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.
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.* John O’Donohue
Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and only suffer want.** Ancient proverb
Each of us carries some urgency deep within us, Something irreplaceable and unrepeatable that the world needs, but without our generosity it will never have.
Perhaps it is something that you need to receive firstly, What it is shaping your purpose, and setting your path through life.
Take a moment to write it down; What must you do next? – Even if it’s the smallest iteration of this longing.
*John O’Donohue’s Benedictus: For Longing; **Proverbs 11:24
The fact that it takes longer to write things out by hand gives handwriting its cognitive edge.* Ryder Carroll
Devote the back half of your life to serving others with your wisdom. Get old sharing the things you believe are most important.** Arthur Brooks
There is no need to panic – Slow and longer are more than okay, They are good for us, Inviting us into an openness – a superpower in today’s world of fast, busy and overstimulated: The hardest state for a human being is that of open-endedness.^
There will be times when we have to play our finite games – and reach our destinations, but the open-ended person, while knowing this, also enjoys the ever-journeying of the infinite, the knowing and never-knowing.
One point of embarkation into slow and long openness is quietness and solitude: You may want to gift yourself 4’33”^^ of stillness in which to listen, and if you find yourself distracted by all that needs to be done, simply bring yourself back to listening.
The palest ink is better than the best memory.* Chinese Proverb
stop believing everything you think** Campbell Walker
I was recently being regaled by my oldest sister about accidents I had experienced as a child: Being thrown across a room by the force of a lightening strike, Hair all standing on end (this brought back the vaguest of memories for me), Falling into a quarry when with my dad (I have no memory of this whatsoever) – Christine say these stories explain a lot.
There are lots of things I do remember, memories that embarrass me, or worse, they taunt and torment, and for the worst, I am glad I can write them down – This being harder than it seems, shows me how, often, I am not remembering the thing itself but some memory of a memory of a memory; When I see it laid out, I realise a thought is just a thought and I can leave it there; I am enabled to rewrite the story in a more positive way – “I may have royally messed up but I learnt from what happened, changed some things, and I’m still here!”; I can also organise the important things and the clutter in a way that I can’t in my head, so that I see what to pursue and what to discard – And sometimes I see that it is the tough stuff that is the real gold.
There are many ways to journal – pen and notebook, tablet, Longhand, bullet points, mind-mapping, illustration, commonplace – What matters is that we have a means of laying out in front of us all that is usually crammed inside our head; Personally, I never do this alone – today I have been accompanied by Ben Hardy, Campbell Walker, Nick Cave, Mary Midgley, Seth Godin, Gabe Anderson, some scriptures, and always my personal myth or story (reminding me of what matters most to me).
I felt like the chaos of my head had flowed through my fingers and into that document – and that I didn’t have to carry it around with me anymore. I even discovered new insights, hiding in the lawless wall of text: epiphanies previously unknown were now glaringly obvious.**
THIN|SILENCE 
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