“The best way to predict the future is to invent it”
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why not
“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. ”
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the rapture of being alive
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“Must is different.
Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It’s that which calls to us most deeply. It’s our convictions, our passions, our deepest held urges and desires - unavoidable, undeniable and inexplicable. Unlike “should”, “must” doesn’t accept compromises.
Must is when we stop conforming to other people’s ideals and connecting to our own - and this allows us to cultivate our potential as individuals. To choose must is to yes to hard work and constant effort, to say yes to a journey without a road map or guarantees, and in so doing, to say yes to what Joseph Campbell called “the experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive””
interior inspiration
best self
romance of the unusual
“Live the full life of the mind,
exhilarated by new ideas,
intoxicated by the romance of the unusual”
courage
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kjolle
“Food is memories ”
Photo from own collection. Taken at Kjolle in Lima, Peru.
maido
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Photo from my own collection at Maido in Lima, Peru.
What an amazing experience.
Interior inspiration
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new ways
“old ways don’t open new doors”
the pilgrim soul in you
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”
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books
If there is one thing I love when I enter my office, it is the sight of my books. Books I’ve reads, books I have yet to read, books that look pretty and others that have inspired me. There is usually not a day that goes by that I don’t read or listen to a book (hmm some people don’t consider this reading, but I love my Audible App). Last year I read 34 books. This year I’ll probably take it a bit easier; my goal on Goodreads is 25 for 2019.
My books are not just for me. They are shared amongst friends, colleagues and random people I meet. Sometimes they return to me, other times they go out into the world and stay there.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
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This year started with Michelle Obama’s book Becoming and The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. I’m looking forward to reading The Unstoppable Ruth Bader Ginsburg: American Icon and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and to finishing the Social Singularity by Max Borders.
flowers
“I must have flowers, always, and always”
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magic things
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharpe”
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happy 2019
“Every new beginning, comes from some other beginning’s end”
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grit
“You will never always be motivated. So you must learn to be determined. ”
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a brave and startling truth
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“We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it. ”
almost 2019
The sound of the “pagara’s” echo around me. It is only the 28th, but it being Friday, many people seem keen on getting the celebrations started. This is the sound of New Years. The sound of reflection, of memories and of goals yet to be made. It is somehow also the sound of new beginnings, of better intentions and renewed hope. 2018 was full of travel, surprises and unexpected opportunities - let’s see what 2019 will bring.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Photo from own collection. Earring by Beck Jewels.
do you lunya?
A few months ago I “discovered” Lunya. Do I sleep better? I’d say so. It’s so comfortable I’d love to walk around in Lunya all day.
“I walked by my bedroom mirror and marveled at my outfit – I was wearing my husband’s old frat t-shirt and rolled up boxer briefs. In the pursuit of comfort, I had let the wheels fall off. This realization sent me on a journey to find comfortable, flattering sleepwear, but the options available didn’t match the modern woman I was or wanted to be.
I realized that even though you spend over one-third of your life in bed, sleepwear tends to be the most undervalued part of your wardrobe. It became my mission to make sure that women could feel both comfortable and confident.”
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