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Guardians
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. — Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata How often do we consider protecting our spirit? We use sunscreen on our bodies; limit what our minds encounter through ratings and reviews. But our spirits, delicate and resilient, require a different type of care. In this verse, Ehrmann instructs us to guard against loud and aggressive people. Yesterday at Target, a woman was having words with her child. She was several rows away, but her tone was notable. I observed myself becoming more attentive to my surroundings and beckoning my daughter closer. It was a primal response to danger. Involuntarily, we avoid loud,…
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Kaleidoscope
“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” – Pablo Picasso, 1923 A person is a kaleidoscope. Bits of gold and rose sliding across flecks of indigo and green–each going in and out of our view in turn. At times, some parts of people are so well hidden, it’s as though they don’t exist. Then another twist, the view shifts, and they reappear. Beckoned forth. Generosity, fear, compassion…plink, plink, plink…selfishness, curiosity, jealousy…plink, plink, plink. Unlike a kaleidoscope; however, people grow and change…or atrophy and change. Regardless of the means, we change. Some change is evolutionary like the unconscious change in our gait from a long-healed injury. Some change is revolutionary like…
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10,000 Hours
In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers suggested that anyone can develop world-class expertise at any skill by dedicating 10,000 hours to practicing it. While not all experts agreed with his theory, it does support the age-old adage that practice makes perfect. So, now that we’re considering committing the 10,000 hours, the bigger question is how do we decide that we will practice? You may think, what a minute, I didn’t commit to practicing anything! But consider the idea a little more broadly, where we spend our time is where we are practicing already. To that way of thinking, we are all practicing something. What is it we are choosing to perfect? There…
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May You Be With The Force
Some people might say something doesn’t “sit right with them”. Other people might call it listening to their intuition or trusting their gut. Yoda would refer to sensing a disruption in The Force. Regardless of their parlance, they’re saying the same thing. Something in a situation just doesn’t feel right. As much as some of us would like our decision making to follow an entirely rational course, we are occasionally pulled in a different direction by a detour of feeling. This isn’t the emotional kind of feeling. This feeling is a physical sensation–something I have always equated to a shift in energy. There is likely a scientific explanation for it. I will leave that to someone better equipped than me to explain. What…
