“The tiniest squirrel is the aptly named African pygmy squirrel—only five inches long from nose to tail. Others reach sizes shocking to those who are only familiar with common tree squirrels. The Indian giant squirrel is three feet long.”
National Geographic
“There is a big difference between having an opinion and being in the grips of an opinion.”
Eckhart Tolle
Peacocks (male peafowl) are believed to display their fantastic feathers in order to woo peahens. They are never aggressive in their courting…
which makes them smarter and better than (some of) their human counterparts.
I shared my drawing of llamas today with my fifth graders.
I got a rousing, “Not bad!”
For some reason, they loved yesterday’s 5 minute timed writing prompt:
“Describe how to drive your teacher crazy.”
Ahhhh. Kids.
Each morning, I open my drawing book, 20 Ways to Draw Everything. I make myself draw whatever is in front of me. I am always tempted to draw the easiest figures. I might start with the easiest, but I know that I will not get better if I stick to the simple ones. My initial goal was to draw all 20, but because I have only 45 minutes to draw before I go to work, I choose about six: a few easy, a few difficult.
It’s become my morning meditation.
It’s pre-sunset and I navigate the dark to the kitchen,
boil water, grind beans and allow the two to fuse in the French press
Open the drawing tablet and book – smile
choose a page arbitrarily and put pencil to paper
the good thing about the night
is that morning always comes
perhaps if you hug your nightmares
and laugh in their face
they will shrink back
in fear of you
Mushrooms are like people: Some are nourishing and others are toxic.
Student Council member: “We didn’t get out Student Council t-shirts in time for Club Picture Day?”
Me: “No, they haven’t arrived.”
StuCo member: “Wow. That’s a problem. That’s a real issue.”
Me: “No, it’s not. We’ll get them when we get them. We will take our pictures wearing what we’re wearing and smile. It is what it is.”
At first blush, this sounds like a negative and cold response. But diving deeper, you can see that “It is what it is” is actually a great way to deflect negativity. Why stew about something that we cannot help? Why feel bad and see “no t-shirts” as a problem? There is no solution except to accept it, happily.
This doesn’t apply to areas where there might be a solution of course. I am a proponent of seeking creative solutions to any and all problems. But in cases where there is nothing to be done, why fret?
S
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus
More information from Tony Robbins’ podcast with Esther Perel on Infidelity:
If you want to purchase Esther Perel’s book, The State of Affairs, you can go here.
Kismet 