…We are quick to forget that just being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck, a remote event, a chance occurrence of monstrous proportions.
Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth. The speck of dust represents the odds in favour of your being born; the huge planet would be the odds against it. So stop sweating the small stuff. Don’t be like the ingrate who got a castle as a present and worried about the mildew in the bathroom. Stop looking the gift horse in the mouth – remember that you are a Black Swan.”
— Nassim Taleb
Awareness
To pay close attention to and mostly accept your life, inside and out and around your body, is to be halfway home…
And there is always nature, her royal self, who offers herself both as a light show and as bread to be eaten, We hang with her as much as possible, because nature really knows how to do it when she is not being mercurial and destroying entire regions. We do get a taste of the spheres in birdsong, eclipses, the surf, tangerines. In the dark, we see the stars. In the aftermath of the devastating fire, the sun rose red.
To pay close attention to and mostly accept your life, inside and out and around your body, is to be halfway home.
…
The lesson here is that there is no fix. There is however, forgiveness. To forgive yourself and others constantly is necessary. Not only is everyone screwed up, but everyone screws up.
How can we know all this, yet somehow experience joy? Because that’s how we’re designed — for awareness and curiosity. We are hardwired with curiosity inside us, because life knew that this would keep us going even in bad sailing. … Life feeds anyone who is open to taste its food, wonder, and glee — its immediacy. We see this toward the end of many people’s lives, when everything in their wasted bodies fights to stay alive, for a few more kisses or bites of ice cream, one more hour with you. Life is still flowing through them: life is them.
Anne Lamott, from Almost Everything — Notes on Hope, P. 62
On Truth as Paradox
All truth is paradox. Everything true in the world has innate contradictions…
… and this turns out to be a reason for hope.
If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change, and something else about it will also be true. So paradox is an invitation to go deeper into life, to see a bigger screen, instead of the nice, safe lower left-quadrant where you see work, home, and the country. Try a wider reality, through curiosity,awareness, and breath. Try actually being here. What a concept.
Anne Lamott, from “Almost Everything – Notes on Hope” P. 19
Sometimes the best way to spend a day is simply savoring what you have before it’s gone…
— Alex Green
We all have obligations and deadlines. But hurry and extreme future-mindedness impoverish the present. What we value most is love, friendship, solace, beauty and humor. Yet these things are best appreciated or communicated face to face in a calm, relaxed setting.
Slowing down enhances your sense of gratitude, improves your mental and physical health, allows you to gain control of your life, lets you appreciate beauty, and enables you to reconnect with those around you.
Sometimes the best way to spend a day is simply savoring what you have before it’s gone.”
