Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle
art
Relating
If you can be happy whether or not you get that (name the external thing), then you are truly happy.
Byron Katie
Commonly Kept
ornery goldfish
in search of the next nibble
never satisfied
The Basics of Happiness
“Happiness is a living thing. You need to feed your happiness in order to have happiness last. It’s like love. If you don’t feed your love, it will die. Understanding and compassion are the foundation to happiness.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Big Top Dreams
Create, Don’t Criticize*
*Theodore Roosevelt
“Do you create anything or just criticize others and belittle their motivations?”
Steve Jobs
You might not admire Steve Jobs as a person or even as an entrepreneur, but there is truth in this quote, as Kovie Biakolo points out.
Social media is a tool of communication. As with any form of communication, it can be utilized for productivity and education or noise pollution.
I’d like to add: it can also be used purely for consumption – for hours on end.
Something worth considering: What is your consumption/criticizing to creation/production ratio?
Maybe it’s time to praise and produce more, and criticize and consume less?
Freelancing – Inspirational Words
Freelancers podcast from Seth Godin’s Akimbo – the Conclusion (last 5 minutes):
You need to deliver the product of difficult work. Solve a problem in a new way. If you had a great boss, your boss would understand and encourage you to keep doing it.
Be smart about how good you are, who you do it for and how much you charge. This is an opportunity to dig deeper and do the work. This is what you signed up for – not to work a lousy job for a lousy boss.
Sunshiny Day*
clouds come and go
the blue sky is always there
“overcast” can provide respite
without variety, life would be boring
* A great song no matter the weather, “I can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash
Honeyed Words
Words are flowers,
blooming in their own time
we buzz and buzz in our colonies
some of us make honey
Connect to Something Big*
*From Ryan Holiday’s Thought Catalog: Find a Way To Connect To Something Big— Marcus Aurelius would look up at the stars and imagine himself running alongside them, he’d see them for their timelessness and infiniteness. Try that tonight or early in the morning and try to make it a daily practice. A glance at the beautiful expanse of the sky is an antidote to the nagging pettiness of earthly concerns, of our dreams of immortality or fame. But you can find this connection from many sources: A poem. A view from the top floor. A barefoot walk across the grass. A few minutes in a church pew. Just find something bigger than yourself and get in touch with it every single day.
