A god can create a world only by listening.*
James Carse

I have to stop a whole lot of things to really listen –
It’s a hard lesson to learn, so,
This is a note to self.

*James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games.

What is the invisible in your field of vision because of what you are focusing on*
AleXander McManus

Anything that requires highly focused attention helps our brains not to atrophy but to continue to grow and, I believe, to grow in all kinds of new directions that were not there for us even as children.*
Jean Houston

My not-favourite element of an eye examination is
the one that checks peripheral vision;
Although I usually make it through okay,
I know I miss far too much important stuff in life
because of my focus –
I need to step back and
see the bigger picture.

*From a Blue Moments session;
**Jean Houston’s The Wizard of Us.

Whether a life is fulfilled does not depend on how great one’s radius of action is, but rather whether the circle is fully filled out.*
Viktor Frankl

Do that thing you do
with all your heart,
Repeat tomorrow,
Wherever it takes you.

(You’re welcome to print off and colour in the doodle as you contemplate this.)

Viktor Frankl’s Yes to Life.

When you find what you’re meant to do, you do it.*
Ryan Holiday

This is activeness,
The normal state for our lives when we uncover our must.**

What is your must?^

*Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny;
**The thing we must do, which arises within us;
^Drop me a line if you’d like some help; geoffrey@thinsilence.org.

Equidistant from the atoms and stars, we are expanding our exploring.*
Stephen Hawking

Explore
explore
explore,
The more certain we already are,
The fewer new ideas will appear,
Ideas that will carry us
upon fantastical journeys.

*Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

Old age offers the opportunity to integrate and bring together the multiplicity of directions that you have travelled.  It is a time when you can be awakened and new possibilities come alive for you.*
John O’Donohue

There’s only one age: alive.**
Agnes Varda

Even an 80 year old is a child in
a 14 billion year old universe –
May you never lose your wow.

What’s amazed you recently?

*John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara;
Austin Kleon’s blog: A quote a day.

At sixty-six years of age, one might reasonably say, “Oh, enough growth already,” but there has to be growth and change, because life is growth and change.*
Anne Lamott

The challenges and stimuli may
come from outside, but if we have
grown, it is because we have
made it so.

You are welcome to print and colour this doodle whilst you reflect on your growings.

*Anne Lamott’s Dusk Night Dawn.

Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work and to where it tells him to go.*
Madeleine L’Engle

Inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work.**
Chuck Close

Wouldn’t it be great to be
caught up in something inspiring,
And we can –
All we have to do it
turn up, be full alert, and
put in the work.

*Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking On Water;
**Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals.

Doodles can be called mindless drawing.  It’s one of the last places drawing still exists in a person who gave up on art long ago.  A place where one line can still follow another without plan.*
Lynda Barry

Doodling is great for
not trying to be tidy or
accurate or to
impress someone –
In fact, it can be used to
break the habit of these very things.

You are welcome to print this off and
complete it with some of your own lines.

*Lynda Barry’s What It Is.

Colouring is a
great way to slow down and
relax,
A healthy way to become
lost for a while.

I promise to put up some for
you to colour in.*

*I coloured this with pencils, though felt tips would be better.