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Rebellion! Doing things for their own sake.
How do you decide, of all the infinite things you could be doing, what you should do? What if… you just did things you wanted to do?
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Your (My) True Calling
I had so much success with last year’s projects prompted by Quest 2016, that I’ve decided to do it again. Join us at http://quest2017.com. Today’s prompt is from Krista Tippett (1). As the host of On Being, she challenges us regularly to consider the mysteries of human existence. “What is your vocation, your sense of callings…
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Poem: Hidden Knowledge
Hidden Knowledge In a clearing in the woods On a cliff overlooking the ocean In a cave in the mountains Someone waits. She has the answer you seek, In the hut, In the cottage, In the cave You would not notice her If you passed her in the street. She has mastered the art of…
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Dancing into the Future
I don’t know what comes next. I mean, I really have no idea what I’m going to do. There will be things that I’ve started (raising kids, building the greenhouse, making the beer) that need finishing. (And by “finishing,” I mean, “continued commitment over a period of days-to-months-to-years-to-TheRestOfMyLife without which all previous effort is wasted”) …
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After Loch Ness
I read a short story this week about an utterly conventional and dull fellow who found himself hiking in the “wilds of Scotland” (his complaint, having been forced to go for a walk by his new wife while on their winter honeymoon). At the end of the story, while watching the sun set, they see…
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We Are the Story Keepers
We are the story keepers. When I talk about story, I refer to the lines of meaning, the patterns of the universe that are perpetuated by the telling and retelling. As the conscious manifestations of the local area, we are the intentional tellers of stories. But we get it backwards, because we forget that we…
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Entering the Fallow Time
It is a blustery day in Cape Breton. The river is dark and capped with waves, the sky is dark and a not-quite uniform grey. The leaves are starting to turn, and we are down to the final few days in the garden, in a race to get the greenhouse covered before it is Too…
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Thinking about Thinking
You might not be surprised to hear that I’m big on metacognition. It’s one of my things. It might actually be my thing. I have struggled with this, because in the academic world I was brought up in, one does not become an expert in process, one becomes an expert in object. The topics in…
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Trust30 – Your Personal Message
What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say? Stop. Take a deep breath. Listen deep inside. All this frantic rushing about isn’t getting you anywhere. You don’t have to be “important” to matter. You have a story to tell.…
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The Story That Needs Telling
I signed up for the Trust30 writing prompts for the month of June. The first prompt was this: “We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. – Ralph Waldo Emerson You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.…
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Closets, Comma, Organizing Of
Of course, whenever I say that I have nothing to say on a subject, I immediately think of something to say. I’m like that. (I was going to add an “organizing” tag, but it made me laugh too hard. Let’s not go there, right?) Regarding closets, organizing of (as opposed to closets, getting out of,…
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The Mouths of Babes
It has been a strange week in the world of The Dilettante, and my writing has suffered as a result. On the other hand, I had a chance to reconnect with old friends, eat fabulous restaurant food, and revel in one of the great luxuries of our day, a weekend in the city. Upon returning…
