paths + processes

Rewilding Ourselves to Heal Wounds or Illness

In this lovely (refreshing) short film, Laura Owen Sanderson describes how she found healing from a dire illness through wild swimming. For her, the process was a kind of rewilding…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti on Social Climbing Downward

This quote from the great Lawrence Ferlinghetti, recently-departed poet and founder of San Francisco’s legendary City Light’s Bookstore, expresses an incredibly refreshing worldview…

Julia Child’s Life Lessons with Potato Pancake

Periodically I revisit this short clip of Julia Child flipping a potato pancake, “a daring thing to do” on her ’70s television show where flubs and mess-ups were left as-is. Child ad libs essential wisdom that applies to any daring endeavor, and life itself.

Cosmo Sheldrake’s Remarkable Musical Collaboration with Endangered Birds

Over 9 years at dawn, Cosmo Sheldrake carried recording gear, laptop, and sometimes a keybord into fields and woods to make music in collaboration endangered birds. The result is his new album Wake Up Calls; it is both charming and illuminating…

Siloing on the Island of Creativity (S.B. Dworski)

S.B. Dworski reflects on the nature of being “siloed”, which most of the world is grappling with, and a new way to think about it.

Why Walk in Hard Times (Rilke)

We take a walk daily because it never fails to refresh our thinking, change our view of things, calm us. Especially, in these most stressful times. It is perhaps our most powerful medicine. Walking, we find our mind shifting, ideas sparking, problems beginning to yield in ways we never expect. Rilke nailed it in A Walk:…

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.

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.

Sonny Rollins on Losing Yourself In the Divine and His Sabbatical Playing on the Williamsburg Bridg

This sublime short film is about “saxophone colossus” Sonny Rollins’ two-year musical sabbatical playing on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge and what he found there.

William Forsythe on ‘Choreographing Your Own Role Within the Choreography’

In his beautiful kinetic choreographies of pendulums, artist William Forsythe draws our awareness to ways we negotiate and choreograph our paths…

Sea Change Can Be Contagious (Susan Dworski, W.S. Merwin)

In posts and emails, I shared the questions fueling Improvised Life’s new architecture and many changes. Among the deeply affirming messages I received from readers, the most interesting was from long-time contributor Susan Dworski. She wrote of the contagious aspect of this sea change.

Li Ziqi’s Soothing, Addictive Videos Portrays Living ‘in the Flow’

On Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi’s mesmerizing YouTube channel. she doesn’t speak and there are no how tos or manic hosts,. Instead she evokes a quiet, very pastoral, very ancient way of life whose effect is deeply soothing.

9 Answers to Krista Tippett’s Powerful Interview Question Inspire Our Own

This short video compiles some very surprising answers to On Being’s Krista Tippet’s favorite interview question. It evokes “a very fertile place in everybody’s imaginations, whatever their story is…full of questions and searching and softness.” It’s a wonderful question to ask ourselves…

Wendell Berry on The Real Work We Do

We know quite a few people who are making major life changes these days, living with the question of what to do next, waiting for the path to become clear. What’s the mindset to embrace in limbo: all questions, few clues, no answers?

Slomo Followed THIS Principle To Change His Life and Transcend the Trappings of the Material World

The impetus for Dr. John Kitchen’s radical life change into the skater Slomo was the answer a very old man gave him when he asked, “What is the secret to living so long?”

Alex Soth and Richard Long on What Can Be Made From the Process of Moving Through the World

At his instagram, photographer Alex Soth posted a beautiful little video of a rock rolling down a path, an homage to artist Richard Long’s work, who mightily inspired an interesting view…

Yayoi Kusama Transforms Obsession and Accumulation into Art and Medicine

For decades nintey-year-old artist Yayoi Kusama has embraced the culturally taboo practices of obsession and accumulation, using them as a means of transformation and healing. Her remarkable “art medicine” has been her balm for mental illness.

Ikigai: “What Makes You Jump Out of Bed in the Morning? and Other Questions That Will Help You Find It

When a friend sent us VENN diagrams of the Japanese concept of Ikigai last week, we found we couldn’t get its big fat question out of our mind.

Watch Bob Dylan Write “If You See Her, Say Hello”, as You Listen

With the release of Vol. 14 of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg series, Columbia Records released a video of the first take Dylan recorded of his song “If You See Her, Say Hello” with a unique twist, for unexpected intimacy and insight.

How Do Your Good Ideas Make an Entrance? Knowing Can Help Bring Them to Life

When we stumbled on this image by the great Christoph Niemann at #abstractsunday, we thought: OMG, look at that fabulous doorway. What a vision! How can we get ourselves to imagine more expansively? And that got us thinking about the creative vision and where ideas come from.

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