“Each of us needs something of an island in his life—if not an actual island, at least some place, or space in time, in which to be himself, free to cultivate his differences from others.” — John Keats, Of Time and an Island via Book Mania [http://bookmania.me/post/…
Don’t just do something. Sit there. —Saying in Kyoto cited in a perceptive and beautiful essay on Pico Iyer's new The Art of Stilness [http://ideas.ted.com/2014/11/04/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/]. I love it that the essay ends citing Emily Dickinson— Some keep the Sabbath going…
Parker Palmer, who spoke today at PopTech with Krista Tippett and Courtney Martin, shares these words of Thomas Merton [http://www.onbeing.org/blog/the-modern-violence-of-over-work/6943] at his blog— > "There is a pervasive form of modern violence to which the idealist...most easily succumbs: activism and over-work. The…
Anna Della Subin at The New York Times [http://nyti.ms/1ryTYWa] > Still, humans will never stop procrastinating, and it might do us good to remember that the guilt and shame of the do-it-tomorrow cycle are not necessarily inescapable. The French philosopher Michel Foucault wrote about mental illness that…
> "If I were a doctor and were asked for advice," said Kierkegaard, "i should reply, `Create silence.' " — Pico Iyer (@PicoIyer) September 26, 2014 [https://twitter.com/PicoIyer/status/515585120388923392] Reminds me of this— > “Build pockets of stillness into your life.” And 6 other…
> The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less. I was led to this great saying by Annie Dillard [http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/07/annie-dillard-the-writing-life-1/] by another post at Brain Pickings,…
Q revisits an essay from Jian Ghomeshi [http://www.cbc.ca/player/AudioMobile/Q/ID/2441645903/] and pulls the following quote > Surely the nuances of human communication and most certainly of literature require a little ... inefficiency; a little space to think and to feel; to consider and reconsider Though…
> The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help…