Excerpts

The shade of thoughts and emo that have filled the last few weeks have been too messy to verbalize, let alone wrap up into a neat hope-filled revelation. Maybe I'll elaborate later on when things get digested. Maybe I won't. For now, I leave you with a glimpse of what my mind has been resonating with:


Excerpts from "What's [Actually] On Your Mind?" by Shane Hipps
[Relevant Magazine, Sep/Oct 2010]

This inadvertently reinforces the narcissism of the digital age. [Social media] helps me believe even my most mundane thoughts are now somehow important and need to be shared. It begs me to step out of the stream of experience long enough to record it. The effect is that we are no longer present in any of our experiences. We are living as unpaid journalists who chronicle life as it passes by. This may seem insignificant. But our presence matters. Our brief but increasingly frequent moments of absence add up.

Wisdom is born of suffering, waiting, experience, wrestling, grieving and complexity-and these things take time.

Ignore your [social media] for a week and see what happens. What do you miss? What do you gain? Pay attention when you feel an impulse to check [social media] and ask yourself, what is this about? Am I bored? Restless? Lonely? Curious? Feeling disconnected? Needing a break from the monotony of existence? Then sit with the feeling. Let it arise without resisting it or retaining it. See what it might have to teach you. And check to see if there is something else beneath it. Often there is wisdom waiting to be born. But it means being patient.
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Excerpts from "Why We Need Unanswered Questions” by Cameron Conant
[Relevant Magazine, Aug 2010]

The answer requires a knowing that transcends textbooks or theology, a knowing that sees with the heart, a knowing that exists between two lovers or between a parent and a child, the sort of knowing that says, “Even if it’s not OK, it will be OK.”
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America Through A Bug-Stained Windshield
[Jack's Mannequin Blog]

Sometimes a soul must wander to truly know it is home.
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