bits of wisdom
by Rob Tourtelot · updated 3mo ago
bits of wisdom
- Most people, as they age, become less selfish and more loving. I think this is true. The great Syracuse poet, Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was “mostly Love, now.”
from George Saunders's Advice to Graduates
Rob Tourtelot added 3mo ago
On the Sublime:
In the presence of the sublime, we are made to feel desperately small. In most of life, a sense of our smallness is experienced as a humiliation (when it happens, for example, at the hands of a professional enemy or a concierge). But the impression of smallness that unfolds in the presence of the Sublime has an oddly uplifting and pr
... See moreRob Tourtelot added 5mo ago
I’m going to settle for small, random stabs of extreme interestingness – moments of intense awareness of the things I’m about to lose, and of gladness that they exist
from Helen Garner on Happiness: ‘It’s Taken Me 80 Years to Figure Out It’s Not a Tranquil, Sunlit Realm’ by Helen Garner
Rob Tourtelot added 5mo ago
- Question: How can I judge myself less harshly and appreciate myself more?
Ram Dass on self-judgment:
I think that part of it is observing oneself more impersonally. I often use this image, which I think I have used already, but let me say it again. That when you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some ... See moreRob Tourtelot added 4mo ago
- For many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take much--just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work--to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is our first s... See more
from Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of R.A.I.N. by Tara Brach
Rob Tourtelot added 5mo ago
- It begins to feel as though you’re failing at life, in some indistinct way, if you’re not treating your time off as an investment in your future. Sometimes this pressure takes the form of the explicit argument that you ought to think of your leisure hours as an opportunity to become a better worker (“Relax! You’ll Be More Productive,” reads the hea... See more
from Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Rob Tourtelot added 4mo ago
- Sometimes it's harder, sometimes there are moments where you're like, man, I really wish I could escape this moment and go check Instagram or something, but instead I'm just going to sit here and my kid's crying and dinner's terrible because the kids are just being total jerks and I'm tired and not feeling great and my wife is upset because she's h... See more
from Uncomfortable on Purpose by J.E. Petersen
Rob Tourtelot added 5mo ago
- Your job, really, is to find people who love you for reasons you hardly understand, and to love them back, and to try as hard as you can to make it all easier for each other."
Rob Tourtelot added 4mo ago
- We will benefit from giving ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt as we navigate our understanding of ourselves and of others. We need to reach for grace as we weave in and out of what is me and what is you, and what is us.
from Notes & Highlights for How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong
Rob Tourtelot added 5mo ago