How to Find the Work You Love
“The quest for work you love – it all begins with the two simple questions: Who am I? and What in the world am I doing here?”
- Laurence G. Boldt in How to Find the Work You Love
Ah, yes – the “simple” questions. Right up there with “Want fries with that?” – “What is my purpose on this earth?”
Who are you? Want fries with that?
I don’t know my purpose just yet, but I figure the best way to find it is by living mindfully. For me, that means striving to align my external existence with my inner one. Whenever I feel like something in my external life is hollow – that I’m just going through the motions with it – I know it’s time to make a change, large or small. (more…)
Visiting Coney Island
Today I took the subway to the ocean – Coney Island, to be exact, which is equal parts seaside playground and altar to kitsch.
Here’s what I saw:
I also took this video – I like it better as a soundscape… close your eyes and just listen:
Antidote
The aesthetic details at Cienfuegos: one of many things that inspired me this week
As an antedote to yesterday’s post – not to nullify it, only to surround it with other things that are also true in my life right now (good old “yes, and”) – I offer up this jumbled list of things that have inspired me in the past week:
- Poetry by Billy Collins
- The latest issue of HOW Design (thanks, @dloehr)
- Stinky, a beautiful food shop in Brooklyn full of beautiful things
- My friends – their strength and grace and humor and spark
- Party Down – good comedy
- Peonies
- Hydrangeas
- My parents’ photos from their trip to Europe – the gardens in southern France, the vistas in Spain
- Defying Gravity
- The beautiful decor and attention to aesthetic detail at Cienfuegos, where we drank pink rum punch served from a shiny silver bowl
- Photos of brownstone apartments
- Volunteers who are helping clean up the BP oil spill
- The “Tweets of Old” Twitter feed – so simple and creative
- Jonsi
- The Artist’s Way – paging through it for inspiration
- And so much more
What inspired you this week?
My Version of a Prayer
“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” – Joseph Campbell
I know old Joey Campbell is right. And I know the challenges I’m facing are nothing compared to what people are experiencing all around the world, this very minute, from the gulf coast to Iraq to the projects just a few blocks away from me.
But I’m only me, and Universe, I’m ready for a breakthrough. I’m ready for a quiet night of sleep. I’m ready for the city of New York to shut the f*ck up for a minute. Can you do that for me, Universe?
I feel it’s emblematic of my week that last night, I went to a meditation class – more like dragged myself, I was so tired – and a rock band was rehearsing directly on the other side of a thin wall. (more…)
The City Reliquary
Last weekend I visited the City Reliquary, a non-profit community organization and “museum” (more like a couple of rooms in an old building) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn:
The Reliquary showcases artifacts of New York City, from old seltzer bottles to the original Metrocard, to newspaper articles about burlesque shows (more…)
