Notice the order – from solitude to community to ministry.* Henri Nouwen
Our sense of self is not a discrete thing, it turns out. It is perhaps better thought of as a story. It is a story of who we are, what we are like and where we are going, and as such it grows out of our history, our relationships with others and our goals for the future.** John Higgs
When in our flow, our bliss, Our sense of self is lost to us, And when we give ourselves to nothing, We reappear in the past, present, and future of our stories; Whilst we may rehearse these when we are with others, it is only when I am alone that my pondering is deepest.
The only ways we can avoid [creativity’s] insistent energy are to continuous;y mount barriers, or to allow it to be poisoned by destructive negativity and negligence.* Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Awe spurs us to be kinder and more compassionate. It makes us happier and less concerned with materialism. Experiences of awe spark curiosity within us and help orient us to what truly matters in our lives. In short, awe changes us in the most incredible ways.** Dacher Keltner
Background, Upbringing, Limitations, Openness, Noticing, Curiosity, Interests, Developed talents, Beliefs, Experiences, Narratives – All of these are happening all of the time in our lives, And all of them provide an incubator for creativity.
Here’s another year, free of charge, For letting it out, Perhaps removing the barriers, or overcoming the negativity; A good place to begin is in being open to awe: The universe, local nature, art, stories, people, inventions – Witnessing the good things all around us, and just having to join in.
Scientists and linguists believe that words are not only a window into who we are and how we believe, they also play a role in shaping these things.* Naomi Bagdonas and Jennifer Aaker
Dan McAdams** is introducing me to the word imagoes for describing the main characters in our life stories.
These fall into two types: The agentic and the communal.
The agentic characters are comprised of warriors, travellers, sages, and makers.
The communal characters of lovers, caregivers, friends, and ritualists.
It’s likely that we’ll especially prefer one from either of the lists, to have a sense of self in the larger world and our smaller worlds.^
It strikes me that we find these lists echoed in different ways.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes about our need for exploration, but also for conservation.^^
Christian Schwarz introduced me to this concept more than twenty years ago in his interplay of the dynamic and the static.*^
So, I’m wondering whether, not only might we focus on an imago from one list, but balance this with a supportive imago from the other.
Have a play: choose your two, Identifying which is prime and which is supporting.
We see how important words can be for seeing who we are and then shaping who we are.^*
(Important note to self: Always be playful, Never allow yourself to be trapped by a word, term, or definition.)
The soul has nothing to say. It’s essential silence makes voices possible but it has no voice of its own.* James Carse
The soul is my deepest and most silent being – It has made possible the writing of the last line, Allowing this and other thoughts to arise, Not directing, impelling, but giving my thoughts their space; I grow this silent part of me by not interrupting, not filling, nor explaining, so that it provides the space for everything else, and hence, it is not empty but full.
The Indigenous person who believed the myths of his or her culture probably had a stronger sense of self than today’s postmodern person, who denies all real or operative transcendence.* Richard Rohr
Myths use to be big and hang around a while, Now they’re small and replaced in fifteen minutes – I’m not saying the old ones were better than the new, Only that they carried a sense of deep identity within them, A sense of soul-direction, And soul opens awe, and awe elicits transcendence, and transcendence uncovers genius, and everyone has their unrepeatable genius; Awaken this and you have a myth that will hang around for a lifetime.
How about taking five to ten minutes to write down your myth, describing how your soul is, your sense of awe and transcendence, your awareness of your genius?
Repitition is the writer’s mortal enemy.* Robert McKee
We know that life contains way more repetition than a writer dares to include – Otherwise we’d just give up on the book or TV series, But we also need to beware repetition in our daily lives: The best repetitions will always stimulate the discovery of the new, Whilst the best of the new will always produce repetitions; If we only live in our repetitions it becomes repetitionism** – Our mortal enemy, and if we only live in the new then we have another -ism, and another mortal enemy – The learner explores both the new and repetition.
How and where do you see this movement in your life?
*Robert McKee’s Character; **I may have made a new word as it seems we are blind to this.
We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we can’t be wise with other men’s wisdom.* Michel de Montaigne
Homo sapiens, meaning wise one, appeared 200,000 years ago. We are latecomers in this [Earth] story. The term “wise ones” does not accurately describe what we have done to one another and to Earth, but it could yet describe what we will become.** Philip Newell
Wise men or magi figure in the Christmas story: I hope that I’m on a journey from knowing to wisdom – Wisdom being a blossoming of humility, gratitude, and faithfulness, Becoming a person of courage and generosity – Wisdom is knowledge in motion, Not only as something I’m doing, but also Something I’m becoming – Another couple of hundred thousand years would be nice, but I’ll do what I can with what I have.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.* Henry David Thoreau
Sometimes all the scraps of information that come by seem to cohere into a picture; sometimes a pattern emerges. I yearn for patterns and meanings, since for me a sense of meaningless brings on depression. Orientation and purpose ward it off.** Rebecca Solnit
There exists on the far side of complexity, Some distilled form of simplicity, Thinness forged more thinly, Silence falling deeper – A few words quietly spoken and then the silence; I offer remnants and oddments^ for you to add to others you are gathering, out of which you create your purpose.
*Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (adapted by Nicholas Bone); **Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Roads Take You There; ^This is all Thin|Silence aims to be each day.
I tend to sketch a lot, and ideas usually start with a tiny doodle that you have no idea what the significance is at the time. That’s why it’s important to just doodle a lot and sketch a lot.* Nick Park
I love this thought from Nick Park: Doodling is just a very inexpensive and accessible gift you can give to yourself and to others that you can play with a lot.
All spoken words need to be born out of silence and constantly return to it.* Henri Nouwen
It always comes back to silence for me. Taking myself to silence. Inviting others to silence. Frequently. Quiet our busy minds. Set aside our relentless chatter. Just be quiet. And then do something. And then get quiet again.** Bob Stilger
My favourite carol is probably Silent Night, Sometimes begun with the alternative words Still the Night: Silence and stillness, I value these most of all at Christmas; It doesn’t have to be for long, but a little while to be and to focus – these things I need.
The thinner the silence the better, Meaning quietness charged with whispers from somewhere else: The aim of Thin|Silence is to offer a few words to reflect upon before the rush of the day begins, To be played with as you will, and to see what happens.
I’ve also added a random thin|Silence selection (below) from the past eleven years.
THIN|SILENCE 
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