I’ve been paying a lot of attention to language lately—to the weight our words can carry. I’m enamored by words with nuances and multiple meanings; words that speak to much bigger ideas. True is such a simple little word, yet, as a directive for living our lives, it packs quite a punch. Truth seems to […]
Like many who have built a career around being a photographer, I’ve often been told I have a ‘good eye’. It’s more or less a necessary job skill. A question that has come up throughout my career is whether or not having a ‘good eye’ is something that can be learned, or is it some […]
I’ve written of the need to have ‘Fresh Eyes’ in the pursuit of any creative endeavor here in the past. I came across this essay by Costica Bradatan which beautifully validates, and expands on this idea. It speaks to the upside of exile—typically a term carrying a negative connotation—banishment from all we hold dear, from […]
The Election of Donald Trump. This is what change feels like. The ground shifts beneath you. Chaos is all around you. Suddenly uncertainty about everything prevails. Core beliefs are upended. What you once were sure of, you no longer are. It’s very scary; you suddenly feel immensely vulnerable, unsure how to act, what to say, […]
I wake up every morning saying to myself ‘I should write a blog post today‘. The closest I get most days is simply jotting down more ideas for posts. This is the thing—for many of us ideas are the easy part. They come unbidden; most often not the result of concentrated effort, spontaneously rather, usually […]
I first came across this term a couple years ago in a TED talk by Dan Buettner on “Blue Zones”—communities (there are 4 in the world) whose elders live with vim and vigor to record setting ages. Okinawa is one of them. Ikigai proved to be one of the core factors contributing to life expectancy. […]
The last ‘Tips’ post spoke to the importance of having lots of ideas whenever we’re trying to solve a problem or move our lives forward in some unprecedented way, as our first ideas are most likely perpetuating old ways of thinking. There are numerous tactics floating around out there. Some are more specific than others, […]
Krista Tippett, who is the host of NPR’s OnBeing speaks to this aspiration in her new and resoundingly inspirational book Becoming Wise An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. She states the book’s purpose as offering “a grounded and fiercely hopeful vision of humanity for this century—of personal growth but also renewed public […]
“If you can’t think, walk. If you’re thinking too much, walk. If you are thinking bad thoughts, keep walking.” —Pierre Helaine, founder of Arche shoes. One of the biggest impediments to creative productivity is the mental block, or rut—sometimes brief, sometimes prolonged. A great and easily-accessible-to-all way to jump-start your thinking and shift your mindset […]
I recently came across a tagline for an interior design business which captures an idea I’ve been pondering for some time now. It read, simply, Creating beauty, Changing lives. Of course the reference to the very commercial enterprise of marketing home furnishings is blatant, but it also speaks to the idea that the presence of […]