flowing motion ~ blog of jo jordan

The Secret

don’t worry, nobody has the
beautiful lady, not really, and

nobody has the strange and
hidden power, nobody is
exceptional or wonderful or
magic, they only seem to be
it’s all a trick, an in, a con,
don’t buy it, don’t believe it.
the world is packed with
billions of people whose lives
and deaths are useless and
when one of these jumps up
and the light of history shines
upon them, forget it, it’s not
what it seems, it’s just
another act to fool the fools
again.

there are no strong men, there
are no beautiful women.
at least, you can die knowing
this
and you will have
the only possible
victory.

Charles “Hank” Bukowski
1920-1989

I never know quite what I think of Bukowski’s poetry – realist? cynical? ugly? brutal?

But perhaps the view that “there are no strong men, there are no beautiful women” is essential to mindfulness – to be fully present with whomever we are with, wherever we are.

CHECK OUT SIMILAR POSTS

• 1001 things we learn from live performers
• I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride
• Fumblings with poetry
• And you? I was born for?
• Our lives but a poetry of place?
• Don't spend a day without having noticed a miraculous moment when the universe converges and you were there
• Let's bring the light back to our eyes
• The psychological significance of the poetry by William Carlos Williams
• Psychologists: Eyes and Ears To Spot Opportunties
• Is poetry understanding the needs of the moment, as the moment exists in the river of time?
• One of the all time classics: Viktor Frankl via TED
• 3 quotations on mindfulness and action
• 5 years’ time: where will we be?
• The secret gestures and signs that give our lives meaning
• My customers come to me to interact with other customers. Yes they do!
• 5 pretty petals of future work
• 3 must-knows of leadership that I learned from Gerald Durrell
• Courage and mindfulness
• The greatest privilege of a lifetime is to be ourselves
• Poets advice for surviving the financial crisis
• We are who we mix with – negotiating outcomes in supply networks
• Social media has raised the ante in events & conference management
• Experiment your way to success and a life you can call your own
• A Plan Big Enough To Include Now: We Call It Mindfulness
• Paolo Coelho on happiness and two challenges for psychologists
• Positive psychology in Barack Obama's words
• Walking with the elephants: remembering Galba Bright
• A poet tells us how to be goal-oriented AND mindful at the same time
• Mindfully in the recession
• For those dogged moments when we just have to get things done