“There are times in one’s life…when one simply has to stop, step out of one’s routine, and take the trouble to think. It’s not a luxury but an obligation: how else to even try to make measured, considered decisions based on deliberation and self-awareness rather than on impulse or fear?[…]
All posts under Challenges
Questing Marilyn: #A-Z Challenge
“I want to seek something that is spiritual, not religious, that connects my spirit to universal energy. I want to experience the essence of all religion and come up with a belief system that suits me.” Questing Marilyn: In Search of My Holy Grail by Marilyn Barnicke Belleghem I am embarrassed[…]
Present Over Perfect: #A-Z Challenge
“Draw close to people who honour your no, who cheer you on for telling the truth, who value your growth more than they value their own needs getting met or their own pathologies celebrated.” Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist[…]
Outline: #A-Z Challenge
“It was inevitable, he now saw, that once there were no more things to add or improve on, no more goals to achieve or stages to pass through, the journey would seem to have run its course, and he would be beset by a great sense of futility and by[…]
(The) Nobodies Album: #A-Z Challenge
“I’ve always known that the best part of writing occurs before you’ve picked up a pen. When a story exists only in your mind, its potential is infinite; it’s only when you start pinning words to paper that it becomes less than perfect. You have to make your choices, set[…]
(A) Man Without a Country: #A-Z Challenge
“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell[…]
Ladder of Years: #A-Z Challenge
” ‘When my first wife was dying,’ he told Delia one afternoon, ‘I used to sit by her bed and I thought, This is her true face. It was all hollowed and sharpened. In her youth she’d been very pretty, but now I saw that her younger face had been just[…]
(The) Know-It-All: #A-Z Challenge
“I remember being annoyed when a book came out a couple of years ago by a guy who drove cross-country with Einstein’s brain. Einstein’s legendary brain. Enough already. ‘I’m going to write a book about driving across the country with Darwin’s pancreas,’ I told Julie at the time. ‘And after[…]
Journal of a Solitude: #A-Z Challenge
“I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. I am still pursued by a neurosis about work inherited from my father. A day where one has not pushed oneself to[…]
It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again: #A-Z Challenge
“…although it may take some trial and error, it is possible to find a routine that can begin to feel like a spiritual practice, opening you to guidance, energy, and creativity. Creating routines for yourself that comfort you will quiet your mind, and it is this quiet mind that allows[…]