I just had a moment of synchronicity. I was listening to my 14-year-old son play piano in the other room. It was a beautiful piece, and I wondered what it was. I was on my phon, and I noticed your Substack book marked from a few months ago. I clicked on it, was intrigued by the question, and clicked on the link. I discovered that the song my son was playing at that moment was Handel’s Passacaglia.🙏🏻
I care about all of humanity, all creatures on this planet, all of nature. I find myself wanting to fix all the problems, because seeing how things are these days causes me grief. I don't like to see suffering. I don't like to see our planet being ruined, animals becoming extinct. It hurts my soul.
I sit at the intersection of this beautiful music and the words of Khalil Gibran in The Prophet, both of which I discovered this week while tending to my parents in the midst of my mother’s decline. Thank you, Susan, for bringing to our attention Monk Abel and his generosity of spirit and his achingly sweet musical gifts - they reflect what it means to care for an ailing parent and the deep pain of grief. The perfect accompaniment to the wisdom imparted from
a 100+ year old collection of essays that read like scripture, which I found in the library of my childhood home and am reading for the first time. All of this I care deeply for - family, memories, nostalgia, the written word, music that moves me, the natural world, animals, the little things, moments of beauty.
I care about my legacy, what I leave behind. I have no children, however I have nieces and a nephew whom I love and care for as if they were my children.
I think about nature. The plants, trees and animals I share this world with. What part can I play, however small to protect nature's wonders?
My urge to do something is strong. It has led me to start a course in Horticulture. I want to arm myself with knowledge and pass it on to those younger than myself.
They will be the custodians of the earth when I'm gone. Donating to organisations that protect the world's plants, animals and oceans is one way of doing it, however it's not enough for me. I need to be proactive.
I currently work in Early Childhood Education (Day Care). I see myself combining this experience with my studies in Horticulture to teach in Kindergartens. What better way to instill knowledge in younger generations. How exciting! 😊
Music, poetry and nature are thin places for me, so I make time for them. I’ve noticed, however, that the special sense of connectedness that I experience in these moments is part of the everyday if I but take time to notice, even in unpleasant encounters. Perhaps that is because the practice of connecting makes it easier to put myself in the shoes of another. It’s as if there were a cloak of invisibility between the beautiful and the broken hiding the connection between them and that cloak is now slowly lifting.
Its an interesting question - I think some experiences make us think (and care) a lot about the values that drive our beliefs. These values are important to be in balance and harmony with ourselves. Similarly respecting other's values with understanding is important be in harmony with the world ( so hard !)
My connection to people, both those I know and cherish, and those I don't know at all. I find it helps me bring intention to my actions, both big and small, and when I consider not just myself, but also what impact those choices may have on others. I can't always know and predict what those impacts will be, but by centering a consideration for others, it does help me be more kind, even on days when I may not think have the energy to do so.
I also value time in nature, time listening to music - those times are when I most frequently bump into my own "thin places".
As far as what do you truly care about? That's a difficult question as the things I care about are things I'm powerless to change. Maybe most people feel that way about life in the 21st century. However, I do have a fridge magnet from Mercy Ships that has a young girl with a large growth on her neck. If you change the angle that you look from you see the girl after she had surgery with a smile on her face and the words "because of you" appear. What I really care about most are people, human beings...
I had a seminar with an Industrial Psychologist who stated that people generally relate to things (machines) or to people. I've worked my whole life relating to machines when I really relate to people and what I care most about is people. The square peg and the round whole, etc. And it really drains the well. Not the best way to go through life.
RE: the thin places. Music is definitely a way for me to have a transcendent experience, especially live music. I throw in a CD of Bach's The Art of the Fugue played by Emerson String Quartet who've been playing together for 60 years. I close my eyes and the sound, the notes dance in the middle of the room, the mathematical precision of the piece is brilliant! Then 2024 was a year I explored Jazz and I listen to Kinda' Blue, the mother of all Jazz records. Periods of deep meditation are that way as well...
Another way form me to experience the thin places is the natural world in solitude. Listening to the quiet, ocean waves, feeling the waves brings me to an indescribable stillness immediately. A photographer took a series of photos of London during the Blue Light period of the day (2AM to sunrise). I worked a job where I had to be to work at 2:30AM and I walked out into the parking lot and the blue light period gives me a sense of awe. The same is true of twilight periods of the day, sunrise and sunset. When I lived in the Midwest I would drive outside the metro into the fields about an hour before sunrise, have a hot cup of coffee and take it all in. Really a great experience in Winter -- cold but inspiring...
Lady, I am curious if you know about the research of the Japenese dr. Masaru Emoto? When I learned about it for the first time I was in Awe (with a capital A :)). It opened a door through which I found answers to one of the life questions I had; How can it be that spoken words and unspoken thoughts can hurt and determine the atmosphere or heal and vitalize life.
It also gives an answer to how we are influenced by music.
In this “dark night of the soul” for humanity, I truly and deeply care about the soul of mankind, that has perhaps always found its renewal or sustenance in the most deeply embodied practices of caring in community: soul made visible in community (or collective “thin spaces”).
In accord I deeply care about those listening for the depth of the spirit: “when I watch you dance and see your energy; I feel my energy reflected in you: and that builds my energy.” — an Oakland Lake Merritt drum circle drummer to me, articulating the power of the spiritual, felt essence of harmonizing reciprocal attunement that seems perhaps humanity’s natural and original (and most important) technology for healing, creativity, civilization, and renewal.
Ty for the piano video. I used to fall asleep to my beloved mother (an equally talented pianist, and a person of infinite patience, care, and love) since well before my birth; setting me on a path in music — but also movement, dance, sciences, entrepreneurship and creativity of all types: today with discoveries (include science breakthroughs) at the intersection of the arts & sciences of harmonization.
This morning on waking I thought of the needed connection between creativity, leadership-in-creativity and the emergent practical expressions of an awakening vision of a consciously renewed confluence of the hemisphere of arts & sciences, right- & left-brained modes of action, grace/caring & strength/power (together with the creativity gap in leadership today, a known cyclic phenomena in the progression of cycles of civilization, … knowing there would be at least some people seeing and decrying this gap); then asking a famous AI: “who has written about this creativity gap in leadership?, finding a three-year-old industry paper by Deloitte: “Filling the Creativity Gap” (Nov. 2022). I asked the AI who the authors were and what they were doing today: then read for the first time of you, Susan — “
Susan Cain
Writer, speaker, thought leader (especially on introversion, creativity)
She continues to write, speak, and run Quiet Revolution, etc.”
I shared with the AI how this person stood out to me as resonant with my work on listening-into-creation a global coherence incubation / incubators project that focuses on deepening and renewing human embodied listening in community — linking that to a systems arts and sciences of harmonization global collaboratory to help heal the hemispheres, so to help bring humanity back into true.
Then I searched to see if your continued life energy, Susan, was continuing to focus on the things most important … which I felt fairly sure on reading of your Quiet Revolution theme that it would be doing.
And with this video and question shared here you brought me back to the living room of the home of my youth and my mother’s masterfully heartfelt music that everlastingly lives in my heart, with my mother’s soul spark that has never left me (which constantly fuels this work) .. and that it appears never left another unchanged by her universally and continually expressed love: so thank you, and thanks for BEING you 🙏🏽 and would love to be in contact should you be interested (my name @ gmail).
It was thrilling to read this, Reed, thank you. The idea of this music delivering you back to your mother's arms gave me goosebumps. (I'm not sure if you're a member yet of Quiet Life but hope you'll join us!)
Thank you for this question. Care seems to be the word in this question to contemplate. To care, to hold dear without restraint, to readily and willingly embrace in all circumstances, yet there is more to contemplate about care. I care about my family - my husband and my daughter - our love, our collective and individual well being, our unity of heart. I care about my faith and the unity of my soul with God that I seek to nourish, cultivate, and sustain with prayer. Blessings.
Your question is provocative. I was surprised how difficult it was for me to answer .Of course there are lots of things I care about: my family and friends, nature and beauty, poetry, awe... I could go on and on in this vein- but I sense that you were asking for something more: What is it about all of this that I care about? It's about feeling present and connected to the pulse of life. I felt this as I listened to Monk Abel on the recording you shared. There are some lines from a blessing written in John O'Donohue's Eternal Echoes that express this better than I am able to express it myself. I have them posted on the wall of my office: "May you take the time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention....May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." That is what I care about: being present enough to celebrate the quiet miracles, able to experience the wonder and sacredness of what is right here today. Thank you.
I just had a moment of synchronicity. I was listening to my 14-year-old son play piano in the other room. It was a beautiful piece, and I wondered what it was. I was on my phon, and I noticed your Substack book marked from a few months ago. I clicked on it, was intrigued by the question, and clicked on the link. I discovered that the song my son was playing at that moment was Handel’s Passacaglia.🙏🏻
So simple yet so complex. Full of beauty
I care about all of humanity, all creatures on this planet, all of nature. I find myself wanting to fix all the problems, because seeing how things are these days causes me grief. I don't like to see suffering. I don't like to see our planet being ruined, animals becoming extinct. It hurts my soul.
I sit at the intersection of this beautiful music and the words of Khalil Gibran in The Prophet, both of which I discovered this week while tending to my parents in the midst of my mother’s decline. Thank you, Susan, for bringing to our attention Monk Abel and his generosity of spirit and his achingly sweet musical gifts - they reflect what it means to care for an ailing parent and the deep pain of grief. The perfect accompaniment to the wisdom imparted from
a 100+ year old collection of essays that read like scripture, which I found in the library of my childhood home and am reading for the first time. All of this I care deeply for - family, memories, nostalgia, the written word, music that moves me, the natural world, animals, the little things, moments of beauty.
That was SO beautiful - it took my breath away - I had never heard it before. Thank you, Susan, for that experience and the joy it brought.
I care about my legacy, what I leave behind. I have no children, however I have nieces and a nephew whom I love and care for as if they were my children.
I think about nature. The plants, trees and animals I share this world with. What part can I play, however small to protect nature's wonders?
My urge to do something is strong. It has led me to start a course in Horticulture. I want to arm myself with knowledge and pass it on to those younger than myself.
They will be the custodians of the earth when I'm gone. Donating to organisations that protect the world's plants, animals and oceans is one way of doing it, however it's not enough for me. I need to be proactive.
I currently work in Early Childhood Education (Day Care). I see myself combining this experience with my studies in Horticulture to teach in Kindergartens. What better way to instill knowledge in younger generations. How exciting! 😊
Music, poetry and nature are thin places for me, so I make time for them. I’ve noticed, however, that the special sense of connectedness that I experience in these moments is part of the everyday if I but take time to notice, even in unpleasant encounters. Perhaps that is because the practice of connecting makes it easier to put myself in the shoes of another. It’s as if there were a cloak of invisibility between the beautiful and the broken hiding the connection between them and that cloak is now slowly lifting.
Its an interesting question - I think some experiences make us think (and care) a lot about the values that drive our beliefs. These values are important to be in balance and harmony with ourselves. Similarly respecting other's values with understanding is important be in harmony with the world ( so hard !)
My connection to people, both those I know and cherish, and those I don't know at all. I find it helps me bring intention to my actions, both big and small, and when I consider not just myself, but also what impact those choices may have on others. I can't always know and predict what those impacts will be, but by centering a consideration for others, it does help me be more kind, even on days when I may not think have the energy to do so.
I also value time in nature, time listening to music - those times are when I most frequently bump into my own "thin places".
I care about the planet, nature, music, art, books, and about peace and serenity and the soul of mankind and trying to spread light in the world.
As far as what do you truly care about? That's a difficult question as the things I care about are things I'm powerless to change. Maybe most people feel that way about life in the 21st century. However, I do have a fridge magnet from Mercy Ships that has a young girl with a large growth on her neck. If you change the angle that you look from you see the girl after she had surgery with a smile on her face and the words "because of you" appear. What I really care about most are people, human beings...
I had a seminar with an Industrial Psychologist who stated that people generally relate to things (machines) or to people. I've worked my whole life relating to machines when I really relate to people and what I care most about is people. The square peg and the round whole, etc. And it really drains the well. Not the best way to go through life.
RE: the thin places. Music is definitely a way for me to have a transcendent experience, especially live music. I throw in a CD of Bach's The Art of the Fugue played by Emerson String Quartet who've been playing together for 60 years. I close my eyes and the sound, the notes dance in the middle of the room, the mathematical precision of the piece is brilliant! Then 2024 was a year I explored Jazz and I listen to Kinda' Blue, the mother of all Jazz records. Periods of deep meditation are that way as well...
Another way form me to experience the thin places is the natural world in solitude. Listening to the quiet, ocean waves, feeling the waves brings me to an indescribable stillness immediately. A photographer took a series of photos of London during the Blue Light period of the day (2AM to sunrise). I worked a job where I had to be to work at 2:30AM and I walked out into the parking lot and the blue light period gives me a sense of awe. The same is true of twilight periods of the day, sunrise and sunset. When I lived in the Midwest I would drive outside the metro into the fields about an hour before sunrise, have a hot cup of coffee and take it all in. Really a great experience in Winter -- cold but inspiring...
Lady, I am curious if you know about the research of the Japenese dr. Masaru Emoto? When I learned about it for the first time I was in Awe (with a capital A :)). It opened a door through which I found answers to one of the life questions I had; How can it be that spoken words and unspoken thoughts can hurt and determine the atmosphere or heal and vitalize life.
It also gives an answer to how we are influenced by music.
I thought I share a link, maybe you like it:
https://masaru-emoto.net/en/hado/
https://masaru-emoto.net/en/crystal/
In this “dark night of the soul” for humanity, I truly and deeply care about the soul of mankind, that has perhaps always found its renewal or sustenance in the most deeply embodied practices of caring in community: soul made visible in community (or collective “thin spaces”).
In accord I deeply care about those listening for the depth of the spirit: “when I watch you dance and see your energy; I feel my energy reflected in you: and that builds my energy.” — an Oakland Lake Merritt drum circle drummer to me, articulating the power of the spiritual, felt essence of harmonizing reciprocal attunement that seems perhaps humanity’s natural and original (and most important) technology for healing, creativity, civilization, and renewal.
Ty for the piano video. I used to fall asleep to my beloved mother (an equally talented pianist, and a person of infinite patience, care, and love) since well before my birth; setting me on a path in music — but also movement, dance, sciences, entrepreneurship and creativity of all types: today with discoveries (include science breakthroughs) at the intersection of the arts & sciences of harmonization.
This morning on waking I thought of the needed connection between creativity, leadership-in-creativity and the emergent practical expressions of an awakening vision of a consciously renewed confluence of the hemisphere of arts & sciences, right- & left-brained modes of action, grace/caring & strength/power (together with the creativity gap in leadership today, a known cyclic phenomena in the progression of cycles of civilization, … knowing there would be at least some people seeing and decrying this gap); then asking a famous AI: “who has written about this creativity gap in leadership?, finding a three-year-old industry paper by Deloitte: “Filling the Creativity Gap” (Nov. 2022). I asked the AI who the authors were and what they were doing today: then read for the first time of you, Susan — “
Susan Cain
Writer, speaker, thought leader (especially on introversion, creativity)
She continues to write, speak, and run Quiet Revolution, etc.”
I shared with the AI how this person stood out to me as resonant with my work on listening-into-creation a global coherence incubation / incubators project that focuses on deepening and renewing human embodied listening in community — linking that to a systems arts and sciences of harmonization global collaboratory to help heal the hemispheres, so to help bring humanity back into true.
Then I searched to see if your continued life energy, Susan, was continuing to focus on the things most important … which I felt fairly sure on reading of your Quiet Revolution theme that it would be doing.
And with this video and question shared here you brought me back to the living room of the home of my youth and my mother’s masterfully heartfelt music that everlastingly lives in my heart, with my mother’s soul spark that has never left me (which constantly fuels this work) .. and that it appears never left another unchanged by her universally and continually expressed love: so thank you, and thanks for BEING you 🙏🏽 and would love to be in contact should you be interested (my name @ gmail).
It was thrilling to read this, Reed, thank you. The idea of this music delivering you back to your mother's arms gave me goosebumps. (I'm not sure if you're a member yet of Quiet Life but hope you'll join us!)
Beautiful piece of music. I heard a friend play the same piece recently.
Thank you for this question. Care seems to be the word in this question to contemplate. To care, to hold dear without restraint, to readily and willingly embrace in all circumstances, yet there is more to contemplate about care. I care about my family - my husband and my daughter - our love, our collective and individual well being, our unity of heart. I care about my faith and the unity of my soul with God that I seek to nourish, cultivate, and sustain with prayer. Blessings.
Your question is provocative. I was surprised how difficult it was for me to answer .Of course there are lots of things I care about: my family and friends, nature and beauty, poetry, awe... I could go on and on in this vein- but I sense that you were asking for something more: What is it about all of this that I care about? It's about feeling present and connected to the pulse of life. I felt this as I listened to Monk Abel on the recording you shared. There are some lines from a blessing written in John O'Donohue's Eternal Echoes that express this better than I am able to express it myself. I have them posted on the wall of my office: "May you take the time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention....May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." That is what I care about: being present enough to celebrate the quiet miracles, able to experience the wonder and sacredness of what is right here today. Thank you.