The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, but they make the most of everything.* Sam Cawthorn
very happy people know a secret: a human being has a ridiculous amount of personal agency** Donald Miller
It seems that happiness is a choice as much as it is an emotion – In the movie Marvellous, a true story, the hero Neil Baldwin announces “I always wanted to be happy so I decided to be.”
This is a challenge to me, But if it means I choose to make the most of everything and to explore the fullness of human agency for the benefit of others then count me in.
The fire within us can burn bright enough to warm others. The light within us can illuminate the paths for others.^
Maybe your life will work. Most likely it won’t at first, but that will give you poetry.* Yrsa Daley-Ward
Occasionally, even today, you come across certain people who seem to possess an important inner cohesion. They are not leading fragmented, scattershot lives. They have achieved inner integration. They are calm, settled and rooted. They are not blown off course by storms. They don’t crumble in adversity. Their minds are consistent and their hearts are dependable. Their virtues are not the blooming virtues you see in smart college students; they are the ripening virtues you see in people who have lived life a little and have learned from joy and pain.** David Brooks
Thank you that this life is not nature-only, but also nurture; Thank you that we have a becoming, as well as a being, For endlessness, the infinite found in the present; Thank you for our capacity to befriend our pain and grow.
The true master, when his or her prestige is threatened by age or circumstances, can say, “Don’t you see that I am a person who could be utterly forgotten without batting an eye?”* Arthur Brooks
If we look at God … we do not see another being out there existing independently of us, we see ourselves being seen.** James Carse
What a wondrous thing it will be, If you are seen making the contribution that you must^ – Beyond your role or definition: To be the person you can be, Doing the thing that only you can, For those who need to receive your gift most of all – You will never be an imposter.
And if you see people for who they are, Delighting in the gift only they can bring, For those they believe their gift is for – This is part of your oblation.
I think there is something we intuitively understand – that as we mature we should seek spiritual growth in anticipation of an old age filled with enlightenment.* Arthur Brooks
Our lives are lived in seasons of more, seasons of less, seasons of triumph, seasons of loss. Each season sees our needs change. We live, learn, and adapt. So, too, must our definition of meaning.** Ryder Carroll
To intentionally live towards an old age filled with wisdom, To respectfully and attentively live within the seasons of life, and in these to find our meaning for life, To so live not for ourselves but for others, To learn from the wasted years, so that we might enter the present moment more energised and useful, To find our meaning and joy within the struggle – All of this is doable.
What exists in the universe outside you also exists in the universe within you. The universe literally flows through you … The universe has one intention: to create life.* Erwin McManus
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.** John O’Donohue
Here we are! – What a marvellousl thing this is; I open my eyes to a new day – The wonder floods in again, Or at least it sometimes does if I can get my head and heart around it, Rather than the dull day, the aching body, and the return of yesterday’s issues.
Here is a cosmological yet mystical understanding of human life, an expression of the universe that makes stars and humans out of the same materials – We have our scientific understanding, and yet wonder, “How do we happen?”
And what shall we do with this life?
If you think you have room to grow, you do and you will. If you think you’re as good as you can be … you’re right. You won’t get any better.^
We find ourselves in an infinite game^^ in which we have more choice than we know, The universe offering us the possibility of increase – I’m not thinking about what we possess, but who we are and what we can make (and give); Firstly, the universe gifts us life, and then it throws all kinds of problems at us,*^ and yet this is exactly where humans have shown themselves to be imaginative and alchemistic.
The creative process is not a part of one’s life but life itself and all that it throws at you. ^*
Here we are: the gift; Then come the problems: our purpose.
Being of a reasonable sort appears to require limitation. Perhaps that is because Being requires Becoming, as well as mere static existence – and to become is to become something more, or at least something different.* Jordan Peterson
I am not only what I am, but also what I will be – At least this is the possibility open to us all; I am open and I learn, but more importantly – I do, which moves me from anything to something – which I recognise is not an easy place to be, because we are returned to the beginning.
We need to rehearse some different skills. We don’t to be good at them at first but we’ll get better.^
You and me, We recognise our limitations as an invitation to becoming, so we keep doing, keep changing, keep becoming: We will be what we will be.
The function of ritual, as I understand it, is to give form to human life, not in the way of a more surface arrangement, but in depth.* Joseph Campbell
Awake to the story of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence … Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.** John O’Donohue
Our worldviews and rituals look a lot like religion, Full of beliefs and practises that cover all elements of our lives, Most of all, making it possible to be present to our own immensity – that which resonates from the core of our being, what Joseph Campbell named our bliss, whilst we are also present to the immensity of all that is beyond us and around us; We don’t find religion, We make it.
To find our ‘life paths,” we’ve got to first accept a few myths about life paths: 1. A life path isn’t a get-out-of-suffering-free card. 2. Just because you choose a life path, it doesn’t mean you’re locked into that for a day longer than you want to be. 3. Not choosing a life path is choosing a life path – but it’s not a great one.* Campbell Walker
In a significant organisation … each person is a vital component, adding human insight, care, and commitment to the work at hand. In this environment, there is no room for someone who is simply compliant.* Seth Godin
You can carve out a very good career simply by being the most reliable person on the team. You would not think that always showing up on time, hitting every deadline, and responding quickly and professionally to all communication would be such a differentiator, but these traits are always in short supply.** James Clear
We should take both our finite and infinite games^ seriously, And playfully: To respect the game we’re in with our full attention, but also to look for ways of bringing something from the best of ourselves, Something that will be different to the best of others.
THIN|SILENCE 
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