Senses working overtime #351

1 Tuna lovers! Meet your ultimate sandwich!

2 Ostracodish - Seth Godin

3 Quitting stuff (a how to guide)

4 Is old music killing new music?

5 Thich Nhat Hanh's final mindfulness lesson.

Overtime: 

Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, on life:

"When you are a young person, you are like a young creek, and you meet many rocks, many obstacles and difficulties on your way. You hurry to get past these obstacles and get to the ocean.

But as the creek moves down through the fields, it becomes larges and calmer and it can enjoy the reflection of the sky. It's wonderful. You will arrive at the sea anyway so enjoy the journey. Enjoy the sunshine, the sunset, the moon, the birds, the trees, and the many beauties along the way. Taste every moment of your daily life."

Source: Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society (Courtesy James Clear)

Senses working overtime #350

1 Tongan volcano

This amazing once-in-a-lifetime event has dominated our news in NZ this week.

2 Nubya Garcia

I've been listening to this a lot this week.

3 Letting go as a concept simplified by Nietzsche

Amor fati explained in an entertaining way!

4 Lana Del Rey - Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass

I have been enjoying her readings of her poetry - here is an example - LA who am I to love you

5 Poetry corner

from Time Pieces How briefly a day lasts, unravelling so fast you can't keep pace. You are at the morning bus stop, wondering if you definitely locked the hall door when, what seems like seconds later, sunset struts by in all its sky-draped finery, its evening wear, and you are unlocking the hall door. Dennis O'Driscoll (2002)

Overtime: 

Flow (and progress) - Seth Godin

A flow state is priceless. It happens when we lose ourselves in the work, simply connecting with the task, without commentary or doubt. When we’re in flow, time slows down, satisfaction rises and we feel fully engaged.

An easy way to end a flow state is to see how well you’re doing. Are you ahead of the other runners? Are you progressing according to the milestones? Do you have more social metrics now?

The irony, of course, is that the best way to make progress is to find flow. But if you’re using progress as a yardstick, it won’t last long.

Senses working overtime #349

1 Macca and Joko

2 WTWMC Body Parts!

The Three Amigos (Kev, Greg and me) have finished our latest Spotify playlist - 45 songs with a body part in the title from 1951 to 2021, which you can enjoy (and even like) here.

3 Janet Jackson (remember her?)

4 Songs as shelters in time - Austin Kleon

5  In praise of Ginger Baker

Enjoying playing this double LP compilation LOUDLY today!

Overtime: RIP Ronnie Spector - a unique voice; RIP Michael Lang 

Senses working overtime #348

1 How to make 2022 the year you finally smash your goals!

2 The 45 most anticipated albums of 2022

3 The Power Of The Dog

We watched this recently and really enjoyed it! Keen to watch it again having read that article.

4 Alan Watts - Why we resist change

5 The Mandalorian

Jacky and I are enjoying Season 2 on Disney+

Overtime: Wabi Sabi - Nobuo Suzuki

Jade gave me a copy for Christmas and I'm enjoying the wisdom in imperfection as I paint and decorate half of Maple Grove. 

Senses working overtime #347

1 Top photos from 2021

Finally, these last two kind of sum things up well

2 The joy of reclaiming long lost positive words

Some of our happiest words are such because they make us smile, and often involve a bit of fun at our own expense. Who can resist such nicknames as “cacklefarts” for eggs, or “bags of mystery” for sausages (because you never quite know what’s in them)? Even the prudish Victorians knew hankies as “snottingers”, and umbrellas as “bumbershoots”.

3 Omicrom variant - 2022's hero or villain?

A woman draws on the National Covid Memorial Wall on the embankment in London.

4 Poetry corner (for new year's day 2022)

from What I Want Yes, that's what I want right now, Just that sensation Of my mind's gradual Deceleration, as if I Took my foot off the gas And the Buick rolled to a stop. Alicia Ostriker (1992)

5 RIP painter Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced T-Bow) aged 101

Overtime:  Austin Kleon's quotes.

Senses working overtime #346

1 That prince of food - the donut

2 The power of the CD

Tagline - 'If vinyl is for hipsters and streaming is for everyone else, maybe the forgotten format is for you'.

3 RIP Joan Didion

“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”

 

4 Water

Margaret Atwood on being like water:

"Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does."

5 How Christmas has evolved over the centuries

Overtime: More Joan

“…quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean “love” in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again. I remember walking across Sixty-second Street one twilight that first spring, or the second spring, they were all alike for a while. I was late to meet someone but I stopped at Lexington Avenue and bought a peach and stood on the corner eating it and knew that I had come out out of the West and reached the mirage.”

― Joan Didion

Senses working overtime #345

1 Keanu Reeves knows the secrets of the universe

2 Unmarked Keys - Seth Godin

3 Jennifer Lawrence

4 Gratitude - Henry David Thoreau

Source - Austin Kleon's zine

5 Too much culture?

Overtime: 

The neurologist Oliver Sacks published a handful of essays before his death that were collected in Gratitude. He wrote:

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and travelled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

Source -  Austin Kleon