If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow.
If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing.
When inspiration strikes, write it down.
The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.
Discovering that the last book that made me cry is being made into a movie, has got to be the best surprise I’ve received this year. November 2nd cannot come soon enough!
“It scales better than competitiveness, frustration, pettiness, regret, revenge, merit (whatever that means) or apathy. Kindness ratchets up. It leads to more kindness. It can create trust and openness and truth and enthusiasm and patience and possibility.
Kindness, in one word, is a business model, an approach to strangers and a platform for growth.It might take more effort than you were hoping it would, but it’s worth it.”
#1: This salad, for when we are running out of ideas
#2: How do you read so much?
Finally, and honest answer.
#3: This made me cry
“We are made up of our details. The way we hold coffee mugs, unhook bras, or pronounce jewelry. “
“Sometimes I just want it to stop. Talk of COVID, looting, brutality. I lose my way. I become convinced that this “new normal” is real life. Then I meet an 87-year-old who talks of living through polio, diphtheria, Vietnam protest and yet is still enchanted with life.
He seemed surprised when I said that 2020 must be especially challenging for him. “no,” he said slowly, looking me straight in the eyes. “I learned a long time ago to not see the world through the printed headlines, I see the world through the people that surround me- I see the world with the realization that we love big. Therefore, I just choose to write my own headlines:
“Husband loves wife today.” “Family drops everything to come to Grandma’s bedside.” He patted my hand. “Old man makes new friend.” His words collided with my worries, freeing them from the tether I had been holding tight. They float away. I am left with a renewed spirit and a new way to write my own headlines.”
by Andy Stanley
What you do determines what kind of attention you pay to the world. What kind of attention you pay to the world determines what you find in it.
#2: The Seatbelt Rule for Judgment
“My willingness to judge something should be proportional to how much I know about it.” -Danny Guo
#1: I Have Notes by Nicole Chung
The Atlantic has recently begun a series of newsletters (I know, at this point there are more newsletters roaming the internet than readers!), but I have enjoyed this one so far. It is short and sweet, as most things in life should be.
I just love this phrase in her last newsletter, because her words made me feel the very feeling she is describing: “One reason we read is to know that burst of recognition when someone supplies new language for that which we once found indescribable.“
#2: Empty Pews Are an American Public Health Crisis
Even though is a Christian Magazine, and one could argue is inherently biased on where it stands on certain issues, I still found the article interesting. It’s been two years since I’ve stepped on a church (#COVID). However, I feel that I am becoming more spiritual than religious. Yet (Therefore?) the main premise of the article hit close to home:
“People find their social and personal lives improved—sometimes their lives are even physically saved—when they go to church often. [..] A religious upbringing profoundly affects lifelong health and well-being. We found regular service attendance helps shield children from the “big three” dangers of adolescence: depression, substance abuse, and premature sexual activity. People who attended church as children are also more likely to grow up happy, to be forgiving, to have a sense of mission and purpose, and to volunteer.”
And I wonder… has my life really been missing out on those Sundays at church? Maybe I need to reexamine my posture on church attendance. And while I consider this, I too remember those Sunday mornings in the Paloma Lake ward, and feelings of estrangement wash over me and overwhelm me . And I am reminded, as a consequence, never to settle with acceptance but to strive for inclusiveness wherever I may be so no one has to feel the way I felt back then.
Who knows? Maybe church attendance effect on one’s health is only true if there’s a sincere sense of belonging and community. Much to my parents dismay I am still going to pass on church services for now.
#3: Maybe we should try this on Republicans?
#4: Many years after, I am still processing this
You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath.
#1: The Art of Not Taking Things Personally
‘Emotional generosity’ is the ability to see past behaviours that we don’t understand and proactively look for compassionate ways to explain them.
#2: 90 seconds to emotional resilience
According to Harvard brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, ninety seconds is all it takes to identify an emotion and allow it to dissipate while you simply notice it. When you’re stressed, pausing ninety seconds and labeling what you’re feeling (eg., I’m getting angry), tamps down activity in the amygdala. MRI studies of the brain show that this “emotion labeling” calms the brain region involved in angry outbursts and helps you regain control. Dr. Bolte explains.
#3: When You Give a Tree An Email Address
The city of Melbourne assigned trees email addresses so citizens could report problems. Instead, people wrote thousands of love letters to their favorite trees.
This one hit close to home, mainly because I do have a tree I could write a love letter to. I used to call him The Life Tree (El Árbol de la Vida). I would pass it by daily on may way to and back from campus. It used to be a reminder to me that life changes, and so we adapt, we change, we shed, we are born over and over again.
I mean this when I say that it has been a while since I teared up with a video. When you really think about it, we are all part of each other’s story.
“It’s easy to mind your own business. It takes a little more effort to mind the community. But doesn’t the feeling of having something in common, something that connect us, make it all worthwhile?”
I quit my job last week so needless to say, this article resonated with me on a deeper level. What I find interesting, is that many important newspapers are writing about it, about the fact that workers are recognizing and, most importantly, doing something to improve their working conditions (or lack thereof).
There’s also this one: “this level of quitting is really an expression of optimism that says, We can do better.”
#3: “I vowed never to have a house bigger than I could clean myself.”
I too have considered this. When I was a teenager I used to dream of having a big house, one that would have many rooms, many features, many amenities.
It wasn’t until college that something in me changed. I no longer wished for a big house, I wanted a home. I wanted a small space that was filled with things all the people and things I love. A small kitchen that would be too cluttered, but also too crowded. A cozy living room whose couches would be too worn out, but also too full of stories. A tiny bedroom, that would be feel too small but never too lonely.
Restoring my faith in humanity: “We were taking our toddler daughters on a long flight. Shuttling the kids through baggage check and security, I forgot to buy milk. The airline didn’t serve milk on board, and my husband wondered if we could get by with coffee creamers (gotta love that fatherly ingenuity!). Finally, as we were sitting down (and my oldest was biting my arm for no obvious reason besides toddlerhood), the flight attendant came back with a pint of milk. ‘The captain got it for you,’ she said. Reader, I squeaked out a ‘thank you’ and immediately started crying. It was a small reminder when I needed it that we’re not islands, that the world is kind, that parenting is for all of us.”
#5: The Kinder Side of The Squid Game
“No one who survives does so on their own, but because of the sacrifices of others.”
the-pickwick.com 