We know lots of wonderful poems of gratitude but only one that manages to express thanks amidst the very hard things that befall us in life. It is by W.S. Merwin and called simply “Thanks”. We find it remarkable and hard and heartbreaking and heartening, all that complexity of feeling, which echoes so perfectly that which we are living now…
Read MoreAll of life is so fantastic. It's just, like, you go here and you get some ideas; you go there and get some more. You go to this restaurant and you get this fantastic thing. You go to that restaurant and they got that. It's just fantastic!David Lynch
Many months after coronavirus radically changed our world, we don’t know anybody that is not having a difficult time. We turn to the greatest balancing mechanism we’ve found to find out way back to fullness, “enough”, clarity, joy.
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This morning we opened our Collected Poems of W.S. Merwin to the poet counting blessings and expressing gratitude. Which we find ourselves doing as we read it.
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This week in the life of artist Maira Kalman has some very important reminders for any week to come…
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If you’re still wrapping your head around pulling Thanksgiving dinner together, here is our toolkit of Improvised Life’s best ideas from Thanksgivings past.
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In addition to our clockface day planner, we’ve been employing another illuminating strategy to fill and track our day.
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With our tumultuous political climate and Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s an especially good time to remember gratitude. Gogo, my spunky two year old, has a cool practice she came to all on her own.
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This video of Merce Cunningham’s ‘Scenario’ is a lovely thing to look at first thing in the morning AND its costumes by Rei Kawakubo gave us inspiration for Halloween creations. But the best costume idea we’ve heard was from Chris Eldredge.
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(Video link here.) In 1983, James Brown and band were playing the Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles with legendary blues man B.B. King. Halfway through the set, Brown asked “another fantastic people” to join him onstage: 25-year-old Michael Jackson watching the show ignognito in the audience. Brown’s words are as astonishing as Jackson’s 30…
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Recently, we woke up really low and found ourselves mired, tired, unable to think our way out of our sad mood. It occurred to us to ask “What’s good here?” Then we started writing.
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One of the best gifts we received for Christmas was Mary Oliver’s book of poems Blue Horses. No matter where we open it, we find a few words that reminds us of a way of living and seeing we’d like to follow. (The epigraph features the remarkable Kabir quote, above.) Here’s a catalyzing fragment from the…
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Our readers know Sally has been occupied lately with the serious illness of a close friend – namely, myself. Now recuperating, we’ve realized something about perfection: it does not mean being super-human or doing everything exactly right. It simply means means being normal. This revelation was amplified by our friend Thomas Ashcraft, a remarkable artist/science.
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(Video link here.) 2:39 minutes of brilliant perspective from comedian Louis C.K, from his recent HBO special “Oh My God“. WARNING: Adult content. If you’re not ready for it, save for later. Related posts: louis c.k. on ‘putting the time in’ the collected wisdom of louis c.k. louis c.k. car dances ‘who are you?’ +…
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(Video link here.) One of our favorite films has long been My Dinner with Andre, which is, on the surface, a conversation between two friends during dinner in a French restaurant in New York City. Andre Gregory vividly describes his revelatory, new-ageish, risk-taking experiences in experimental theatre while his modest less-adventurous friend Wally Shawn listens and…
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(Video link here.) At Apple’s recent celebration of Steve Jobs’ life, Norah Jones sang Bob Dylan’s classic Forever Young, which he wrote in the early ’70’s. Although we’ve heard the song many times over the years, we never really focused on the lyrics until we watched the video of Jones’ performance and looked them up. We…
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1000 Awesome Things is a great site to check into for a quick reminder of the tiny, daily experiences that are so swell, but that we forget when we’re moving too fast. The Toronto Star nailed it: “It’s less about awesome things than it is about seeing the awesomeness of the everyday.” I see it is as…
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