3 quotations on mindfulness and action
03 Thursday Dec 2009
Written by Jo Jordan in POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, WELLBEING & POETRY
Tags
action, crossing the Rubicon, David Whyte, Goethe, House of Belonging, Isaac Newton, mindfulness, the universe conspiries to help us, this could be a black day, This could be a good day
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A good year ago I jotted down these three quotations. Then I abandoned the draft. Now I am tidying up my blog, I wonder, what was going through my mind that day.
David Whyte on the willfulness of the world
And I thought this is the good day you could meet your love, this is the black day someone close to you could die.
~ David Whyte from The House of Belonging in River Flow, p. 7.
Was I thinking about the essential unknow-ability of the world and importance of living in the world as it unfolds and both tempts us and taunts us?
Goethe on the universe conspiring to help us
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
~ Goethe
Was I thinking about the need to be active and the magic that happens when we cross the Rubicon and move towards irrevocably towards what we want?
Isaac Newton on following our dreams in the large world around us
I don’t know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
~ Isaac Newton
Was I thinking about the impossibility of understanding the universe yet finding a corner within it where we live our lives heroically and magnificently?
What sense was I making about mindfulness and action?
Did I come to the conclusion that world likes us to engage quite forthrightly following our interests yet understanding that others will be doing so too? Did I come to the conclusion that life promises us nothing yet demands our full attention? Did I come to the conclusion that we will always be significant yet what we do is important?
Did I come to the conclusion that is OK to ask and the world loves us for it? Did I come to the conclusion that it is OK to be small ~ we all are?
What was I thinking that day?
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2 comments
December 3, 2009 at 5:25 am
Food for thought …. does it matter what you were thinking that day? They caught your attention then, as they have done again today. Perhaps these quotes have been part of the background music of your thinking, working and reflection ever since? As someone who has been reading your blog for only a couple of months I see these themes re occuring in your writing, regardless of the subject.
December 3, 2009 at 9:42 am
Oh yes, they are some of the corner stones of contemporary thought on ‘personal leadership’. I’ve been exploring how they fit with dynamical systems thinking, the convergence of east-west thought etc.
You might like to have a look at http://www.ted.com. Some of the videos from TED India are up. They are relevant to Zimbabwean thinking, I think!