Whatever the reason, we generate the meaning we need in the moment. The act of reinterpretation is fundamentally an act of agency; it gives is a sense of control and confidence at exactly the moment we feel out of control and lacking confidence.*
Bruce Feiler

Keep asking questions. Colour outside the lines. Draw your own maps. Create your own legends.**
Ekere Maria Hadessa Talliet

Whatever’s happening right now,
I’ve got to remember it’s a story, and,
If I stop and pinch myself
to get my attention,
I can tell it differently –
Sometimes even with a flourish.

*Bruce Feiler’s Life is in the Transitions;
**Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrock’s A Velocity of Being.

There’s always something just below the surface, the elements that most people simply don’t notice. But we can if we choose.*
Seth Godin

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.**
Seneca

Futurist Ramez Naam writes about the
technological, pharmaceutical, and surgical enhancements that
we are exploring in order to be More Than Human,
But there is far more to who we are yet to be discovered
before we resort to these augmentations,
The problem is that it takes something that
we’ve always struggled with –
Effort;
We often say “We can’t” when we really mean
“We won’t,”
Yet for those who feel stuck where they are and
understand discipline to be an ability they can develop
there are everyday superpowers to be uncovered:
The ability …
… to work hard
… to say no
… to practice good habits and set boundaries
… to train and prepare
… to avoid temptations and provocations
… to keep your emotions in check
… to endure painful difficulties.*

*Seth Godin’s blog: The things you can’t see;
**Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny.

There’s a word in Spanish. … Instead of saying ‘to wake up,’ you say recordarse, that is, to record yourself, to remember yourself. … Every morning I get that feeling because I am more or less nonexistent.  Then when I wake up, I always feel I’m being let down.  Because, well, here I am.  Here’s the same old stupid game going on.  I have to be somebody.  I have to be exactly that somebody.*
Jorge Luis Borges

Lewis Hyde’s A Primer for Forgetting.

Perfection is a manufactured idea. Nothing we see around us is perfect. Indeed, it takes a human mind to conceive of perfection, just as it take a human mind to label something beautiful.*
Alan Lightman

Does this choice diminish me or enlarge me?**
James Hollis

There’s no perfect choice;
There’s a good choice, and the
choice that opens more options, there’s even
an accidental choice that you’re forever thankful for;
Sometimes there’s the obvious choice, though
sometimes you go with the non-obvious or the gut-choice
just because you want something different –
James Hollis’ question will
help us with every one of them.

*Alan Lightman’s The Transcendent Brain;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks.

I think there is more going on than we can see or understand, and we need to find a way to lean into the mystery of things – the impossibility of things – and recognise the evident value of doing that, and summon the courage it requires to not always shrink back into he known mind.*
Nick Cave

The very moments that make us go “wow!” are the very same moments that can change our lives.**
Oliver Burkeman

Stay a while longer,
Stretch your unbelieving,
See what is happening,
Reflect on it some,
Be open to the possibility,
Allow the unknown to enfold you,
You’re learning to dance with mystery,
Transfigured by life.

*Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks.

participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world*
Joseph Campbell

Something in us wants to be distracted, whether by our digital devices or by anything else – to not spend our lives on what we thought we cared about most. The calls are coming from inside the house.**
Oliver Burkeman

Reply to that text,
Complete the job in the garden as it’s stopped raining,
Find that item that you need (probably under the stairs),
Here’s a good moment to touch up the paintwork,
Got to put some petrol in the car,
Make the shopping list …
A moment ago, you were excited by something,
A difference you really wanted to make,
To bring a little more brightness into the world –
Into someone’s world –
You had felt the power that came from imagining how
this aligns with your talents and passions and values,
But now you’re distracted, and you realise that
something inside of you is relieved, because joy doesn’t come without
time, effort, and sacrifice.

The bittersweet is also about the recognition that light and dark, birth and death – bitter and sweet – are forever paired.*

*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks.

Equidistant from the atoms and stars, we are expanding our exploring.*
Carl Sagan

All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills, we need guides to show us how. Without them, our lives get made up for us by other people.**
Ursula K. Le Guin

First of all,
Our forming happens to us, and then
our forming is meant to happen through us;
If we are not mindful of this, then in subtle ways,
For the rest of our lives, the forming will
happen to us.

The conditions for imagining and shaping our lives have
never been more propitious, including the very real
possibility of inventing ourselves again
today.

*Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time;
**Ursula K. Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter.

Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of responsibility – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener want to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.*
Krista Tippett

I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!**
Hafez

This is quite a journey,
From our discovery that
curiosity is an expression of valour that
any may develop until
it becomes instinctive, a growing of
openness towards, rather than against,
Surprise!, we let go of assumptions, agendas, and
self-interest,
Asking generous questions that invite
generous answers which are
intrinsic to the astonishing light each must
share;
Deep, generous listening is
generative –
We let go of ourselves in order that the
new may come to birth.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**From Hazef’s My Brilliant Image, William Seighart’s The Poetry Pharmacy.

Gratitude works.  Gratitude scales.  Gratitude creates a positive cycle of more gratitude.  When in doubt, default to gratitude.*
Seth Godin

*Seth Godin’s blog: If every day were Thanksgiving.

You can’t just be you. You have to double yourself. You have to read books on subjects you know nothing about. You have to travel to places you never thought of travelling. You have to meet every kind of person and endlessly stretch what you know.*
Mary Wells

Everything worth doing is difficult.**

You know that
I am capable of more, and I know that
you are, too;
There are so many ways in which
we can double ourselves in today’s world
(I am thinking of things like selflessness, generosity, and wisdom) –
Mary Wells’ list is only a start, and there’s a list of
many things natural and peculiar to you that you could pursue –
The only thing stopping you
Is that they are hard –
It’s the same with my list –
But we also know, the opposite of a double life
is not a single life,
It is a half life:
Three things differentiate living from the soul versus
living from ego only.
They are:
the ability to sense and learn new ways,
the tenacity to ride a rough road,
and the patience to learn deep love over time.^

*gapingvoid’s blog: Always Open Self;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Follow the Yellowbrick Road to Greatness;
^Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.