writing : blog
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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I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. – T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" It really takes so very little to amuse me. Yesterday, I got an email from a favorite bookstore in town: "we’d like to name a drink after you." Lest we get too carried away with the sheer excitement of it all…
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Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart. -Martha Graham In 2008, I will come to be danced. I had expected to write “D is for direction.” But an email from my friend, Nancy MacDonald, a few days ago changed my mind. She sent me this poem: We have come to be danced We have…
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“Nothing is worth more than this day.” –Goethe In 2008, I am going to be here now. When you unpeel it, 37days is all about now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one day. I want, instead, to live in Now. This moment. What does that look like? I…
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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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“Be good to yourself. If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?”- Kobi Yamada Part I. I went to my first Shaolin Kung-Fu lesson last Monday night. After 15 minutes, I was sweating. I think it was the full-body push-ups with feet up on a bucket and bare knuckles on wooden planks that did it. When…
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“Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.” – Charles M. de Talleyrand I’m thinking that the human race needs to jump more. And I’d add something to Mr. de Talleyrand’s thought, above. Not only speech but also gravity disguises man’s thoughts. Last night, my husband—the marvelous and eclectic and über well-read John—handed me one of his favorite books,…
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“As once the wingéd energy of delight / carried you over childhood’s dark abysses, now beyond your own life build the great arch / of unimagined bridges.” –Rainer Maria Rilke There is a pure and shining glory in the world of my 2-year-old daughter, Tess. It is called a bus, a “big, big bus,” to be exact. There is absolutely…
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“There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says, Anywhere but here.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I grew up in a small Southern town where nobody knew the street names, but just gave directions by landmarks and…
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"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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Patti Digh is the author of six books, including bestsellers Life is a Verb and Creative is a Verb. She travels the world teaching others about mindfulness: to live fully, love well, let go deeply, and make a difference. Patti's comments have appeared on PBS and in The New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Financial Times, and many other international publications. She writes a thank you note every morning.
