The full collection of explorations.
Traveling with a bunch of luggage is taxing.
Living with a bunch of baggage is taxing.
Creation… it seems to me…
Is a process through which the items in your metaphorical bags are unpacked… alchemized into some expressive medium… and left there once finished.
As writing an idea frees your mind from holding it any longer… creating frees your metaphorical bags from having to carry them any longer.
…For lighter, further, freer life travel.
Learn to appreciate what’s well made.
Art, music, a meal…
Buried inside quality is spirit. And to appreciate quality is to appreciate another’s spirit.
And what is it that does the appreciating exactly? …That’s right: your spirit.
Appreciating is as good for our spirit as it is for others’. We cannot pour love from a cup that doesn’t already contain love. And appreciating is a means that both gives and generates love.
…It’s a process that ameliorates the quality of life for all involved.
Equally important: avoid what’s spiritless—both from others and in what you choose to make.
Life is too short. The benefits of doing the opposite are too large.
And after all… what could possibly prove to be more important than the nourishment and growth of our and others’ spirit?
…Spirit, I think you’ll realize, is the very essence of it all.
I’m currently half-way through All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
It’s a literary fiction about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
The chapters are short—between 2-4(ish) pages each and the author alternates between the two perspectives per chapter. This way, the reader gets to live and experience each life for him/herself.
We get to experience the horror of living during a time of invasion, occupation, and death—from both the side of the occupied and occupiers. And how each gets into the positions they do… what they’re lead to believe… and how morals and values gray during nefarious times.
…And I say “get to” with intention.
Because it’s a privilege to be able to step into the life of another and experience the brutal harshness of their experience from the warmth and comfort of our couch or bed.
And it is through this privileged opportunity that we are able to develop one of our most powerful tools for combating the nefarious forces of any time: empathy.
See sympathy is widespread and mostly useless… it’s feeling bad for others and returning to the good of life.
Empathy, however, is understanding and doing… it’s having lived the bad (actually or fictionally), imagining what you wished others would do, and becoming that person for them.
And when I look on Goodreads and see 1,989,000 ratings… I feel hope. Hope that there are empathetic people out there. People who know what it’s like and what’s worth their fight.
Because fight is what we need more of our empaths to do.
Reads books.
Does inner work.
Exercises regularly.
Walks and sits with excellent posture.
Rarely eats fast food or uses the microwave.
Eats entire meals without checking phone.
Waits patiently, in line or traffic or elsewhere, without checking phone.
Can facilitate and navigate great conversations without checking phone.
Can disagree and hold a dialog with a person without attacking the person.
Speaks to others with steady eye contact.
Can dance wholeheartedly without any care of judgments.
Compliments more than complains; offers optimism more than pessimism; leads with love more than hate—both in-person and online.
Lives below their means—happily. Regardless of salary size.
Falls asleep quickly. Even after stressful and emotional days.
I’ve been trying to get my buddy to play basketball with a group of friends and I for over a year now.
Every time it’s always the same thing: working or no response.
When I saw him today, I was joking that I was tapped out trying and I was gonna tag our other friend in to do the convincing.
He laughed and essentially said, “It’s not happening.”
When I asked him if he’s got anything else going on in his downtime, he essentially said, “…Besides work? …Chill. I work, I chill at home, I work again.”
Here’s the thing: this dude used to love playing basketball. He played for his school. We always used to play pickup at gatherings. He was damn good. And he’s like 15 years younger than me!
What I think happened is at some point along the way, he turned me down one too many times and it became an identity belief.
In other words, he behaved himself into a belief. And beliefs dictate future behavior.
It’s a catch-22 worth contemplating.
Want to lead your life with a different belief or set of beliefs? Start behaving as though the belief is already ingrained. With patience and perseverance… soon enough, it will be.
Want to behave differently? Start believing as though you’re already the kind of person who behaves that way. With patience and perseverance… soon enough, it will be so.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Which comes first, the belief or the behavior?
The answer: it doesn’t matter. So long as one of them comes first and begins the cycle of reproduction.
If it’s true you can only ever meet people as deeply as they’ve met themselves…
Then understand that you are both the standard and the throttle of your relationships.
You’re the standard because how deeply you’re showing up is how deeply you’d like the people you meet to show up.
You’re the throttle because if the person you meet shows up with a deeper understanding, then it won’t go as deeply as they might like to go.
If you crave more depth in your relationships… always reinvest that energy back into yourself and your inner work.
It doesn’t take long for people to gauge an estimation of the depth to which the people they’re getting to know have travelled…
My recommendation is to move quickly with getting to know more and more people…
And move more and more slowly with the ones who match or challenge your standard.
I tap my screen
While urgency sleeps
Before important clocks in
As busy decompresses
During the void hours
Mostly nights; some days
To nothing; blank
…Maybe a 12:19
I’ll sometimes sigh
Maybe slouch or frown
But never visibly
Never audibly
Not even here
Will I show it
Not even here
Will it hit my ear
Your name glowing
And only your name
Urgently protruding
Importantly colored; bordered
Filling the void
Pointing my mind
Towards entropy
Away from order
I’ll sometimes crave it
The spontaneity… the drama…
The fiery… the crazy…
The beautiful messy
The epitome
Of the nature
Of the universe
Presented perfectly
In your letters, your glow
My casual touch
Your chaos, your flow
My orderly house
Us merging; the mess
It always ends better
You send a text
And I straighten, smirk…
Though you’d never know it
Because I remember… ghost.
P.s. You can read my other poems here.