Happy end of June!
I read some great books this month. I just started Teach Yourself to Live by C.G.L. Du Cann. One I took a particular liking to was Four Thousand Weeks–Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It made me reflect a lot on how I perceive time. The truth is, we all perceive time differently. We also all collectively feel and see time differently than people centuries ago. They weren’t slaves to their watches or the smart phone glow. Life was certainly less convenient, but in many ways, it was slower.
The chapter on rest (something I could improve) captivated me the most. It detailed that so much of our current Western work ethic and pace comes from the Calvinist merchants and tradesmen who were relentless in trying to prove to each other that they were God’s chosen for salvation. Not even kidding. Our zany overwork in many ways stems from a misguided perception of religion (no offense to the Calvinist brothers and sisters). The Calvinist way is contrasted with the concept of the Sabbath found in scripture. Sabbath was (and is) a radical concept. Sabbath is for everyone, including the slave/servant. Once Friday sundown rolls around, you cease– you have done enough, as the writer says.
I have been reflecting on this. Do I live like a Calvinist capitalist or like the Sabbath keeper I want to be? I am pretty sure God would prefer the version of me that stops and knows I have done enough. My worth is attached to who He says I am. I am enough. God has the rest. Figuring that out. There is so much we need to keep growing in, as humans. Life is such a journey.
This month was tough. It had wonderful bright spots as well. I went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade and explored the most beautiful town that made me dream again. That sparked something in me. I am grateful for that.
How was your month?
This month’s top post was A Thought About Pace.
Quotes
“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” Octavia E. Butler
“Small things matter when they accumulate. This is one of the main lessons of my work—and one of the principles I try to follow in my life. The details, when finely polished and carefully combined, add up to something remarkable.” James Clear
“Bold-hearted men are always called mean-spirited by cowards.” Charles Spurgeon
“People be so mad when they leave you for dead and you don’t die.” Lisa Rinna
“We trust that our next breath is there. Let’s begin to trust that other things will be there for us, also.” Louise L. Hay
“All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.” Richard Rohr
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” Voltaire
“It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“I wish I were a girl again– half-savage and hardy and free.” Emily Bronte
“Do not spoil the wonder with haste.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“In order to do what God has called you to do, you’ll need faith, courage, resilience, tenacity, determination, commitment, strength, hope and love. Running the race and finishing the course is not for the faint of heart. You will face obstacles, challenges, resistance, temptations, disappointments, pain, suffering and heartache, but Jesus is worth it. The call is worth it. The adventure is worth it. The reward is worth it. We only have one life, don’t squander it on stuff that doesn’t matter. Sow your life into your God given purpose and you’ll reap eternal rewards. There’s no greater joy than doing what you’ve been called to do for the glory of the One who called you.” Christine Caine
“Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest on reciprocity.” C.S. Lewis
“There’s some good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“If you wake up feeling fragile, remember that God is not, and then trust Him to be everything you need today.” C.S. Lewis
“I’m 14, at the beach in my hometown, feeling like ‘whatever’ it so boring, who cares really? And then this woman ran out onto the sand and exclaimed ‘It’s the ocean!’ I ask ‘what?’ ‘I grew up in Colorado. I’ve never seen the ocean. My God! There’s so much water; tears began to stream down her face and I thought ‘we’re on the same beach, but mine is boring and hers is beautiful and if I have to choose … I’d rather be in on her beach’ as she walked away continuing to exclaim about palm trees and coconuts I thought about how easily time makes us numb to beauty and how I didn’t want to live that way anymore. For the rest of my childhood, the beach was very different.”- David Holz, Midjourney
“Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.” D.L. Moody
“Beauty is divine– because in its absence life is too short, too dismal and too tragic. […] Beauty leads you back to what you have lost. Beauty reminds you of what remains forever immune to cynicism.” Jordan B. Peterson
“Go for freedom. Freedom allows you to control what you work on. If you control what you work on, then you can work on what you love. If you love it, you will do it for a long time. If you do it for a long time, you will get really good at it. Money will come as a result.” – Sam Zell
“Rest is not a luxury, afterthought, or feature of entertainment. It is an essential, holy aspect of life as it was meant to be.” Alabaster, Towards Rest
“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardship.” Helen Keller
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” Maya Angelou
“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.” William Blake
“I just think it’s so f***ing crazy that there have been thousands of uncommonly successful people throughout history and we have so much information about how they did what they did, and yet we hardly seem to devote much in terms of time and resources into reverse-engineering them so that we can birth more ‘exceptional’ ‘geniuses’ into the world and have them solve our biggest problems for us. But I’ve come to understand why that is. It’s because being ‘exceptional’ is scary. Greatness is by definition deviance, and deviance makes people uncomfortable.” – Visakan Veerasamy
“Heat and pressure transform the base matter of common coal into the crystalline perfection and rare value of the diamond. The same can be said of a person.” (I think Jordan B Peterson)
“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” Zora Neale Hurston (Her writing always makes me miss Florida).
“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it– basically because you feel good, very good when you are near or with them.” Charles Bukowski
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” E.B. White
“Have stories to tell not stuff to show.” Cara Alwill Leyba
“To love a person is to see all their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten.” Unknown
“Accept what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.”
“Remember: you will laugh again. You will feel beautiful again. You will fall in love again. You will have hope again. You will feel empowered again. You will feel healthy again. You will feel good again. You will be yourself again. Maybe even better.” Cara Alwill Leyba
“The light has gone out of my life.” Theodore Roosevelt, February 14, 1884
“It’s impossible to have a healthy mutual relationship with any person or organization who is willing to lie and does not live in attachment to truth.” Psalm 82 Initiative
“Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.” Albert Einstein
“All sorrows are less with bread.” Miguel de Cervantes
“When poisons become fashionable, they do not cease to kill.” C.S. Lewis
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes. Including you.” Anne Lamott
“Confidence is a side effect of capability. It follows action, not affirmations. The actions, themselves, also matter. You don’t build confidence via standarized tests, Tik-Toks & hours of gaming. Do hard things in the real world. Fail. Get up. Confidence will follow.” Matt Beaudreau
“When a flower grows wild it can always survive. Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.” Dolly Parton
“Courage is found in unlikely places.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“No university turns out a Shakespeare, a Dickens, a Bernard Shaw, a Newton, or an Einstein, a Beethoven or a Mozart. It is their own lives and their own natures that give such men the extra and original something which we call genius, and which raises them above their fellows to the enrichment of us all.” C.G.L. Du Cann
“It’s the ones that are against you that believe in your power the most.” Chervin Jafarieh
Stuff
Culture & Vision by Steven Pressfield
What to do with self-doubt by Steven Pressfield
10 Ideas to Rethink and Reduce Stress-Intelligent Change
The Fall of Harry and Meghan, Inc.
People I am Intrigued By
Steven Pressfield
Karen Wazen
July begins. A new 90 days begins. I am making plans to have less plans. I just want to sort of sit in the dirt and run my hands through it. That is where I am at. I want to keep dreaming and plotting how to make dreams reality. Anything is possible with a little rest, slower pace and fun. Don’t forget to dream this month. Think of who you want to be, and be that person every day. One day at a time is all we can do. The rest isn’t promised.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 