mindset

Why Starting Each Day with a Poem is ‘As Necessary as Bread’

Eight years ago, afriend and I discovered that reading – or listening to – a poem has a hugely beneficial effect. Here’s the backstory, the poets we rely on, and some poetry.

‘The Pandemic is a Portal’ Arundhati Roy

In this short, potent video, Arundhati_Roy”reads from her essay “The Pandemic is a Portal” It is at once a question to hold in mind, an invitation, and a call to arms.

How We Manage Our Distracted Mindset and Get Working

We’ve heard a lot of people complaining about the strangely distracted mindset caused by the limbo of Coronavirus. Here’s a way we’ve found to manage it.

Experience a Feeling of Flying, with Rumi UPDATE

We love the feeling of flying in Universal Everything’s beautiful little video and find ourselves watching it over and over; it’s amazingly refreshing to our lockdown minds. It reminds us of this Rumi poem.

Joy Right Now Where You Don’t Expect It

Although we’re not religious, we’ve loved being able to wander into an empty church when we find one open, for a few minutes of quiet and the particular kind of stillness they hold. Recently missing that possibility, we’ve been discovering other ways to get the feeling of respite our random visits once provided.

Nature’s Ascent: An Opera Plays to an Audience of Plants, Penguins Visit Museums…

Among the many challenges the lockdown has brought, the ascent of nature has been among the unexpected gifts. Cultural institutions are embracing that view to shift and refresh their locked-down patrons.

Pierre Soulages Invites You To Experience the Light Beyond Black

In this mesmerizing little film, Pierre Soulages slowly works black pigment to create different effects of light. He describes the very personal conversation at the heart of his luminous black paintings.

Life Got Wild, Be Back in a Week (with Haiku)

Life got so wild of late, I’ve got to take a little break from publishing Improvised Life. I’ll be back in a week with new articles and the spirit of this haiku by Buson.

Seamus Heaney On Suffering, Self-healing, and Hope for a Great Sea Change

This Seamus Heaney poem from “The Cure at Troy” resonates POWERFULLY in this time of extraordinary social upheaval as though it was written yesterday, and lends hope to our sea change.

4 Ways to Shift Your Dark View from Yoko Ono

The news is so very terrible, it is weighing on everyone we know. Then we stumbled on some heartening messages from Yoko Ono in our archive that help to shift the view.

Essential Principles of Nonviolence to Live: Martin Luther King Jr. and The Dalai Lama

What would Martin Luther King, Jr have done in response to the brazen murder of a black man by a white policeman? As waves of protest, some violent, sweeping our country, we found the answer in King’s Six Principles of Nonviolence* and again in The Dalai Lama’s Essential Teachings.

Simple Gifts (Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss) + Quarantine Bookshelf Exhibition

What marks the dark time of Coronavirus for me are the many instances of acute beauty that I am offered daily that have the effect of infusing moments with light. Like this sublime 2 minutes: a simple gift for right now.

How to Practice Gratitude In Dark Times (W.S. Merwin)

We know lots of poems of gratitude but only one that manages to express thanks amidst the very hard things that befall us in life. It is remarkable and hard and heartbreaking and heartening, echoing perfectly that which we are living now… ‘Thank you’ helps us navigate.