With gratitude for this intentional community
We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race. –Cicero As this third year of 37days ends, I’ve spent this last week reading again the comments left on this site in 2007—and visiting the websites of their authors, as well as …
N is for now
“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 …
O is for order
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” – Flaubert In 2008, I’m going to keep all the scotch tape in my house in one drawer. A few months ago, I was slated for an important meeting with someone in …
P is for positive intent
"Look to their positive intent, especially when they appear to have none." -Kare Anderson In 2008, I am going to assume positive intent. Assuming positive intent isn’t a new concept, but I think it has far-ranging implications. The conversation changes and opens up when we assume positive intent. It has …
Q is for quivering
"Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age." – George Sand In 2008, I’m going to quiver more right here at home. Oh, my. Talking with the former poet laureate of the United States is a fine (if nerve wracking and completely terrifying and rattling) …
Three Billys and two Johnnys
As if the leaves from London weren’t enough. As if getting hotel clerks all over the world to paint pictures of flowers for me to receive on my arrival wasn’t enough. As if making lunches for my pregnant self and sending them by courier across D.C. to my office in …
R is for remember
Christmas Day is my father’s birthday. His death at fifty-three in 1980 is the fulcrum around which my life moves. Or perhaps that’s not exactly it. Perhaps it is a rivet on which things hinge. No, a grommet through which everything else is laced? Yes, since that would imply a …
S is for show up like magic
In 2008, I’m going to show up. Like magic. There are a handful of blogs I go to first when I see they’ve been updated in my bloglines reader. One is Dave Pollard’s "How to Save the World." This week, he pointed his readers to a blog entry by Jan …
T is for thirty-seven
Live ever in a new day. – Ralph Waldo Emerson In 2008, I’m going to live each day as if I only had 37 days left. Really. I’m going to wake up every morning and ask myself this question before I drink my lavender earl grey tea or brush my …
U is for unlearn
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.” –Gloria Steinem In 2008, I will focus on unlearning rather than learning. Suzuki Roshi said in the prologue to Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, "In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in …
