Thursday 15 May 2008

Sun, shade


A lot of shade. Working most of the time and not very happy about it. Acutely aware, because of the Mindfulness stuff, of how tired I often feel - and so soon after the long break!

Meantime, in odd moments, pursuing, losing and returning to a stream of thought that might turn out to be a blogpost much less narrowly self-absorbed. And thinking that, despite it all, even on bad days, the time I spend at work in the company of intellectuals and at leisure browsing the Internet both bring gifts. For a long time what I most looked for on line was emotion, creativity, community - and I still seek these, and continue to encounter and hugely value them. Lately, though, I find myself gravitating to slightly broader and more intellectual resources, looking, just tentatively, at psychology, philosophy, excited by the connections that pop up, the light shed on my own experience by what I hear and read. Heartening, really, that my mind in it's 54th year still seems sporadically inclined to venture shyly into new territory, or new approaches, at least, to long-term preoccupations.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And almost simultaneously elsewhere in the river we have this :-)

Jean said...

Ha. I forgive Norman Fischer only because he's a Zen master and a poet, so I trust his interpretation of work to be pretty wide!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I too just came from reading that Fischer quote and then reading this, Jean! Lovely photos, I love the contrast of plant life and rock, like the softness of us humans and our joys and sorrows, against the hardness and seeming solidness of the earth, or something like that. I'm a firm believer in life-long learning, creativity, connections - isn't the net wonderful in giving us this?

Anonymous said...

"Heartening, really, that my mind in it's 54th year still seems sporadically inclined to venture shyly into new territory, or new approaches..." - quotes like this make me so look forward to each passing decade - that the learning and yearning and seeking new things need never stop.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post, Jean. I love the Work slant too.

Zhoen said...

This is why I love the Fortean Times. Always out on the edges.

MB said...

There's something admirable about that soft and delicately beautiful plant tenaciously holding on under harsh and changeable conditions. :-)