Collect...........................

 

..................................small astonishments.

an increased valuing...............

 

People who depend too much upon the past have become almost useless in many professions.  We need a new kind of human being who can divorce himself from his past, who feels strong and courageous and trusting enough to trust himself in the present situation, to handle the problem well in an improvising way, without previous preparation, if need be.

     All of this adds up to an increased emphasis on psychological health and strength.  It means an increased valuing of the ability to pay fullest attention to the here-now situation, to be able to listen well, to be able to see well in the concrete, immediate moment before us.  It means that we need people who are different from the average kind of person who confronts the present as if it were a repetition of the past, and who uses the present simply as a period in which he prepares for future threats and dangers, which he doesn't trust himself enough to meet unprepared when the time comes.

-Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature

Yep....................

 

I think perhaps we have collectively been too eager to deny the relevance of 1776 to us today, too sure of our own superiority to listen to revolutionary leaders' advice about society, human nature, and government, and too quick to disparage or simply ignore the national past that began in those desperate and idealistic days 250 years ago.

-Brendan McConville, from his essay in The American Revolution at 250:  Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding

To pay attention

 
How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted 
trout lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the 
earth. I think serenity is not something you just find in 
the world, like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, 
like small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but 
slowly, looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, 
wants only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. 
The catbrier is without fault. The water thrushes, down 
among the sloppy rocks, are going crazy with 

happiness.  Imagination is better than a sharp 

instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and 

proper work.

-Mary Oliver, Yes! No!

power..............

 

     There is such power when a leader can admit to their mistakes and apologize for them.  The idea that you're not going to make any errors is criminally stupid—as is the idea that if you don't own up to an error, nobody will notice you've made one.

-Will Guidara, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

the full attention..............

The authentic and pure values — truth, beauty and goodness — in the activity of a human being are the result of one and the same act, a certain application of the full attention to the object.

-Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

Boosting.....................

 

.................the United States Postal Service.

Really look.......................

 

3.  Look beneath the surface:  never let a thing's intrinsic quality or worth escape you.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

Epiphanies.....................

 

      Epiphanies are hidden in the most ordinary moments: the casting of a shadow, the smell of a match igniting, an unusual phrase overheard or misheard.  A dedication to the practice of showing up on a regular basis is the main requirement.

-Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

the trail.................

 

The thing to remember when traveling is that the trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.  Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.

-Louis L'Amour, Ride the Dark Trail

possibility.......................

 

It's never possibility that's not present; only me.

-Pico Iyer, Aflame: Learning from Silence

The Career Manifesto.................

 

9. Don’t expect to be perfect. Focus on doing right instead of being right. It will simplify the world enormously.

skills.............................

Sometimes, those focused on remaining calm and contained are not always learning the skills necessary to perform, to function in the world.  They may be stable and not raise their voice in the kitchen, but they don't know how to make salad dressing.  They may meditate steadfastly but not develop their communication skills.  While busy generating calm, beautiful states of mind, they are not developing the skills, capacities, and practices that could actually and realistically manifest delicious food or wholesome relationships.

-Edward Espe Brown, No Recipe: cooking as a spiritual practice 

If it was truly intelligent..............

 

........................it might choose to ignore us.

How did they build................

.............................all those cathedrals?

 Despite the acceleration of technological progress, indeed because of it, one of the few scarcities in the future will be a long attention span. There will be no shortage of amazing materials that can do magic, astounding sources of energy to make anything happen, and great reserves of knowledge and know-how to accomplish our dreams. But the gating factor for actually completing those big dreams may be the distractions that any society feels over the centuries. What your parents and grandparents found important you may find silly, or even embarrassing.

-Kevin Kelly, from here

savor.......................

 We are obsessed with optimization. Professionally, most of us are under considerable pressure to produce. Do more, better. Faster. Regardless of your line of work, you likely have a to-do list. And, if you’re anything like me, it is never-ending. There is always unfinished business. Another opportunity. Something important needing my attention. But our lives should be more than a list of tasks that we just trying to power through. Instead, we need to treat our days for what they are: fleeting gifts to savor.

-Joy Lere, from here

    via

agnostic........................

 Our distractibility seems to indicate that we are agnostic on the question of what is worth paying attention to—that is, what to value.

-Matthew B. Crawford

the close at hand..................

 It means that a good person tries to look at everyone with a patient and discerning regard, tries to resist self-centeredness and overcome prejudice, in order to see another person more deeply and with greater discernment.  The good person tries to cast a selfless attention and to see what the other person sees.  This kind of attention leads to the greatness of small acts: welcoming a newcomer to your workplace, detecting anxiety in somebody's voice and asking what's wrong, knowing how to host a part so that everyone feels included.  Most of the time, morality is about the skill of being considerate of others in the complex situations of life.  It's about being a genius at the close at hand.

-David Brooks, How To Know a Person:  The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

indelibly engraved.....................

 In 1750, Mayhew, fresh from receiving his Scottish divinity degree, preached a sermon in Boston celebrating, somewhat shockingly, the hundredth anniversary of the execution of King Charles I.  One of the lessons, the radical young man noted, was that "no civil rules are to be obeyed when they enjoin things that are inconsistent with the commands of God."  Indeed, such resistance to authority was "a duty, not a crime."

    Adams was paying attention to such thinking.  He would later note that this was the sermon that made Mayhew's reputation.  He studied it repeatedly before he went off to college.  "I read it, till the Substance of it was incorporated into my Nature and indelibly engraved on my Memory," he told Thomas Jefferson decades later.  "It was read by every Body, celebrated by Friends, and abused by Enemies."

-Thomas E. Ricks, First Principles

Be...................

 Pay attention to who you are around when you feel your best.  Be with them more often.

-Kevin Kelly