quotes

Blessings for Our Wild Time (Bayo Akomolafe, Anonymous)

As we navigate this wild and very dark time, we find ourselves finding wisdom in unexpected sources. Here are two that have given us a feeling of expansion and re-orientation.

For Yoko Ono on Her 90th Birthday

As we’ve read tributes in celebration of Yoko Ono’s 90th birthday, we’ve been thinking about her too and of the many amazing things she has put into the world. She has lived through so much and never stopped making her art, speaking up, working to antidote the violence of our age. The mindshifts her work catalyzes remain refreshing, heartening, helpful. Here are a few of our favorites:

Alan Watts Puts Us In Our Place

When a friend threw THIS over our transom, we felt instantly better. Clarifying, heartening, it pulled us out of our heads into just the right place.

I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.

Susan Sontag

A New Year’s Wish from Alexander and Louisa Calder Spirals On

In 1966, sculptor Alexander Calder and his wife Louisa published this full-page ad in the New York Times. Bold and hopeful, it is a fierce statement that resonates as much today as it did then. Every New Year’s Day, we remember that ad, finding it about the most perfect wish for the New Year.

All 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

Maurice Sendak’s Very Wise Words on Aging, Living, Loss

We recently stumbled on this video the great Chistophe Niemann created to accompany a clip from Terry Gross’ last interview with 80-year-old Maurice Sendak, a few months before his death. It is full of wise, achingly tender words. Our friend Maureen Rolla turned them into a kind of blessing.

Radical Acceptance with Biscuits (Tara Brach, Ed Brown)

When I hear the word “radical” used in the context of personal change —whether a book, a course, a workshop — I generally pass it by. It’s so overused and overblown, I’ve come to mistrust it. But in the past few months, I’d heard a number of smart, curious, level-headed people mention Tara Brach’s book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. Among the trove of very wise and helpful ideas, I especially love this passage about saying yes, perfection, self-comparison and….biscuits.

Leonard Cohen on the Meaning and World View of ‘Hallelujah’

It took over five years for Leonard Cohen to write Hallelulah, arguably his most beloved song. Although we’ve listened to Hallelulah many times, we did not get its simple message as powerfully as hearing Cohen’s words in an early interview, featured in the trailer of the just-released documentary about him.

Our Hands Surprise Our Head (Francis of Assisi, Tessa Traeger, Bertjan Pot)

A fragment from St. Francis of Assisi got us thinking about hands in a new way. Into our head flew images from photographer Tessa Traeger’s moving series, Voices of the Vivarais, of working people in the ancient province in south-east France. and a video about Dutch designer Bertjan Pot.

Thinking About This Yields Gold

Reflecting on this sign yields SO much…. For us it catalyzed a meditation on time and change and where we are now, and a randomly-found poem by fourteenth century Chinese Buddhist poet Stonehouse*

Becca Eldemire’s Enduring Wisdom

This remarkable letter was found among Becca Eldemire’s letters after she was murdered. Copied and framed, it found its way to me as a gift, and onto a wall where I post things I need reminding of. Its spare, gentle wisdom reverberates in my life daily.

Sojourner Truth’s Fierce Poetry

When we saw this photograph of American abolitionist, former slave and women’s rights activist, Soujourner Truth we thought, ‘No description is necessary. There is a person who is completely herself, embodying strength, forthrightness, clarity’. Then we read the extemporaneous speech she gave in 1851.

A Couple of Radical Ideas About Living (Niall Williams & Henry Miller)

In This is Happiness, a beauty of a novel by Niall Williams, I found a nugget of gold that has been subtly transforming my view. It reminded me of Henry Miller’s radical philosophy of living.

We Played with John Cage’s 12 Words and Blasted Open Our Heads

Artist, composer John Cage was also a remarkably powerful writer. Over years of reading him we’ve found ourself transformed by even a sentence or two. This one landed in a similar way……We found that shifting the flow of words ever-so-slightly had a surprising effect.

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