roald Dahl’s The BFG;
^^And there is no retirement; indeed, this may be when our workship begins;
*^Agnes Varda; Austin Kleon’s blog: My year in 101 quotes.

Gratitude simply opens up a
bigger, more
colourful
relational
thoughtful
inspiring
interconnected
giving
peaceful
joyful
loving
potential
hopeful
creative
(please add more)
world and
life.

For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Complexity is beautiful and beauty is simple.*
Gabe Anderson

I was playing with these two thoughts, and this appeared:
I wouldn’t give you a fig for the beauty on this side of difficulty,
But for the beauty on the far side of difficulty,
I would give you everything I have –
Think about the most beautiful people you know,
What have they gone through to become that person?, and
that object or idea that captures your attention and captivates and
inspires, how painful and costly was that to create?

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: Organising the Beats.

Wandering is an essential counterbalance to efficiency … The outsized discoveries – the ‘non-linear’ ones – are highly likely to require wandering.*
Jeff Bezos

I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.**
Jeanette Winterson

It worked last time,
It’s all we have,
It’s what’s expected of us,
It worked in these other places,
What will others think if we don’t do it this way?
We haven’t got time to come up with anything else,
That’s not how we do things here,
We can’t be seen to fail,
Leave it to those in charge,
It’s not in the textbook,
It’s not in the instruction manual,
Someone else will know what to do,
We have to sit down and focus … really focus,
It’s still not working.

Time to bring the power of imagination to the
pressure of reality,^
The kind of imagination fuelled by wandering,
And the more involved, the better –
And, yes, there’s risk^

We use our imagination not to escape from reality but to join it, and this exhilarates us because of the distance between and an appreciation of the real.^^

*Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas;
**James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: The simple path to wealth, how time works, and things that hold talented people back;
^Wallace Stevens’ The Necessary Angel;
^^Iris Murdoch’s The Sovereignty of Good.

Jimmy Baldwin used to talk about us “achieving ourselves,” finding who we are, what we’re here for and making that possible for each other.*
Vincent Harding

The soul of an individual is the longing inside each person for a greater sense of belonging, for a new country. We go through most workdays forgetting that this great migratory force exists within us.**
David Whyte

Even in this modern world of ultra-individual-ism,^ we
are not alone – the original meaning of
“individual” means “indivisible,” and perhaps the end of
all our solo journeyings will be to find ourselves
with others, and, certainly,
To “achieve ourselves” will mean that we have had some help –
Yesterday afternoon I was in conversation with some of the people
who helped me in this way – my friend Alex sharing how he will not
speak of individuals but only of persons because of our
connectedness, and, in the evening, I was with a
small group of people exploring dreamwhispering for the first time
in a conversation that flowed this way and that as
everyone shared from their lives – experiencing something of how
we are indivisibles.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**David Whyte’s Crossing the Unknown Sea;
^”Isms” are always the problem.

VACILANDO (v) Travelling when the experience is more important than the destination.*
Ella Frances Sanders

When seeking guidance, don’t ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessings, cajole them, but do not follow their advice. If you have ever been called defiant, incorrigible, forward, cunning, insurgent, unruly, rebellious, you’re on the right track. Wild Woman is close by.**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The hero’s journey is simply
the movement within a life in motion
from the self to the other^ through
selflessness and
generosity and
shared wisdom;
In keeping with an heroic quest, guides
appear, but we must choose carefully for
many today lead from the other to the self, from
the greater to the lesser, but the measure of our search is
always love and goodness and light.

*Ella Frances Sanders’ Lost in Translation – Spanish verb;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
^By the other, I refer to other humans, and also other species and Earth.

Maybe we can at least begin to listen again to the world. Who knows into what secrets that will lead us.*
Kenneth White

Walking on earth is a miracle! We do not have to walk in space or on water to experience a miracle. The real miracle is to be awake in the present moment. Walking on the green earth, we can realise the wonder of being alive.**
Thich Nhat Hanh

Perhaps take a moment and
listen and
feel and
smell and
see and
taste and
notice the thought and
track the feeling, and
hold your miracle.

*Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul;
**Mary Ruth Broz and Barbara Flynn’s Midwives of An Unnamed Future.

Start by learning to recognise what interests you.
Most people have been taught that what they notice
doesn’t matter.
So they never learn how to notice,
Not even what interests them.*
Verlyn Klinkenborg

We must reserve a back room, wholly our own and entirely free, wherein to settle our true liberty, our principal solitude and retreat.**
Michel de Montaigne

The person who notices and
reflects and
acts
is preparing for an enthralling life.

*Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing;
**Annie Murphy Paul’s The Extended Mind.