quotes

The Ancient Formula for Gratitude

Opening at random Richard Powers’ remarkable novel The Overstory, we found the ancient formula for gratitude.

‘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.

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.

Ai Weiwei: On Home, Living in Isolation, Hope

Ai Weiwei’s thinking on purpose, home, isolation, hope are an insightful lens through which to consider our current circumstance. And especially, how the impossible becomes possible.

Uplifting Finds, Visual Poetry, Tender Blessing

Like the I.C.U. nurse in the breathtaking image, above, we are looking for refreshment, air, and sky. Here’s what we found…

Our heads are round so thought can change direction.

Allen Ginsberg

Pat Steir: How to Occupy This Time on Earth

Pat Steir is one of our favorite artists for the dazzling beauty and surprise of her work. She speaks eloquently about the dark time we find ourselves in.

Kevin Kelly’s 68 Bits of Seriously Good Advice

To celebrate his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly compiled some of the gold he’s learned over his seven decades. The brilliant list provides a roadmap to wholeness and positivity.

W.S. Merwin On Hope and What to Do On the Last Day of the World

In this short video, the renown poet and activist sepaks eloquently about hope and our interconnectedness, two themes so many are working to encompass.

Jenny Holzer’s Very Important Messages

Fifty years after the first Earth Day, Jenny Holzer’s timely messages resonate more deeply than ever as we face unprecedented global health and environmental crises. As does her succinct commentary.

5 Short Fierce Statements that Help ‘Dig a Cave into the Future’

In the face of relentlessly bad news, I randomly came across some powerful statements that snapped me awake from the daze I found myself in. Maybe they will do the same for you.

We imagine things...that we wouldn't be able to survive, but in fact, we do survive. We have no choice, so we do it.

Joan Didion

Toni Morrison: What to Do In Times of Dread

On the great instagram Nitch, we found an excerpt from an essay Toni Morrison wrote for the Nation in 2015. It seems an extraordinarily fitting message for THIS very dark time.

Robert Macfarlane on Trees and Long Love

Over our transom came this moving piece from Underland: a Deep Time Journey by British naturalist Robert Macfarlane. We’ve written before about his remarkable ability to connect us to nature, landscape, heart…

Everything in the world started with yes.

Clarice Lispector

Patti Smith: “The Secret to Improvisation I Have Accessed My Whole Life”

As we work to move Improvised Life to a new form, we came across this passage from Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir of finding her artistic voice: the secret of improvisation she learned from Sam Shepard.

Lee Krasner on How to Build Joy, Discovery and the Unexpected into Work and Life

Artsy’s Alexxa Gotthardt combed through interviews with legendary abstract expressionist artist Lee Krasner for her insights into “how to be an artist”, with three essential lessons.

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?

What is it that I can offer in this present moment? What about it is asking for a deeper look?

Garrett Bradley

Powerful Questions About Personal Expression Sparked by W.S. Merwin’s Garden Time (Consider Journal)

At #Consider Journal, a remarkable post ranges from W.S. Merwin’s last book to the “cyclical effect of nature and art” to the bigger question of how our expression might come to resonate in bigger ways.

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