recovery

This line from David Foster Wallace still haunts me:

“The next suitable person you’re in light conversation with, you stop suddenly in the middle of the conversation and look at the person closely and say, “What’s wrong?” You say it in a concerned way. He’ll say, “What do you mean?” You say, “Something’s wrong. I can tell. What is it?”

And he’ll

Tommy Dixon on Substack

Forgiveness performed from obligation does two things: it excuses the behavior of others, and it reduces our ability to be conscious and present with the pain we truly feel.

When we rush to forgiveness, we lose our connection to our original wounds.

Link

There's an idea I think I picked up from Robert Kegan, the idea of an "evolutionary balance" in your personality structure. Or maybe it was “evolutionary truce.” The idea, as I remember it, is that your personality is made of many different dynamic forces, all pulling and pushing in different ways. For most of your life, those forces find an... See more

Destabilization & the Frequency of Values

Vivid Void • Tweet

"The words you speak become the house you live in"

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less.

We all have very good reasons not to trust ourselves. We’ve all betrayed ourselves badly, repeatedly, shamefully, and knowingly. Show me someone who hasn’t abandoned themselves, and I will show you a child. As we grow into adults, our world opens and we make mistakes. Ignoring your own needs and deserting yourself is a universal mistake.

Katherine Morgan Schafler • The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control

You need to be service maxxing, looking for every opportunity to be of service to others and forgetting about yourself in the process.

Jason Snyder • Tweet

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.