This morning, we opened Mary Oliver’s Devotions to this…
Read MoreHow to Sing Your Ecstatic Song (Tom Ashcraft + Walt Whitman)
In this video, artist and radio astronomer, Tom Ashcraft echoes Walt Whitman in describing the awe and wonder to be found in the everyday
Read MoreWarren Buffett’s 10-Year Bet Yields Essential Lessons in Investing In Unsettling Times
Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter provides timely counsel for the ordinary investor in our unsettling economic times. We’ve learned a lot from it, especially this year’s.
Read MoreTimelapse Wonder of a Seed Sprouting: ‘Each Beginning Is the End of Waiting’ (Hope Jahrens)
‘Miraculous’ is what we think as watch a bean valiantly push through the soil to bloom into a full-grown plant in this lovely video. This revelatory hunk we found in Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl is a perfect accompaniment.
Read MoreJulia Child’s Life Lessons (On Live TV, 1963)
In this short clip, Julia Child attempts flipping a potato pancake — “a rather daring thing to do”— and imparts extraordinary life wisdom when she flubs it.
Read MoreCreativity is the Work of Sowing Seeds (Brian Eno, May Sarton)
August Sanders’ farmer got us thinking about just how much the creative process is about sewing seeds when we stumbled on these words by Brian Eno and May Sarton…
Read MoreLaurie Anderson and John Cage’s Wonderful Conversation Long Ago (Two Heroes!)
A digital walkabout took us a 1992 edition of Tricycle, the great Buddhist magazine, where Laurie Anderson interviews Cage, then 80 years old. Here are some catalytic bits:
Read MoreSteven Pinker on How to Live a World We Think is in Dire Straits
We are not alone in feeling that things have never been so bad, that the world is in seriously dire straits. Psychologist Steven Pinker offers some clarifying strategies that shift our view.
Read MoreWhat Writing Scripts for AI Taught Her About Humans and Art
In describing what writing lines for AI like Siri is like, Mariana Lin nails what human to human communication actually does.
Read MoreWhen Not Kondo-ing Pays Off (Louise Bourgeois, Susan Dworski, Italo Calvino)
There are many reasons not to follow Marie Kondo’s mission to declutter. Witness this report from Susan Dworski, with Louise Bourgeois and Italo Calvino…
Read MoreReg E. Cathey’s Goodbye Love Song, in His Own Beautiful Voice
We are heartbroken that the great Reg E. Cathey passed away. The Goodbye Love Song he recorded for Improvised Life in 2009 resonates all the more deeply with the magic of his voice and words.
Read MoreImpossible is a Dare! (Mohammed Ali and Fred Astaire)
When we stumbled on this sublime minute-and-a-half of Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling Mohammed Ali’s powerful declaration on IMPOSSIBLE came to mind.
Read MoreSlow Thinking is a Revolutionary Act
During a week away where we forgot to check into Improvised Life’s many social media platforms, we discovered “slow thinking”. It is indeed a radical and transformative act.
Read MoreCandide Thovex Skis Everything But Snow (With Zen View)
We didn’t know that skiing without snow is possible until we saw Candide Thovex traverse the globe in this magical, thrilling, uplifting two minutes, with unexpected lessons in Zen.
Read MorePhilip Roth on Age, Being Alive, Talent, and What Creative Work is Really Like
We found several illuminating hunks in No Long Writing, Philip Roth Still has Plenty to Say, a New York Times interview with the legendary novelist, who retired from writing several years ago…
Read MoreShort, Powerful Instruction for an Alternative Possibility of Being
We read haiku often for the power they offer in just a few lines; they are HELPFUL, always offering a shift of our thinking and deepening of the moment. Jane Hirschfield illuminated why.
Read MoreAn Antidote to the Difficulties and Terrors We Face
We were stunned by this image of Mohammed Mohiedin Anis listening to music amidst the dust and debris, fallen-in windows and crumbling walls of his bedroom in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. It holds an essential lesson and reminder.
Read MoreMary Oliver’s Anthology Devotions: Hymns to Possibility
We often weave poetry into Improvised Life’s articles, taking John Ashbery’s view that The poem is a hymn to possibility. Of the many poets we publish, Mary Oliver is probably the most frequent. We’ve been delighting in her five-decade-spanning anthology of poems, called Devotions. Excerpts here…
Read MoreAbdullah Ibrahim: How Improvisation Saves My Life
In this lovely animated film, legendary composer Abdullah Ibrahim tells how improvising guided him during dangerous run-ins with white police, an active practice throughout his life and music.
Read MoreHow to Signal ‘Angry’ Without Blowing Your Top
Wise woman Mira Keras recently mentioned a unique strategy she came up for dealing with situations when either she, her husband or her young daughter Gogo are angry, inevitable in any close relationship.
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