52 Types of Wood and the Trees They Come From will make you see trees that the wood in your home come from. The Overstory will make you appreciate them more…
Read MoreWhy Walking Helps Us Think (Rilke + Ferris Jabr)
Science has proven what painting, poetry, and our own experience know: walking helps us think, and be.
Read MoreMultiple Discovery is Not Plagiarism, But a Reflection of How Connected We Secretly Are
Did National Geographic steal the idea for its cover or is it an instance of Multiple Discovery? I’ve experienced it many times…
Read MoreWhy You Should Play: It Sparks Creativity and Invention (Steven Berlin Johnson)
In this mind-boggling little film, Steven Berlin Johnson shows how play and pleasure may be as powerful drivers of invention as necessity.
Read MoreWhat Bill Murray Does When He Feels Stuck
Bill Murray never ceases to astonish us for his improvised ways and his very actionable brand of wisdom, like this…
Read MoreDoubt Allows for Alternative Ways to See the World (Albert O. Hirschman, Colorni, Christopher Columbus)
The very counter-intuitive views of Albert O. Hirschman turns commonly accepted ideas of productivity on their head: Doubt is essential to the creative process.
Read MoreOpened at Random: Zen to Go
This morning we opened Zen to Go to this…
Read MorePema Chodron’s First Step in Dealing with Chaos
We photographed a page from Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart years ago, only to rediscover its wisdom recently.
Read MoreAllen Ginsberg’s Advice for People Who Are Not Quite Sure How Far to Go
This morning we opened Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews by poet Allen Ginsberg and found his incredibly wise words of advice…
Read MoreWords That Expand (or Contract) Your Universe of Possibilities
This photo of hunks of clay by Gentl and Hyers made us wonder: What are we going to make today? And then we found this hunk of wisdom…
Read MoreTalking and Listening to a 3,000 Year Old Olive Tree
The astonishing 3,000 year old Olive Tree of Vouves got us thinking about the intimate ways trees and human beings communicate.
Read MoreOpened at Random: The Enlightened Heart, An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
This morning, we opened The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry and found this…
Read MoreJohn Cage’s Clarifying Question About Good and Bad Taste
John Cage’s question of taste is curiously liberating. It helps to gently soften our rote opinions and view of ‘ugly’, making us see more possibilities.
Read MoreMister Rogers’ for Adults
We came to the extraordinary Fred Rogers late, after watching Mister Rogers for Adults, a brilliant series of 1-minute videos from his show, that convey his unique philosophy of love.
Read MoreSome of the Most Beautiful Sentences in Literature are Like Poems
When we read 50 Of The Most Beautiful Sentences In Literature, we felt like we were reading poems, each one complete unto itself.
Read MoreOpened at Random: Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art
This morning, we opened Stephen Nachmanovitch’s Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art to this…
Read MoreAsk This Simple Question to Disarm Your Self-Critical Inner Voice
We found a lovely, simple way to reframe those big existential questions everyone seems to ask themselves about whether they are enough…
Read MoreOpened at Random: ‘Insomniac City by Bill Hayes
This morning, we opened Bill Hayes’ “Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me” to this…
Read MoreSally Mann on ‘Relishing the Limitations of the Ordinary’
Hold Still, A Memoir with Photographs, by legendary photographer Sally Mann reads like an epic novel shot through with photographs and remarkable insights about the creative process, and embracing the “limitations of the ordinary”.
Read More‘Nitch’ is Worth Checking Into Daily for Ballast and Uplift
The most refreshing and instantly illuminating site we’ve seen lately is Nitch, rich with unexpected little blasts of unique perspectives and ideas…
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