gratitude Archives - Improvised Life

Improvised Life’s Sea Change

Although there a big changes afoot, thousands of examples of possibility thinking are here for you when you need reminders or inspiration, illumination or surprise.

How to Give Thanks in Dark Times (W.S. Merwin)

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…

2 Minutes of Forest Therapy + Merwin’s ‘Thanks’

Over the years, we’ve found many ways to express thanks. Close to our heart is this W.S. Merwin poem that finds a way to say thanks in the midst of our beautiful, frightening, wounded, wounding world. We offer it with a big hunk of beauty from a Mexican forest.

Listing What You Like Yields Mighty Benefits and Poetry

At the great Artist’s Prints and Multiples, we came across these inspired fridge magnets. We realized that making lists of “likes” can provide the same benefits as counting blessings AND work curiously like poetry…

A Transformative Word from the Ottoman Empire on How to Have the Abundance of Life…

Recently, I revisited the remarkable sign that waits at the threshold of Omega Institute’s serene meditation space in the woods, to ponder a single word…

Words to Begin or End the Week (Maira Kalman)

This week in the life of artist Maira Kalman has some very important reminders for any week to come…

Update on My Recent Minor Disaster, with Thanks

The first grueling leg of the unexpected challenge that appeared in my life recently is over, and I am left with many gifts, and a lot of gratitude.

How to See the Trees in Your House

52 Types of Wood and the Trees They Come From will make you see trees that the wood in your home come from. The Overstory will make you appreciate them more…

Our Practice for the Last Week of the Year

We take the quiet last week of the year between Christmas and New Years to relax, unhook from many normal routines, and reflect on the year that has passed so we can envision the New.

A Quick Metaphysical Inventory When Lost (Insomniac City)

We are halfway through Insomniac City, Bill Hayes revelatory memoir of his love affairs with the late, astonishing Oliver Sacks AND New York City, which comes across as a deeply complex and generous being. We are struck by Hayes’ lovely practice for when he needs to take stock and center himself.

Words that Ground You, Expand You, Shift Your Thinking or Mood

Every now and then, we stumble on a word with unusual powers. That is, it seems to resonate more than most, and we find ourselves changed just by thinking about it.

Hidden Wonders in ‘Dullness’

In a video about the Dull Men’s Club, an online community of men wishing to just be ordinary, and novelist Nicholson Baker’s wise writing about dullness, we discovered the thread that runs through both is gratitude and curiosity.

Eco on Why We Make Lists + Some Favorites

Our friend Tim Slavin, of Kids, Code and Computer Science sent us this image, knowing that we write often about lists, a critical tool in managing a creative life. We discovered it was from a 2009 interview with Umberto Eco in Der Spiegel about his exibition at the Louvre on the essential nature of lists. Eco…

Thanksgiving Blessings, from Dylan to Neruda

At some point during the Thanksgiving meal (or any meal), taking a moment to acknowledge all we have with whoever we are with is a fine way to give thanks and climb right into the moment. Here are our favorite blessings — which all can be said/read aloud, as a grace or a toast — though…

Maira Kalman: Grateful grateful grateful

The Wall Street Journal has a series called “My Week” and we can think of no better to way to start off our week than a week in the life of artist Maira Kalman.

Improvised Life’s Community IS Gold

I’ve been bowled over by raft of new Friends with Benefits subscriptions and the most astonishing, deeply-heartening praise from readers in response to my writing about Improvised Life’s Illusory Wealth. Well, not completely illusory. I should have qualified it.

In Defense of Monday

Somewhere in our travels, we stumbled on this sign which echoes what many people feel about Monday, the start of the work week, including our own. Monday being a bastard, we get it. But we’re thinking we’d rather change the sign, and view, to this:

Oliver Sacks’ Awakening

(Video link HERE.) We can’t stop thinking about “My Own Life”, the extraordinary Op-Ed Oliver Sacks wrote in last weeks New York Times upon learning that he has terminal cancer. We’ve read it several times and find his words resonating, as his “clear focus and perspective” has become, momentarily, part of our worldview. We’ve always been…

A Poem for Starting A New Year or Day or Hour

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…

mister rogers’ 10-second meditation

(Video link here will take you to exactly the right point.) We love Fred Rogers’ —the famed Mister Rogers’ — perfect, illuminating acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Rogers presents a simple 10-second practice that will shift your view, and provide you with a tool you can carry around throughout…

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