7 for Sunday

How can solitude and intentional detachment from distractions help us cultivate creativity and find clarity in our choices? Sweet, sublime, solitude. Flowers open in solitude. Butterflies emerge from their chrysalis in solitude. We find room for ourselves in solitude. There is a silence at the center of each person — an untrammeled space where the…

It’s only impossible until you’ve done it once. It’s only difficult until you’ve done it twice. The problem isn’t the actual problem; the problems is your attitude about the problem. Outside of military training and sports, Greeks, and later the Romans, celebrated the body’s beauty and strength and embraced physical training as a philosophical ideal…

I have cancer. Although I won’t be sharing specifics, I have stellar care and support, from my family, and from a huge team of the best healthcare professionals. My prognosis is excellent. If one must get cancer, you want to have the experience I’m having. Your intellectual appetites might include knowing the answer to a…

When I was a kid I never thought about how the contents of a museum come to be the actual contents. I had vague notions of Indiana Jones escapades, organized expeditions of discovery, and dusty research to assemble artifacts’ histories. But I never thought about the curation aspect of a museum. I suppose I just…

Is there anything more sublime than the rapture found during creativity? I think not. The act of creation, in your preferred medium, takes you to a realm of serenity and ease. [Tchaikovsky] had just one, temporary analgesic for his misery: “It would be in vain to try to put into words that immeasurable sense of…

The parable of the tortoise and hare is eternal. The simple story illuminates the pitfalls of laziness and hubris. It also suggests there can be important perspective shifts when we ask, “How fast should I be going?” and, “Am I going in the right direction?” Today we live in a society structured to promote early bloomers.…

Have you read Quiet by Susan Cain? It was a quake-book for me; but I think you have to be an introvert to get that effect from it. If I had to summarize its point, it would be that introversion is about how one recharges and not—as commonly described—about how one shows up around others.…

With just a few repetitions, even our best intentions slip from our grasp. There’s an old Steve Martin skit where he begins with, “If I could have one wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children of the world join hands and sing in harmony.” It’s a raucous send-up of saccharine, holiday,…

I really do know what it is that I should be doing. I can tell you that it often feels like it will be soul-crushing work. Which really doesn’t make sense when I take the time to think about it. As I turn over each ‘should’ in my mind, they’re all things I want to…

We have a vision of The Thing we’re about to do. You know The Thing I mean. It can be in progress now, due tomorrow or just off in the future a bit. It’s the writing, the painting, that podcast episode, the project at work, the family you’re thinking about starting, or the exam at…