BeautyDialogues

Slow Work

The other day a couple of friends and I were talking about the difficulties of maintaining a healthy life/work balance, which as you know dear reader has been one of my personal challenges. It was extraordinarily helpful to hear the details of other people's struggles with this increasingly prevalent  modern phenomenon, and draw on their solutions.

SlowWork, a concept with connections to the SlowFood movement, is another positive response to this cultural addiction to speed. It's not about going backwards or doing things "at a snail's pace", they say, but about changing gears and finding a way to work that's less driven and destructively focused on quanity rather than quality; giving ourselves the space to cultivate our professional relationships, the time for the rest and recuperation that's needed to support our physical and mental health so that we can do our best. In other words, bringing a different quality of presence to our work.

During my walk this morning I was listening to a podcast from Oprah's Book Club, where Eckhart Tolle was talking about opportunities to bring more mindfulness into our everyday work practices. He suggested two simple exercises. One, take something that occurs all the time; the phone rings, say, and instead of racing to pick it up, let it go for an extra ring or two. Take that time as a reminder to be present with this moment, and begin the call from that place.

Tolle's other suggestion was one of my own favorite "tricks" - keep something beautiful next to you on your desk - a flower, perhaps - and periodically look up from the computer screen to rest your gaze on it.

Another thing I do is to light a candle before phone calls with my clients. They might not even know I'm doing it, but it reminds me that the person I am speaking to is holy, a human being worthy of my utmost care and attention. For some clients, this is a ritual they partake in as well, and we start our calls with a moment's silence followed by a brief 'check-in' so that anything that would distract or effect our work together is spoken and shared openly. It also helps to create the intimacy and connection that feeds creative collaboration and produces extraordinary results.

Do you have practices to help you stay centered as you go about your work? What are they?

Mary Oliver's Poetry

Las night I went to hear the legendary poet Mary Oliver read. It warmed my heart to see the hall packed for this white-haired woman whose philosophy after all is so simple - kindness and attention to beauty are its main principles.

When asked about her daily practice, Oliver said she wakes every morning to witness (my word) the dawn and give thanks for another day, then she eats breakfast, takes a walk with her dog Percy, and works for 3-4 hours, at which point she is tired. Hers sounds pretty much like a perfect life to me.

Mary Oliver is one of those old-fashioned wordsmiths who doesn't use a computer - she writes her drafts and revises them on a notepad before transcribing the finished work on a series of old typewriters (if they stop working she lets them rest under her chair for a few weeks, when, she says, they are almost always miraculously healed and ready to go again).

From her latest volume, Red Bird, "Invitation":

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude–
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

The red bird motif runs through this sweet book of love like a red thread of inspiration, ending finally with the poem Red Bird Explains Himself.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is not something most people know much about, and that's not good, because in this case what you don't know CAN hurt you.

This video, although a little long at 10 minutes, gives a great overview of the issue. If you don't have the bandwidth and want something a little shorter and punchier (3.5 minutes), check out this one. But please do inform yourself about what net neutrality means, because it's an issue that effects us all and right now we still have a choice in the matter.

Lily

Most commonly an image is used to illustrate text, but in this case I think the image is the main event, and anything I could write would be secondary (click on it to see a larger version).

Is it speaking to you too? What do you hear?