12.11.23

Thought

A work of art is not an end point in itself.

It’s a station on a journey.

A chapter in our lives.

We acknowledge these transitions

by documenting each of them.

— Rick Rubin. The Creative Act.

Quote

Spiritual teacher Alan Watts on power and security:

You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.

Gratitude Practice 

A few prompts to start your gratitude practice if you’re having trouble -  

·     I’m grateful for these family members:

·     I’m grateful for these foods:

·     I’m grateful for these experiences:

Happy Monday,

Val

12.4.23

Thought 

It is because we don’t know who we are, because we are unaware [what] is within us, that we behave in the generally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hitherto unperceived good that is already within us, by returning to our eternal ground and remaining where, without knowing it, we have always been.  

— Aldous Huxley. The Perennial Philosophy.

Quote 

Spiritual teacher Ram Dass on attachment:

The most exquisite paradox...as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible.  

Intention of the Day

My intention is to master flexibility and move through life with joy.

Happy Monday,

Val

11.27.23

Thought  

Do not believe those who try to persuade you that composition is only a cold exercise of the intellect. The only music capable of moving and touching us is that which flows from the depths of a composer’s soul when he is stirred by inspiration. There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic.

— Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. Composing a Symphony – Creators on Creating

Quote

Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius on happiness:

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

Moment of Gratitude

I’m grateful for all of the great thinkers and creators who have left behind wonderful legacies for us to study to better understand the world.  

What are you grateful for?

Happy Monday,

Val

11.20.23

Thought

This incredible exchange of energy goes on onstage, where you’re almost transported. For me, the spark comes, very emotional, from the shared experience of what I’m singing about. It’s the band when we really lock in and the audience knows you’re locking in. I wish I could lose myself more when I play by myself. It’s easy to do with an audience, but I tend to be too self-conscious and judgmental when I’m alone. The audience is more unconditional, as if the channel is more open.

— Bonnie Raitt

Quote 

Activist Malala Yousafzai on the importance of action:

"Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you. It's you who can change the world."

Moment of Gratitude

I’m grateful for the help and support of friends and family.

What are you grateful for? 

Happy Monday,

Val

11.13.23

Thought

The best thing about writing is not the actual labour of putting word I against word, brick upon brick, but the preliminaries, the spade work, which is done in silence, under any circumstances, in dream as well as in the waking state. In short, the period of gestation. No man ever puts down what he intended to say: the original creation, which is taking place all the time, whether one writes or doesn’t write, belongs to the primal flux: it has no dimensions, no form, no time element. In this preliminary state, which is creation and not birth, what disappears suffers no destruction.

— Henry Miller. Why Don’t You Try to Write? – Creators on Creating.

Quote 

Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein on creativity:  

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Moment of Gratitude

I’m grateful that I got to take my newborn niece for her first swim lesson this weekend.  

What are you grateful for?

Happy Monday,

Val

11.6.23

Thought

Awareness is observation without condemnation. Awareness brings understanding, because there is no condemnation or identification but silent observation. If want to understand something, I must observe, I must not criticize, I must not condemn, I must not pursue it as pleasure or avoid it as a non-pleasure. There must merely be the silent observation of a fact. There is no end in view but awareness of everything as it arises.

— Vernon Howard. Mystic Path to Cosmic Power.

Quote

Poet Robert Frost on perseverance:

The best way out is always through.

Gratitude Practice

Gratitude Jar: keep a jar with some scraps of paper and a pencil next to it. Three times a day, stop by the paper and jot down something you are grateful for and drop the paper in the jar. After a while you'll have a treasure trove of things you are grateful for.

Happy Monday,

Val

10.30.23

Thought

Wandering is the best way I know to feed that flame, to answer those questions. Wandering – but with a conscious step, an openness to experience. “Wandering” may sound aimless, a flotsam and jetsam drift, but it is as purposeful in its way as the migration of monarchs each fall. Like their erratic, drifting flight, it only looks aimless taken each step at a time. In the larger picture a good wander is a search for questions, for the answers that lead inevitably – and happily – to more questions. I may not see the pattern if I look only at individual shards in their cryptic, broken makings, turning them over in my mind, but from the perspective of time my wandering is as intentional as the butterfly’s and as necessary. It is taking me where I most need to go, allowing room for growth and time for learning.

— Cathy Johnson. Lost in the Woods - Creators on Creating.

Quote

Polymath Albert Schweitzer on priorities:

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

 Intention of the Day

My intention today is to be willing to release anything that no longer serves me.

Happy Monday,

Val

10.23.23

Thought

Anguish is then an illusion since its causes are illusory. Besides this theoretical demonstration we can obtain a practical demonstration of it: we can prove directly, intuitively, the illusory character of anguish. If in fact at a moment at which I suffer... I shift my attention from my thinking to my feeling, if, leaving aside all my mental images, I apply myself to perceiving in myself the famous moral suffering in order to savour it and to find out at last what it is—I do not succeed of suffering itself I do not find a scrap. The more I pay attention to the act of feeling, withdrawing thereby my attention from my imaginative film, the less I feel. And I prove then the unreality of anguish.

— Hubert Benoit. The Supreme Doctrine.

Quote 

Host, author and media proprietor Oprah Winfrey on perspective:

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough."

Gratitude Practice

Gratitude Rock: I’ve done this one for a few years now. Find a small rock that you really like and carry it around with you. Whenever you feel or see the rock, use it as a reminder to think of something that you’re grateful for.  

Happy Monday,

Val