Source (and more amazing photos): https://www.boredpanda.com/northern-lights-photographer-of-the-year-2023/
Greetings all!
This coming Thursday, December 21, marks the winter solstice, with the shortest period of daylight of just under 9.5 hours. But did you know that December 21 is also the Look On The Bright Side Day?
There are a lot of holidays and festivals in December already celebrated around the world so why not add a little extra optimism into our lives and look on the bright side this Thursday – and every other day!
Of course, looking on the bright side might bring you to the “are you the glass-half-full” question. Here are some options for you:
Or
perhaps, this is your answer?
Have a bright week! Drop me a line!
1. I can’t wait until I’m important enough to be
included in meetings.
2. I feel so important being in these meetings!
3. I will do anything legal, and several illegal things, to avoid these meetings.
~ Jay Ferro
https://twitter.com/jayferro/status/1461729270238220301
Greetings all!
I am curious what you think about this statement: “We do not get or have time. We are time.”
When I read this sentence in a book, I had to read it again. And again! I just found this statement so thought-provoking and radical!
And this was not the only wise, inspirational, sometimes bleak but mostly life-affirming idea I encountered in “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman.
How do you measure the passage of time, especially when it comes to your life? Do you think in hours or days or years?
I have NEVER thought about my lifespan in weeks. In terms of my to-dos and appointments, I do look at an upcoming day, week, and month, but I have never measured my overall life in weeks – so that was an unusual perspective.
As Oliver reasonably calculates (and of course I recalculated!), “If you live to be 80, you’ll have had about 4,000 weeks.” How about that? Do the math for your own age and see how it makes you feel! Gave you pause, didn’t it?
What I really appreciated about the book was not just the rather disheartening reality check about how little time and control we all have over time but the questions we can ask and the deliberate, practical, and not entirely unfamiliar tools of “confronting our radical finitude” we can implement.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“If you deeply grasp that the impossible demands on your time are impossible, you can resist them and focus on building the most meaningful life you can, in whatever situation you are in.
Embrace, do not deny, your temporal limitations.
Let go of the limit-denying fantasy of getting it all done and focus on doing a few things that count.
You cannot avoid hard choices about time, but you can make better ones.
Everything is borrowed time.
Forego certain pleasures, neglect certain obligations.
Decide what not to do and feel at peace about not doing it.
Claim time for what matters to you.
Limit your work in progress.
Our devices distract from more important matters but they also change how we define “important” matters.
Real problem might be not the activity itself but our internal resistance to experiencing it.
Plan is a present moment statement of intent. But the future is under no obligation to comply.
It’s OK to be mediocre in your hobbies.
Endure the discomfort of not knowing.
Face the truth about your irrelevance in the grand scheme of things. Embrace it.
It is a relief to be reminded of your insignificance.
In what way have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?
Seek out novelty in the mundane.
Practice doing nothing.”
I really enjoyed this book and will definitely reread at some point. Alas, “The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief” but once we embrace our finitude and learn to choose and say “no” more, however many weeks remain can be enjoyable and fulfilling.
What
did you think? Drop me a line!
