Nurture

“Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.”

―

Iris Murdoch

Our traditions are like treasure chests filled with scriptures, songs, and stories—some empower us to cast judgment and others shimmer with the call to love above all.

Thomas Merton once said that if we want to study Buddhism, the answer is not to read a lot of books on Buddhism; it’s to meet a holy Buddhist instead.

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like a flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let your... See more

Playing is the whole point

If your life is cluttered, your creativity will be too.

If you are unfocused, your creative expression will be too.

If your brain is overstimulated, your ideas won’t have enough oxygen to breathe.

If your self-worth is tied to your last post, painting, or paycheck, then creativity will always feel like a rigged game.

But winn... See more

Making > Consuming

The solution for the eternal child’s desperation is simply to do. Make art, write, clean without thinking, get off the phone [in a word create things and learn to sit with the mistakes, by doing this you accept death by dwelling in the world instead of dwelling in the postponement of fantasy (“i’ll do that when i grow up”)]... See more

To feel an emotion is to allow it and let it run through, to learn from what it is telling you about you, about your relationships. Feeling is a self-acceptance of your own emotions and the wisdom of your body.

—Prentis Hemphill