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My Little Spacebook celebrates a decade of the pretty things unfolding wings and every sweet flirtation with the blushing rose.
chasing butterflies
Mystic River Dance – Dance of the Butterflies
Mystic River Dance presented this dance in the show “Nature’s Rhythms” (February 2019, Memphis, TN).
Music: Adagio by Secret Garden
Choreography: Feyrouz (Julia Oller)
Dancers: Mystic River Dance
Butterfly wings by DOR (Dorota Pracownia)
butterfly
Over the course of the last several weeks, in order to remain a functional human being, I’ve had to put myself on a strict media diet and step away from the computer, the Internet, and what Abha Dawesar refers to as the “digital now.” The analog here-and-now, with its bicycles, trees, rivers, paper, pens, and printed words on actual pages in books with heft and texture and scent, has been grounding. There I spent time self-soothing with the words of Mr. Rogers:
“The media shows the tiniest percentage of what people do. There are millions and millions of people doing wonderful things all over the world and they’re generally not the ones being touted in the news.”
Like many others this year, I’ve found myself in new and uncomfortable roles with my regular routines disrupted as a result of the pandemic. Though not dubbed “essential” in any official capacity, staying home has not been an option. I have been out and about throughout the quarantine on a near daily. In the last three months I’ve made more trips to various hospitals and clinics than I have in the previous four decades of my life combined – and that includes the time I spent interning in one. I’ve seen for myself that there are many people doing wonderful things right here in my own city.
“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have – something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”
–Fred Rogers
Coming off my blog hiatus I discovered that My Little Spacebook turned 10 years old this week. One decade and 542 posts later and I’m no closer to understanding anything that’s happened. As such, this seems an opportune time to drill down and do some retrospective and reflective work to figure out what exactly I’m doing here; with this blog, I mean.
I will say, the media diet has made more space for silence and wonder, for creation, and for appreciation of beauty. I think Mr. Rogers would be proud.
“Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence…And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.”
–Fred Rogers
And the answer to the cake question is a resounding, “Yes.”
It’s hard to say what I loved most about the book. Harris has an excellent command of English, and knows how to weave a story that is funny, smart, and moving. I enjoyed the “behind the scenes” stories about coworkers Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer and well as his skeptical views on various religious leaders he has met and interviewed. I smiled at the thought of the ambitious TV reporter and skeptic who found in meditation a practice that works as a way to live more happily and comfortably in his own skin. I appreciate that he’s extolling the benefits of meditating. There is so much good here.
If you too have jumped on the positive psychology bandwagon, this is a fun and informative book to take along on the ride. If you’ve already read it you might also enjoy:
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
An Open Heart
The Power of Now
The Lost Art of Compassion
Breaking News!!
Meet the newest duck on the block!
So far this little one, we’ll call it Penguin, is the only one hatched.
If you missed the last batch of duckling tales you can find the posts here:
My Little Spacebook 