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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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…
Read MoreOur 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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read MoreWe 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.
Read More
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…
Read MoreEverything 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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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?
Read MoreWhat 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.
Read More
Garrett Bradley’s Big Question Transforms Each Day
When we saw this image from New Orleans-based filmmaker Garrett Bradley, we thought: that is a perfect exhortation to start the day. Then we read THIS:
Read More
Patti Smith: How to Reread a Favorite Book Three-Dimensionally
We were casting about for a new book to read when we came across Patti Smith’s technique for rereading personal favorites “three-dimensionally, cubistically, from several angles.
Read More