Category Archives: Justine Musk

#Reverb12: Day 8

2 Replies

reverb12

Okay, I knew this had to happen eventually: today a few of the prompts have started to repeat, to overlap. From Carolyn Rubenstein’s Reverb11 list, “Limits: We often learn about our limits the hard way. Were there any limits you realized this past year? Alternately, what self-imposed limits were you able to move beyond this year?” I answered this one already on Day Two.

Art

The full prompt: What was the most moving piece of art that you saw/experienced this year? This could mean a painting or a sculpture, or a performance you took in, or even a book that you read – tell us about the kind of art you encountered, and the way that it moved you.

The most moving piece of art I saw this year was original artwork made just for me by Mary Anne Radmacher. It wasn’t only the art (which is gorgeous, so precious) but the cycle of compassion it was part of, proof of the power of kindness and love and creativity. I wrote about it the day it arrived.

peacedream

Reading

There are two prompts for today that are almost exactly alike. The first prompt: What has been your favourite book or blog or magazine you’ve read this year? (Author: Carolyn Rubenstein), and the second prompt: Your favourite book? What was the best book you read in 2012, and why? (And by “Why?” I mean: Why did you read it? And why was it your favourite? Although these answers could be one and the same…!).

P.S. I think it is utterly adorable that the two prompts that overlapped are from places where it’s a “favourite” book, rather than a favorite.

I already wrote about books on Reverb12 Day Five. So, instead I’ll share some of my favorite blogs that I followed this year, (most of these are in addition to the list I shared in this post).

  • Ken and Paper. I especially love his “Meet Ken” page because except for the part about being divorced and a man, we have the same story.
  • I Saw You Dancing. Kat is hosting the main Reverb12 that I’m following, and that was initially how I first found her blog, so I’ve only just started reading, but I am really enjoying it. We seem to have a lot in common.
  • Justine Musk. I may have been reading her blog for more than a year now, but she continues to regularly inspire and encourage me, saying things I would never dare to say but that I so need to hear.
  • Be More With Less by Courtney Carver, who is a complete badass. I told her so when I got to meet her this summer. She consistently writes things that make me want to live a simpler, better life, and she makes that seem absolutely possible.
  • The Daily Breadcrumb by Sunni Chapman. Time and time again she writes the kind of wisdom that snaps me wide awake, breaks me open. She is kind and generous, she is powerful and wicked wise, she is a ray of light and love wrapped in human skin.

P.S. I got distracted by one of the dogs when writing this post, (I can’t tell you how many times this happens, mostly because I’ve lost count), and forgot one of the blogs I wanted to share.

  • 3x3x365, a blog co-authored by Patti Digh, Kathryn Schuth, and Amy McCracken (Amy is one of my new most favorite people), “Three friends in three states share one photo every day.” The stories these women share are so beautiful, sometimes simple and sometimes incredibly complicated, but always touching and precious.

Something Good

2 Replies

1. Rueben Is Just Right, a sweet rescue story.

2. This quote: Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
~Zora Neale Hurston

3. My 3 Fave Ways to Celebrate in under 10 Minutes by Sherry Richert Belul on Cherry Blossom Soup. And also from Sherry, The NEW Black Friday: Make Love Lists Not Shopping Lists!

4. A Dog’s Lessons on Mindfulness on Positively Present.

5. Two from Justine Musk, You Were Born to Be a Badass in which she says “But the first step, as Greene points out, is inward: a turning away from the voices that urge conformity, toward the truth of who you are at core,” and How to Start Creating Your Blog Community, which really has me thinking about what great work we could do together, kind and gentle reader.

6. Some Thoughts and Musings about Making Things for the Web from the Oatmeal.

7. This Black Friday video from The Story of Stuff should explain why I’ll be staying home.

8. Least Likely to be Adopted Dog Pound Portraits, so good that they were all adopted.

9. Jive at the Age of 2, this kid has mad skills.

10. Las Palmas the movie is finally available, only $1.99 to download.

11. The Wonder of Thresholds from Jen Louden, with the extra special bonus of an audio chat with Rachel Cole.

12. The Soul-Shaking Practice of Surrender by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. Anybody remember a something good list that didn’t have something from Courtney on it?! Yeah, me neither.

13. Get Campie, online vintage camper parade.

14. Judy Clement Wall’s new site is done!!!!!! More doodles, even more love! Reason #115 why I love her.

15. Be More by Doing Less: Removing the Distraction of Busyness and When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed: Create a To-Live List on Tiny Buddha.

16. Wicked Awesome Quotes, a new site from Cigdem Kobu. I pretty much love everything she does, because she’s completely amazing.

17. And yet, the morning comes, the most amazing post from Lisa Bonchek Adams, who recently discovered her breast cancer was back, had metastasized. She ends this post with “I’m still processing. Reeling. But while I’m doing that I’m living.” She is so amazing.

18. This quote from Tulku Thondup:

For healing, it is important to have inspiration. A hopeful and inspired feeling generates enthusiasm, trust, and openness and makes it easier for us to meditate. However, we should not obsess about the meditation experience or have rigid expectations about what should happen. Grasping after results will only become a tourniquet that tightens our mental and physical energies.

19. This quote from Tara Brach, her new book True Refuge:

In the Buddhist teachings, the conscious recognition of our heart’s deepest longing is called wise aspiration. Yours might be for spiritual realization, for loving more fully, for knowing truth, for finding peace. Whatever its flavor, the awareness of what you care about energizes and guides your practice.

20. SoulPancake: Find Peace in the Zen Den. I love the looks on these people’s faces as they step inside, and the woman who says “I’m not finished yet. I can keep going.”

21. Eleanor Roosevelt on Happiness, Conformity, and Integrity on Brain Pickings. My favorite part is this:

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: “A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.”

But there is another basic requirement, and I can’t understand now how I forgot it at the time: that is the feeling that you are, in some way, useful. Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat and the privilege of being alive. And it is its own reward, as well, for it is the beginning of happiness, just as self-pity and withdrawal from the battle are the beginning of misery.

22. Cupcakes for control—A healthy strategy for weight management, from Drop It and Eat: Drop the Diet, Manage Your Weight. This makes so much sense to me.

23. This:

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

24. Don’t Wait from Julia on Painted Path. If you have it to spare, send sweet Julia some love and comfort.

25. I’ve started telling my daughters I’m beautiful. Even those of us who aren’t moms should start doing this, start believing this, for the daughters of the world, for ourselves.

26. This quote, from Cheri Huber:

Those of us who have the awareness, the sensitivity, the great privilege–all the things necessary to awaken and end suffering in this lifetime–need to take that opportunity very, very seriously. As the Buddha pointed out, we never know when such an opportunity will arise again.

27. Stay in the Moment with the TAP Method by Dani, the author of the Positively Present blog.