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Respite from The Fearful Zeitgeist: Somersaulting Tibetans (Reprise)

Here’s a moment’s respite from the dire state of the world and the palpable feeling of fear that seems to permeate everything these days. It had us laughing out loud which, we discovered, keeps us right smack IN the moment

Mindset for a Heatwave (Martha & the Vandelas, Hermeto Pascoa, Francis Alys, Li Po, Ellen Silverman)

As many parts of the country, and the world, are in the grip of a fearsome heatwave, We’ve found ourselves hiding out, working at partial power, desperately needing restorative naps and ways to feel cool. We know that refreshing virtual pleasures CAN help us cope; they fuel breezes in our heads. So we rounded up our favorites.

How to See Miracles (Helen McDonald, Miles Davis)

I was stunned recently when the morning light slanted across the leaves in the low shrubs across from me to reveal glittering spider webs woven throughout: an intricate network of homes carefully, miraculously forged. It reminded me of a perfect passage from H is for Hawk, and what it takes to see.

Derek Jarman’s Gardens: ” a Testament, Blazing, Blatant, to Possibility”.

After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, filmmaker Derek Jarman bought an austere tar-painted fisherman’s cottage in sight of a nuclear power station in the bleak shingle landscape on the southeast coast of England. It would prove to be an act of creative vision as unique as those Jarman realized in his films.

Artful Lessons in Styrofoam from Lino Schenal and Max Lamb

In the 1970’s mysterious Italian designer Lino Schenal clad his house in sculpted styrofoam, from walls to simple, stylish furniture. Fifty years later we looked to Max Lamb to reveal the secrets of the ubiquitous material for making artful, practical creations.

Firefly Season Arrives After a Hard Year, with Haiku

Seeing a single firefly in a field in New York City sparked several haiku, and coincided with astonishing research on the magical insect.

Meditative Retreats Among the Bees via Erika Thompson and Pablo Neruda

Texas Beeworks‘ Erika Thompson’s videos have become a sensation, documenting her adventures calmly moving whole colonies of bees out of hives that that have formed in the midst of people’s lives: under a pool umbrella, in a patio chair, an old tire, a water meter, compost bin, the walls of a house. They are mesmerizing to watch as much for the view into the workings of wild hives as for Thompson’s relaxed, fearless self-assurance.

“Onward to What?” Katherine Grody’s Fortifying Rant on Aging

Grody has a way of talking turkey about aging that we first wrote about in “@MandyPatinkin’s Heartening Reality Sandwiche”: honest, sometimes ambivalent, funny, heartening. This little tonifying video continues the conversation.

A Blind Painter’s Lessons in Seeing (Sargy Mann)

When landscape artist Sargy Mann went totally blind in 2005, he assumed there were no options left. But since a blank canvas was stretched in his studio,and paints had been mixed, he thought, “I wonder would happen if I gave this a go?”

Hot Weather Joy: Communal Water Music (Hermeto Pasoal, Vanuatu Women, Stephen Nachmanovitch, )

Listening to the water music of women from the northern Vanuatu and Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal takes us into the realm of joy, and gives us ideas for our own hot weather revelry. Steven Nachmanovitch, tells us how to access our own inner music…

Your Wisdom App + Clint Eastwood on How Not to Get Old

Frequent contributor Susan Dworski threw this compelling video over my transom, accompanied by her thoughts about the apps she’s been seeing lately selling all manner of salvation. She asks a big question and points to a surprising path…

Call-and-Response to Merton’s RainText: ‘The Beautifully Ordinary’

Every week, unexpected messages fly over my transom, many from stranger-friends who have read something I’ve sent into the world via Improvised Life, in a kind of call-and-response. Like this illuminating beauty from Katherine Davich, a powerful spill of rain memory sparked by Thomas Merton’s RainText.

A Spectacular Maasai Jumping Dance Sparks a Transformative Question

We don’t know the deeper meanings of this spectacular jumping dance performed by young Maasai warriors as part of a coming-of-age ceremony. We love the forthright vitality, energy, joy of it, a feeling we want to have starting each day. It got us thinking about Ikigai, the Japanese concept we wrote about a couple of years ago, and the big question it asks.

Thoughts on Miracles (Charlie Allenson, Walt Whitman, Mary Oliver, Cosmos)

A while back, we posted “Let’s Save Charlie’s Life”, about our friend Charlie Allenson who needed a kidney transplant to save his life, Charlie got his transplant through an anonymous donor touched by one of the messages asking for help that Charlie’s many friends and colleagues sent out via social media. It got us thinking about miracles, and we found insight from Whitman, Mary Oliver, and Charlie himself.

Ways to Honor The Mother Trees (Susan Simard, W.S. Merwin)

We have marveled at Susan Simard since we realized she was the model for the fearless, hermetic tree botanist in Richard Price’s wondrous tree-centric novel The Overstory. Her new book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Ancient Wisdom of the Forest about the intricate underground communication network trees create and depend upon got us thinking about the perfect gift, for Mother’s day or otherwise.

The Complex Meanings of ‘Languishing’ (Jenny Holzer, Ada Limon, Cesaria Evora…)

“Languishing” perfectly describes the unsettling emotional state so many of us find ourselves in a solid year into the pandemic. We looked deeper into its meaning, and found insight in art, music, poetry…

Alan Watts’ on Laughter and Anxiety

After David Saltman described his remarkable experience seeing Alan Watts give a talk in the 1970s, we hunted down some video of the essential astonishing lesson. Which led to way more…

Listen to a Breathtaking Treatise on Stars (Mei-mei Berssenbrugge + Vija Celmins)

One morning, I found myself listening to poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge reading Wonder from her book A Treatise on Stars. I was transfixed, calmed, transported by her voice and the story it told. It proved a surprising lesson in seeing stars, and the connection between wonder and not knowing.

Rewilding Ourselves to Heal Wounds or Illness

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…

With Poetry as Balm for Dire Straits, We Are Taking Time Off (Mary Oliver, Su Tung p’o)

This week, my dearest friend will have open-heart surgery, a territory whose outcomes and demands defy prediction. So I will be taking time off from writing Improvised Life. But I will be carrying its lessons with me as I navigate waiting, hospital, ICU…

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