Getting Started Here

[gibranx]

Morning Journal: Day 1

Life is what you habitually practice. I know this to be true. And I have an obsession with practice. The underside of this obsession is frustration. I am often frustrated when my ambition to practice does not match my actual practice. I have conducted endless experiments. Some more successful than others.

Today I’m launching my latest effort.

The folks at Habit Nest made a beautiful “Morning Sidekick Journal” and I’m taking it for a ride. In my experience, when I win my mornings I win the day. My morning routine sets me up for success and well being.

Even now, as I write, I am experiencing all the good energy that comes from an awesome morning routine.

It is well known that we are much more likely to successfully build (or quit) a habit when we add public accountability to it. I’m going to keep coming back to this space to let you know how I’m doing. My goal is to track 60 days. Feel free to join me at any point in the process.

We can only teach what we have already learned. Once I figure this out, I’ll be sure to share what I’m learning.

Here is the routine I want to build:

Wake up by 5:30 and take a cold shower

Morning Pages

Prime

Meditate (not always in the morning)

Exercise

Wish me luck!

[supersonicart]

Ozabu’s “Wander” at Thinkspace Gallery.

Currently on view in Culver City, California’s Thinkspace Gallery Project Room is Japanese artist Ozabu’s phenomenal solo exhibition “Wander.”

The immense detail of Ozabu’s illustrations is incapable of being displayed on a screen.  These works of art must be seen in person as her wondrous abilities allow for some of the most precise drawing I’ve ever had the luck - not sure that that word truly describes the level of chance - of coming across.  So, if you’re in the Los Angeles vicinity, or you feel like going on a whim definitely stop by to see her work.

“Wander” will be on display until October 8th, 2016.

[curioos-arts]

Martín Azambuja @MAz_martin #viaCurioos

[gibranx]

Abuelo’s Wisdom

We sometimes relegate meaning to cliche. But I have to tell you that there are few things as powerful and meaningful as a connecting with your elders. I am so blessed to have my Abuelo and his wisdom. Every conversation with him is download of knowledge, it is the truth of lived experience, not the theory of belief.

During today’s brief phone call he transmitted the power of the central choice of his life, more than 50 years ago he decided that he would live one day at a time. And that is what he has done. He says he still plans for tomorrow, in case it comes, but he never loses perspective on today. He pointed out the limitations of living a life of complaint, whether it be about the aches of old age or just the habit so many of us have of complaining about others.

I am always blown away by his commitment to self-reflection and self-improvement. He is 90 years old and he has found no reason to stop becoming a better human. He reflects on his failures and his faults but never as a way to get caught up. He talked about making amends, and how important it is to do so, specifically for the person making the amends. He says we can’t control how others will react or whether they will forgive us, but we must always aim to make things right.

He railed against colonialism, political manipulation, fake leaders and the importance of calling out the most powerful nation in the world for calling itself a democracy while depriving a people of their freedom.

He asked about my family’s well being, about my son and about my dad, and he reminded me to call my aunt, who recently broke her ankle.

Honor your elders, listen to them, they hold the wealth that matters.

[wasbella102]

[supersonicart]

Amy Spassov, Paintings.

Gorgeous paintings by Seattle, Washington based artist Amy Spassov who uses beautiful depictions of flowers and fruit to depict the human body.

Please continue below to see more work by Amy:

Keep reading

[nobrashfestivity]

Henri Matisse, La Danse, 1909 and 1910

[explore-blog]

Richard Feynman (b. May 11, 1918) on good, evil, and the Zen of science. 

[explore-blog]

Art has no purpose, except the transformation of human experience.

Debbie Millman’s wonderful interview with legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser. 

Also see Glaser on art, technology, and the secret of life, then revisit William Faulkner on the purpose of art. 

(via explore-blog)

[melisaki]

Tibetan Girl

oil on canvas by Ai Xuan, 1991

[explore-blog]

Rebecca Solnit’s beautiful meditation on our good reasons for hope in these badly dispiriting times. 

[explore-blog]

Why Love Hurts – fascinating read on how our social institutions, rather than our personal psychological failings, shape the romantic agony of modern life.

[stoweboyd]

Hope is not a utopian dream. You have to stand up and work for it.

John Murphy, cited by Elizabeth Bernstein in An Emotion We All Need More of

Hope is a muscle, not a mood.

(via stoweboyd)

[stoweboyd]

Organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

Melvin Conway

(via stoweboyd)

[supersonicart]

Palma Blank, Paintings of Energy.

Artist Palma Blank seeks to create visual entities of purely charged energy in her striking, gorgeous paintings.

From her website: “Paintings are conjured using color and compositional strategies to create perceptual experiences of charged energy. In the most recent work, color is optically mixed using an algorithm consisting of 4 colors: fluorescent GREY, BLACK, fluorescent RED, AND LIGHT fluorescent GREEN. Combined through a 4-layer system of diagonal stripes and bisecting darts. Affected by the angle of view and shifts in lighting; each variation exists in flux to formulate new ranges of color, temperature, speed and depth of field.”

Amazing.  Continue below to see more!

Keep reading

[parabola-magazine]

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” —Mary Oliver, an astonishing poet and frequent contributor to Parabola Magazine.

[via-appia]

Marble statue of Aphrodite, the Venus Genetrix, copy of Greek bronze statue attributed to Kallimachos (late 5th century B.C.)

Roman, 1st–2nd century A.D.