And he noticed that the more he wrote, the better he felt. He opened up to his wife again, and to his work. His depression lifted.*
Susan Cain

Tenderness, love, and compassion are exquisite feeling experiences and are generally recognised as such.**
Erich Fromm

I come to my morning journal to
write myself into the day;^
The shape of the day just is better, even bigger –
Connecting me with the past and future – and I,
I feel better prepared to fill it –
Far from perfect or anything close, but
bringing me closer to the things that
matter most of all.

*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet, of James Pennebaker;
**Erich Fromm’s The Revolution of Hope;
^I have found that what began as a hopeful experiment on the 15th May, 1998, has sustained me across the years.

The ego, static and unmoved, relate to the world in terms of having objects, while the self is related to the world in the process of participation.*
Erich Fromm

Our life’s purpose isn’t just a destination but a journey marked by growth, discovery, and the continuous realignment of our actions with our deepest values.**
Alexander McManus

We grow an ego to know who we are –
I am not you and you are not me –
But neither you nor I are meant to dwell here,
We are moving from dependance to independence to
interdependence;
Without this movement, the ego ossifies –
Forever the caterpillar and never
the butterfly, we might say –
Wanting the world to come to it, to
have it, yet,
When we are at our best,
We are moving towards the world, the
other, wanting to connect and experience,
Participating through contribution.

*Erich Fromm’s The Revolution of Hope;
**Alexander McManus’ FutureU.

Let’s get rid of science class in school. Instead, beginning in kindergarten, we could devote a class to curiosity and explanation … Curiosity is a skill, and it can be taught.*
Seth Godin

For humility is … the only effective antidote to narcissism, and all its associated evils. It is, in essence, a readiness to admit its shortcomings coupled with a willingness to learn, be that from people, animals, plants, or even machines – whoever masters something we do not. The opportunities are infinite.**
Anna Katherina Schaffner

“I don’t know,
Perhaps you do,
Maybe you could show me, tell me?”

“That’s interesting,
I will look closer, deeper –
There is so much I don’t know.”

Humility begets curiosity, and
curiosity grows humility –
We can increase our ability in both.

In this game, we only get one choice, Once we are born we are players. The only choice we get is if we want to play with a finite mindset or an infinite mindset.^

reports have documented how “teaching to the test” curtails student curiosity^^

The more we grow our humility and
curiosity, the greater our possibility of becoming
infinite players, explorers of the forever more.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Why and how;
**Anna Katherina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement;
^Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

Looking at the work done and the work still to do, most people would have written the whole thing off as too much sweat for too little gain. But I didn’t want an easy life. I wanted a beautiful one.
Ben Short

What a blessing to be in a position of doing great work and experiencing the unique stress that goes along with it.**
Gabe Anderson

The best work of all is seldom
stress-free and totally fun –
When we’re doing something that is
meaningful and rewarding to us and
for others,
The sweat and tears don’t seem to register in the
same way as when we’re filling a role;
Here’s a test for what qualifies:
Not only are you
successful,
And doing what is
intuitive,
But you are
growing,
And a
need
is being met in you;
If these four things aren’t met, keep
moving and making your meaning.^

James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter: Two steps for better results, the qualities of a great career, and how to handle good luck;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: Good Stress;
^Meaning is made as much as found.

The midwife is the woman between: the liminal woman, the threshold woman.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

With our phones to our ears, life and our minds frequently feel like casinos now. There is no sun, no pocket of quiet, there don’t seem to be exits, and the reception is terrible. Connection to anything real, to the ancient, to the mystical, to the moment is weak, so there is bound to be existential exhaustion.**
Anne Lamott

Rush is life in the shallows,
if we don’t damage what we’re working on, we’re
likely harming ourselves and
those around us;
Slipping out of the rush and into a
quieter space may appear to be
a luxury you can’t afford, but it’s
really a life-basic, a space-between,
A special world of the bigger picture, of
uncovering and emergence –
There is an order to be embraced:
Divergence,
Emergence,
Convergence;
Humility,
Gratitude,
Faithfulness;
Anapana,
Vipassaña,
Metta.

The deeper the source we work from, the better our stuff will be – and the more transformative it will be for us and for those we share it with.^

*Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
**Anne Lamott’s Dusk Night Dawn;
^Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

The artist rarely says, “I’d like to do less.” Instead, she wonders how to contribute more, because the very act of creativity is the point of the work.*
Seth Godin

True perseverance … is flanked by the ancient values: courage and values.**
Anna Katharina Schaffner

To contribute is the point,
The desire to give and
somehow, somewhere, for someone
to make things better,
Beautiful, even,
Something mythical, leaving us in
no doubt that we are
alive.

*Seth Godin’s blog: But what could you learn instead;
**Anna Katharina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement.

Lao-tzu recommended that we let go of all those social conventions that interfere with our authenticity and that hamper our spontaneity and creativity.*
Anna Katharina Schaffner

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.**
James Baldwin

When you’ve been slowly but
surely working on your
humility and
generosity and
faithfulness, you can better trust
the solution you have to be
selfless and
generous and
wise –
The kind of things problems
don’t like at all.

*Anna Katharina Schaffner’s The Art of Self-Improvement;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

If the One, the True, Being, the Good and the Beautiful were to vanish, the thought in the mind would have no pathway to the world.*
John O’Donohue

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.**
Alan Kay

We are always in need of
beautiful ideas to lead us out of being
trapped
caught
dead-ended
pointless
hopeless
Pinched
depressed
repressed
unimpressed
overcome
clueless
directionless;
Not all ideas are equally worthy and are able to
align with:
Being – deepest reality of all that is,
The One – everything that exists is somehow
bound together,
The True – that whatever our reality, it is
true and our experience real,
The Good – participating in the soul
of the world,
The Beautiful – the truest and most
real expression that
lifts us, and, of course,
The idea is moving through
us.

*John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
**Seth Godin’s The Carbon Almanac.

what if we simply took whatever pain we couldn’t get rid of, and turned it into something else*
Susan Cain

With … choice comes a remarkable sort of freedom. The freedom to be still, to become aware and to stop hiding from the living that’s yet to be done.**
Seth Godin

Because our lives are stories, we
can rewrite them, not in
some fantastical way, but,
“This has happened to me” full stop! can
become “This happened to me, and now
I choose …”;
Writing it out is better than
thinking about it, using
pen and paper is better than
some electrical device,
Mornings are good times,
Reminding us that this will
need repeating;
It will be costly, but
time and effort always win.

*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
**Seth Godin’s blog: And maybe it’s enough.

You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its. kind in all of existence and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of the strings that somebody else pulls …*
Brian McLaren

It most likely boils down to
one thing, the
one thing behind everything else
that we imagine and do, the one thing we keep
returning to in order to
orientate our lives towards
meaning and purpose;
It’s useful to write it down
every so often, and then
make it happen in
any which we we can.

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt.