Get your feet wet with a little Zen reading.
“Without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself as you are in the most important thing.”
–Shunryn Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Preheat to whatever and cook up a batch of something yummy. What is it about the process of measuring, pouring, and mixing that makes this crazy world seem manageable somehow? And in the end, with my life’s purpose still so fuzzy, the basic act of feeding people makes me feel useful.
Sit back and watch the video for “The Littlest Birds” by the band of vixens known as The Be Good Tanyas. Soak up the New Orleans vibe until you’re inspired to help the struggling city out. (Click here to find ways to donate.)
Singin these blues with a warble and a trill
But I’m not too blue to fly….
Listen to “Jump” by Van Halen. That’s right, you heard me … crank it up, whether it’s on your iPod, warped old record player, or car stereo at full blast.
Get yourself to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and brace yourself for the transformative Anselm Kiefer exhibition. Sit in front of Osiris and Isis ( … all 150 in. x 220 1/2 in. x 6 1/2 in. of it …!) and wonder how something that appears to be Machu Picchu melting into a giant waxy pile can be so damned intriguing.
Make the dreadful sights and smells of a city bus ride go poof! in just moments by sticking your face in a copy of this season’s Ploughshares. Make sure to save Pam Houston’s story for the stretch of McAllister St. that runs between Divisadero and Van Ness.
Lose yourself in the multicolored aisles of a produce market, and sample something fabulous, like a watermelon-radish or a ripe pomegranate.
Read “Renascence” by the plucky Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.
i love the be good tanyas!