Author: Anne

Sculpture along the El Camino de Santiago -‎⁨Pedrafita do Cebreiro⁩, ⁨Lugo⁩, ⁨Spain⁩ It's so much easier to see and process the world if we divide it into discrete bits.  This is non-fiction, that's fiction.  This is a good restaurant, that's a bad one.  This person is successful, that one isn't.  These distinctions are almost always wrong.  Not just wrong, but unhelpful, because by ignoring the stuff in between, we isolate ideas (and people) instead of seeing them as part of a continuous whole.  Slopes aren't necessarily slippery, but they're far more likely to exist than neat staircases.  And then we have to make the very difficult decision of where in the messy middle we're going to place a marker.  FROM:  Seth Godin's BlogREFLECTION:Do you tend to divide... good/bad; helpful/unhelpful; successful/unsuccessful?Are you willing to work within the messy middle?How can you see people and ideas as part of a continuous whole?

I was at the windowwhen a fly near the latchwas on its back spinning-legs furious, going nowhere.I thought to swat itbut something in its struggle was too much my own.It kept spinning and began to tire.Without moving closer, I exhaledsteadily, my breath a sudden wind,and the fly found its legs,rubbed its face and flew away.I continued to stare at the latch hoping that someday,the breath of something incomprehensiblewould right me andenable me to fly.Poem by Mark Nepohttps://marknepo.com/about_bio.phpREFLECTION:Have you ever felt like you were spinning... going nowhere?Did someone offer a breath to help right you?Are you currently struggling? Do you need help? Be courageous - ask for help!Is there someone in your life who needs help? How can you "exhale steadily" to help them fly?

Sculpture of a peregrino on the outskirts of Samos along the Camino de Santiago These are times in which a genius would wish to live.  It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.  The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.  Great necessities call out great virtues. Abigail Adams, Letter to John Quincy Adams dated January 19th, 1780 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_AdamsREFLECTION:We are certainly not living in still calm times (Can you imagine what Abigail Adams would think of today's times?).  Yet we have an opportunity to build a strong character. What habits have your formed to deal with these difficulties? What virtues do you need to nurture?