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Posts filed under “Be / Passionate”

Come, let’s ride brightly painted inner tubes, you and I

If you have watched TV commercials for the new teeniny microscopic MacBook Air, perhaps you will recognize this song by Yael Naim. Come, let’s ride brightly painted inner tubes, play cymbals in a field of sunflowers, sing with a gorgeous Israeli-French accent, and realize that there is a whole big world out there, ripe for the dancing and for the…
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J is for jijnasu

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan In 2008, I want to be a jijnasu, a seeker of wisdom, an inquirer. When I was preparing to talk with Billy Collins the other day (doesn’t that sound casual?), Mr Brilliant was holding the paper bag while I hyperventilated, metaphorically speaking, helping me think about what questions I wanted…
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Becoming Larger Than Our Skin Allows

And no, that title isn’t a reference to overeating. In the U.S., today is Thanksgiving Day (and my friend Karrie Manson’s birthday, so a shout out to her for being so powerful that the nation stops when she ages). This year, I’m not spending Thanksgiving at a long table full of vegan alternatives to turkey, but hunched over a computer…
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Leave your base camp

“Money often costs too much.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson Last Tuesday, I found myself in the unusual position of being at the very top and very bottom of Maslow’s Happy Hierarchy of Needs at exactly the same time. I can’t recall ever being in two places at one time like this, not since 1986 when I was in Scranton with a…
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Find your saxophone

"Follow your bliss. Find where it is and don’t be afraid to follow it." -Joseph Campbell If you’ve read 37 days before, you might have picked up on my love affair with actor Johnny Depp. Beautiful, talented Johnny. Quixotic, funny, odd, quirky Johnny. Did I mention beautiful? Ooh-la-la. What can I say? There’s no defending it. I won’t pretend it…
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Celebrate every orange flag

“The truth is that everything that can be accomplished by showing a person when he’s wrong, ten times as much can be accomplished by showing him where he is right. The reason we don’t do it so often is that it’s more fun to throw a rock through a window than to put in a pane of glass.” – Robert…
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Don’t stop to wave, you’ll drown

“Why are women immobile? Because so many feel like they’re waiting for someone to say, “You’re good, you’re pretty, I give you permission.” –Eve Ensler This week, I watched a videotape of Eve Ensler speaking at the 2004 Omega Institute “Women in Power” conference. Ensler is a playwright most famous for “The Vagina Monologues,” which has played in 76 countries,…
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Finding your (com)passion

”Do not ask what the world needs. Instead, ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” –Thurmond Whitman  That quote came to me from someone I don’t know, quite by accident. A few weeks ago, it came across my email inbox on a listserv about diversity in architecture. The woman…
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