Plerosis (filling) rather than kenosis (emptying) has been my spiritual practice.*
Jean Houston

Before the first chord is written, the song can be anything you want. The possibilities are endless. Finishing the song is the process of eliminating possibilities, and having the guts to do it.**
Gabe Anderson

It is not possible to have it all, oftentimes we must
let go of something for something else to come, but
even these stories of emptying may be gathered up to
become our most precious tales of all.

*Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: Before the First Chord.

You will never regret offering dignity to others.**
Seth Godin

We can’t really give dignity to anyone,
We either notice their inherent dignity or not –
If anything, when we do, we’re
providing ourselves with dignity.

*”Don Lockwood” in Singin’ in the Rain;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Justice and dignity, too often in short supply.

The Victory had become what Ernie did without doing it. There was a centre to all this activity; it was a still centre. It’s no wonder that we overlooked it. We overlooked it because there was nothing to see. It was the nothing that made it mystical.*
James Carse

Monotony is the enemy.
Novelty is the solution.**
Derek Sivers

When flow^ turns into something repititious,
When one’s ego-self becomes visible,
It may be time to try something
disrupting, awkward, uncomfortable,
Until a new centredness and effortlessness is entered.^^

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory – The Victory was a Manhattan diner that revolved around the disabled WWII veteran and proprietor Ernie;
**Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
^Wu-wei is very similar to flow;
^^A 4% stretch should do it – this is the amount of unfamiliarity apparently necessary to evoke flow. This also sounds very much like the hero’s journey from the old status quo to the new, which in turn will become the old, and a new call to adventure is heard.

Caring puts us on the hook and caring offers a chance to contribute. When we care, we get to make a difference, and that creates meaning, the path to significance.*
Seth Godin

We need myths that help us to realise the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as being sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world.**
Karen Armstrong

Caring about something is risky, we may be
disappointed or upset, we may
fail and look foolish, we may need to
commit more resources, time, energy, but
these same things mean that we’ve
found something that really matters, and
when it matters to others, too, then
we’ve found the mother-load of all
meaningfulness.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Who cares?;
**Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth.

I’m glad my old confidence is gone because it thought I was right, and maybe even great, but not anymore. Now I am to make my work – my little contribution to the world – just unique and useful.*
Derek Sivers

I’ve never thought myself great, but
perhaps I too often thought I was right –
Yet, when I manage to clear that out of the way,
I get to see a contribution I can bring, a
little difference I can make –
But please tell me if it’s a load of rubbish.

*Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No.

Gratitude serves as a bridge to the transcendent, connecting us to something beyond ourselves. At the heart of the human impulse to seek meaning lies gratitude. And at the heart of gratitude lies the sense of meaning … do you want to change how you see yourself and the world? Cultivate the practice of expressing gratitude.*
Alex McManus

It doesn’t matter that there are many who
are more talented than us, who possess
more than we do –
If we are grateful for
who we are and what we have, and
find ways to give expression to these, then
an incomparable path** will appear
step by step before us.

*AleXander McManus’ FutureU.

The first great wonder at the world is big in me.*
Margaret Wise Brown

Much of nature we consider beautiful because we are part of nature. We grew up in nature, evolutionary speaking.**
Alan Lightman

I don’t know about you, but
I need wonder to be bigger in me than it is;
Earth just keeps on giving, and a worthy
quest for the rest of my days is to
notice more – I am nature, as you are, and
I must unlearn to
be able to relearn.

*Bruce Handy’s Wild Things;
Alan Lightman’s The Transcendent Brain.

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.