Bookmark 2018

Happy Holidays.
Here is this year's bookmark
with my gargoyle hugging
our house.
If you like print it out,
cut it out,
seal it between clear contact paper
and let it watch over your books.
Enjoy!

Offering

     Early in our marriage, I interrupted my husband Michael while he was practicing guitar, to ask what was the meaning of life.

    “To find out what we’re capable of” He answered without hesitation.

     When I told that to my class of excellent art students in our last discussion, there were murmurs of agreement all round. Whatever it is we have to offer we should find and develop in whatever form it takes. We feel that in our heart. It’s what the brain rewards to keep us growing.

      My brother Bill has an ability to connect with people, make them feel at ease. He radiates goodwill and empathy, so the fact that now, in his retirement, he’s going to be a hospice volunteer is a beautiful next step in building on that capacity. Each aspect of ourselves we choose to develop offers a window into deeper layers of personal possibility that wouldn’t be seen without new challenges opening new questions. We don’t know what we’ll find, the compass of the heart just gives direction about what matters to core being.

      People might not think of self-development as a gift to others, but it is the particular capacities of different individuals that enriches the world. This is the part that’s not manufactured, that’s not an algorithm, but the sense of individual flourishing led by what we love best. 

      Not using up time finding out what others think of us opens space to build a skill or learn about something that tugs at curiosity. Our pleasure in a task signifies the presence of the brain chemistry meant to encourage us. The more actively we pursue something the more we appreciate it. This actively combats the things that pull us down. When Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Homo Deus”,   says that google will know us better than we know ourselves, it assumes that like the rat with the pleasure lever, we’ll just keep clicking likes and checking for them all the time. We don’t have to behave like the rats.

      Consider the real world experiences that give you the most pleasure as a starting point.

Getting better at something builds understanding of the subject but also of who we are. This is learning about ourselves through what attracts us. The life that is not on the computer is not known to the computer, it may know many of our interests as well as what we buy and who we know. But if we have a life off screen we can have a private space and an enriched sense of what we can offer.