Improvised Life

Gratitude for Money and Love

After a year of big transitions — to a new platform, with a disbanded paywall, free content for everyone and new publishing schedule — here’s an update on Improvised Life and its fantastic community.

Hope and Direction in RBG’s Enduring Wisdom

Reflecting on the passing of legendary Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I found her life and words full of hope, wisdom, and direction.

S.B. Dworski Ponders “Sonder”

Frequent contributor S.B. Dworski dives into John Koenig’s deeply beautiful concept, Sonder, which has poignant resonance today.

Life Lessons from 100 Days of Seeing Color in the Garden (Lorene Edwards Forkner)

After a particularly rough period of her life, artist and gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner embarked on an unusual daily practice, that quietly taught her some very big lessons.

Kintsugi Repair as Metaphor

Artist ciriacaerre made a video of repairing a smashed vase using kintsugi, the Japanese art that celebrates the scars and breaks. She, and other artist, eloquently describe its greater meaning…

How Much Of Care is Patience? and Other Questions (Chloe Bass)

Compelling signs have appeared in St. Nicholas Park in Harlem, part of the exhibition “Wayfinding” by conceptual artist Chloe Bass. Each asks a powerful question to carry into the week…

Emerging Seeds’ Wild Dances of Joy (Hope Jahrens, Mary Oliver)

Boxlapse Films’ timelapses of seeds bursting through the soil are so wildly expressive, we found ourselves watching with a big grin on our face at the life force in action. It called to mind botanist Hope Jahren’s description of what seeds really do, and Mary Oliver on the very thing to dispel anxiety…

A Bed Surrounded by Flowers Makes a Dreamy Respite

When we stumbled on thisimage by photographer Jill Burrow, we thought, ‘Ah yes. We’d love to sleep surrounded by flowers, especially now, after months of guarded and circumscribed living.’ Looking closely, we found permission to do it…

Buckminster Fuller’s Question for Finding Your Life’s Mission

In the course of our random reading, we love coming upon surprising questions that we can mull during the week to see what answers, information or mindshifts emerge. Our current favorite is from a story about Buckminster Fuller…

If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.

Agnes Varda

Over-Glasses Sunglasses for Instant RX Sunglasses and Virus Protection

I first became enamored of sunglasses worn OVER prescription glasses when I saw my friend Fran Black* wearing a pair; I suddenly noticed that there was a pair of glasses underneath her sunglasses. That’s just what I need, I thought, so I hunted a pair down. They made my life way easier. I didn’t have…

Yoko Ono’s Instruction For Navigating Our Changed Lives

In advance of reopening after months of coronavirus lockdown, the Metropolitan Museum of Art posted words by Yoko Ono on its facade. She created them in response to Covid-19 as an essential instruction.

A Young Poet’s Fierce Wisdom on Navigating Darkness

Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray and Emily Saliers put their finger on what makes poet/rapper Kae Tempest so unique: “…their willingness to love humanity through the darkness makes me hopeful”. That comes through powerfully in these two spoken word pieces and this short powerful interview. Words to live by.

I had a flashback of something that never existed

Louise Bourgeois

Lucia LoPresti’s Secret to Perfect Tomato Sauce

I mark the day I started making great tomato sauce when I spent an afternoon in Lucia Lo Presti’s kitchen. The secret she taught me is simple and yields an astonishingly rich, silky sauce. With it came a glimpse of a unique way of life —Sicily in New Jersey— that her wine writer son-in-law Anthony Giglio first introduced me to…

Carl Jung and Mary Oliver on Touching Nature from the Inside and Outside

This morning we came across extraordinary words from Carl Jung. They describe a wholeness of experience that antidotes the very modern idea that we are each self-contained. Soon after, a Mary Oliver poem echoed it…

Van Gogh and Gary Snyder Teach “Tree Intensity of Mind”

Recently, the actual living trees that were the subject of van Gogh’s last painting in 1890 were discovered near the small French town where he lived. A photograph of the trees superimposed with the painting brings to life Gary Snyder’s idea of “tree intensity of mind”, and amplifies our own experience mightily.