It is a powerful thing to be seen. It’s luminous, it’s uplifting, it has many layers, but it always comes back to being present, breathing, maintaining eye contact. It’s an amazing journey to be able to experience and participate in the piece.” ~ how one visitor described sitting with Marina Abramović Her pink pencil was…
Creative Culture
Exchanging Duty for Playfulness
En mai, fais ce qu’il te plait.” ~ French expression (“In May, do what makes you happy.”) I spent the majority of my childhood engaged in imaginative play. My sister, our friends, and I created elaborate scenarios for whatever we decided to play. We might spend several days building a tree fort out of scraps…
Letting Go of Self-Improvement
“There’s a paradox with self-improvement, and it is this: the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself.” ~ Mark Manson My great aunt sat next to me in the back seat of the hearse. She dug a well-manicured thumbnail into the filter of…
Beauty as Inspiration
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius My pulse quickened as I walked into the Musée d’Orsay’s main hall, bathed in light from its stunning, Beaux-Arts, glass ceiling. I paused briefly to take in the architectural splendor and then anxiously walked toward the gallery…
The Provenance of Becoming
Be a provenance of something gathered, a summation of previous intuitions, let your vulnerabilities walking on the cracked sliding limestone be this time, not a weakness, but a faculty for understanding what’s about to happen.” ~ David Whyte, excerpt from “The Seven Streams” Every morning when I sit for meditation, get out my laptop to…
The Empath’s Guide to Protecting Creative Energy
If you walk in the mist, you get wet.” ~ Dogen, the great Zen master I threw up every day before school when I was in the first grade. I was painfully shy, very much an introvert, and afraid of just about everything and everyone. Oddly, though, I loved school—listening to what Ms. Brown was…
Read more about The Empath’s Guide to Protecting Creative Energy
