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:
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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.
Read MoreI want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.Susan Sontag
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.
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
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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*
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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The very best words on rain we’ve read are from American hermit, mystic, priest, Thomas Merton. He wrote it one rainy night in his hermitage at the Abby of Gethsemeni in Kentucky. It has shown us rain in a new way…
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Since Kevin Kelly last published his 68 Bits Of Seriously Good Advice a year ago for his 68th birthday, he’s come up with 99 more pieces of wisdom. Like last year’s, it’s a brilliant list, creating something of a guide for living.
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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…
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We love the green polka dots in this down-at-heels kitchen, a perfect way to jazz up a wall. It got us thinking about their cosmic meaning and how to make them without laboriously holding up stencils.
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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…
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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.
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