Wisdom

The way to finding powerful human connection

December 21, 2016

Human connection is not so common in our age of connectivity. We see lots of people but find our little cucoons to hide in. We don’t realize we’re craving a deeper connection with others until we find it.

It’s hard to connect, because cultural norms get in the way — we’re supposed to talk about the weather and sports and the news, but not our deepest struggles. We’re supposed to say cool or witty things, but not share our greatest hopes for our lives or the person we want to become.

~ Leo Babauta from, https://zenhabits.net/human/

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Why travel? Well, I’m glad you asked…

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Maturity

November 26, 2016

I don’t know the actual meaning of maturity. But for me, maturity is when a person hurts you and you try to understand their situation rather than hurting them back.

~ unknown

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Meditations on the wisdom of action

November 4, 2016

To begin reorienting to a life of action requires something which at first appears to be non-action: meditations. We have to contemplate what action is and understand how it plays out in our lives. … At the same time, we can appear to be doing all sorts of things externally without actually taking a meaningful action. As Thoreau asked, “It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?”

~ Brett McKay from, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/10/04/meditations-wisdom-action/

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Peace

October 27, 2016

Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in a the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

~ unknown

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This too shall pass

October 25, 2016

This really gets to the crux of why, when we’re in the midst of a funk, we feel like it will last forever, and yet it inevitably passes. When we imagine the future, we think we will always feel the way we do at that moment, but we do not imagine all the life events that will keep us from sitting in our room and brooding 24/7. The vast majority of minds cannot ruminate on the same thing indefinitely. Life goes on and takes us along with it.

~ Brett McKay from, https://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/10/09/this-too-shall-pass/

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“This too shall pass,” is one of the most useful bits of wisdom to which I cling. I sometimes say…

If things are going badly, be patient, they will change.
If things are going well, be patient, they will change.

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Lessons in manliness from Atticus Finch

August 30, 2016

If Atticus had one dominating virtue, it was his nearly superhuman empathy. Whenever his children felt angry at the misbehavior or ignorance of the individuals in their town, he would encourage their tolerance and respect by urging them to see the other person’s side of things:

“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Atticus understood that people could only be held responsible for what they knew, that not everyone had an ideal upbringing, that folks were doing they best they could in the circumstances in which they found themselves. Atticus strove above all to see the good in folks and to figure out why they did the things they did.

~ Brett McKay from, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/02/02/lessons-in-manliness-from-atticus-finch/

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Hermann Hesse on the three types of readers and why the most transcendent form of reading Is non-reading

August 22, 2016

For this reader follows the poet not the way a horse obeys his driver but the way a hunter follows his prey, and a glimpse suddenly gained into what lies beyond the apparent freedom of the poet, into the poet’s compulsion and passivity, can enchant him more than all the elegance of good technique and cultivated style.

~ Hermann Hesse from, https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/07/11/hermann-hesse-types-of-readers/

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Useless to worry

June 11, 2016

When one is inexperienced as a teacher, one gets quite worried about the pupil’s situation; His anxieties rub off on the teacher as it were. But an older teacher realizes it is useless to worry or even think about it. The thinking has been done already, and a proper programme has been carefully worked out to suit this pupil. Either he will follow it, or he will not.

~ Trevor Leggett

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Thinking

April 6, 2016

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is think with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

~ A. A. Milne

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Good and bad

February 6, 2016

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both charity and love.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

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Smile back

October 3, 2015

Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.

~ “Marcus Aurelius“

Note: This was not written by Marcus Aurelius, but rather said by the character in the movie Gladiator. The closest thing which Aurelius did say, is in Meditations: “Accept death in a cheerful spirit, as nothing but the dissolution of the elements from which each living thing is composed.” at 2.17, and “So make your exit with grace — the same grace shown to you.” as the final line of 12.36.

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