“And I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves. Martin Buber quotes an old Hasid master who said, “When you walk across the fields with your mind…
“Besides, isn’t it confoundedly easy to think you’re a great man if you aren’t burdened with the slightest idea that Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante or Napoleon ever lived?“ — Stefan Zweig, Chess Story My mind is still in Vienna as I write this—a city that’s had its fair share of high achievers walk her streets and…
“I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther I was thinking about Goethe after my traveling companion…
Slow down, you crazy childAnd take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhileIt’s all right, you can afford to lose a day or twoWhen will you realize, Vienna waits for you? — Billy Joel, Vienna A traveler seeks magic in places big and small, and in mountains and cities alike. Two weeks of…
“Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” — Richard P. Feynman Each day is an opportunity to discover—inching further along on our search for more insight into who we are. We may never find…
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent van Gogh When we figure out the truth in van Gogh’s words dictates exactly how creative we’ll be at any given stage of life. He didn’t achieve “success” until he’d left…
“Call it what you want. Call it belief, faith… stepping out and making a commitment without necessarily knowing what the outcome is going to be. But really leaning into it in good faith. And then you’re along for this beautiful journey of emergent possibilities and learning things and deepening your knowledge of another person and…
“Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.” — Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle Thoreau’s Life Without Principle is a quick read, but well worth the hour or so it takes to digest it. As with anything in life, the question is, what do we want to…
“Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.” – Søren Kierkegaard There’s no doubt that, for most of us, reality is a handy place to anchor. We all must face the reality of living in a world that doesn’t go out of its way to cater to us. And…
“It matters not where or how far you travel—the farther commonly the worse—but how much alive you are.” — Henry David Thoreau Sitting outside, listening to birdsong in the magic hour before the world shook the cobwebs off, I watched a couple of large birds fluttering tree-to-tree. I wondered at them, thinking perhaps pileated woodpeckers…
