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.
My deeply desired experience has an element of surprise, akin to a mystical encounter; therefore, it cannot be sought or taught. While mystery is the direct experience of the Divine, the gift is received indirectly. I can position myself in places where that moment is likely to occur, such as amidst shimmering images and exquisite sounds. When the liminal space sneaks up, something moves my body energetically, pulls at my heartstrings intensely, or mists my eyes uncontrollably. In that posture of surrender, I find myself being undone, swept away, or overtaken by a force that is inaffable and inexplicable. I am rapt. Though fleeting, the call leaves me with a sense of wholeness, whether it is a loving union with the Holy, an intimate communion with another person, or an immense oneness with the Earth. After this glimpse, murmur, taste, or touch of the ephemeral - both enthralling and fulfilling - my soul yearns for that homecoming again. Since the experience is not at my command or on demand, I cherish the sweet desire itself, if not its fulfillment. However, the longing becomes the seedbed for future unfolding and primes the tender soul to receive what it truly cares about.
I love music as a portal too Susan. I love stillness- that utter moment of complete stillness where one apprehends the other… But I’m working on cultivating another threshold place- the everywhere.
I’m standing in an incredible small coffee place on a Sunday morning. There’s Spanish music, there’s the sound of the coffee machine, the bacon frying and people - all sorts… all sorts of faces, smiles frowns, greetings. I’m reminded of Thomas Mertons moment in Louisville on 4 th and Walnut…it’s too long to quote I think but easy to find… it’s a gorgeous statement of waking up to the incredible thinness of every place but also of every human being…
As I stand here everything and everyone lights up with a hidden wonder…
I believe art in general and music and poetry in particular are among the purest expressions of our humanity. When I walked around the corner at the Academe in Florence and saw the David I was stunned and got a bit misty. This piece blessed my soul, and I'll keep it around for a while.
I deeply care about connecting to my soul through music and poetry. I deeply care about children and education. I deeply care about nature and the planet.
I cannot express thoroughly enough how much I care for animals. All animals. One could say that my “religion” is biocentric spirituality with a keen focus on the wellbeing of animals. I feel a strong connection to them and grieve whenever I see their tragedies—murdered, run over, poached, poisoned, etc. Yes, I am that person who saves spiders. We are all a part of universal creation.
Yesterday I received an impromptu invite to go see and hear elk. We drove up the road as the sun was setting. With binoculars we could barely make out the large elk bodies moving amongst the trees and shrubs. The moon was bright and eventually the elk moved into the open grassy area. They looked more like a trail of ants. They just kept coming…a long trail of elk moving like a slow train. Then we heard the “bugling.” Three or four male elk were making themselves heard in the darkness. It was a sound unlike any I had heard before. It sounded more like it belonged in the sea. Was it a whale out here in the canyon? Were my ears playing tricks on me? I was transported to another world. When at last the darkness sent us on our way it seemed an hour and a half had gone by in a blink. The kind of blinks that happened all the time when I was a child but seem far too rare now. Call it a thin place. Call it magic. Call it joy. I feel so lucky to have heard the elk bugling last night.
Reminds of a solo scuba session in Sea of Cortez and happening into a vast school of uncountable thousands of fish, I swam to their center : at which point in mid-day it became dark. To unite with nature in some or another way is deeply touching to soul, … neurology … all … the nonmaterial feminine … … .. .
The night sky is brilliant. I’ve seen the sky at sea when there wasn’t a lot of ambient light. But I’ve seen the stars in the desert southwest, AZ and CA. Magnificent!!
The thing I treasure most above all else is peace and quiet. The world is an incredibly noisy place, especially for us folks with super sensitive nervous systems, and it is sometimes difficult to find pockets of tranquility.
I spent my entire childhood living in utter chaos as one of six children in an archetypal dysfunctional family, with no respite. My only escape was to go walking in the nearby woods. These days I purposely seek out quiet places when I travel, like empty churches, for calm relief.
I have had two stays in a zen monastery which are surprisingly noisy places during activity time, but blissfully quiet during meditation.
Music has a place too, but similarly it’s the quiet spaces in between the notes that give music its true meaning, like the white spaces between letters that turn text into a poem. Treasure the spaces in between - the non-things are very important!
I had overextended myself today and so when I finally read your post, I lay down, closed my eyes and focused only on the music. Afterwards, I was restored . One thin place for me is to notice the nightly sunset.
I am grateful that on this gloomy afternoon, I was privileged to hear this piece of music played so beautifully. Definitely helped me access the deeper part of myself and take a moment to step back from the world.
Daily, I clear my mind by practicing two twenty-minute meditations called Centering Prayer. Often, it is hard to still my body and my mind, but I never regret it.
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.
My deeply desired experience has an element of surprise, akin to a mystical encounter; therefore, it cannot be sought or taught. While mystery is the direct experience of the Divine, the gift is received indirectly. I can position myself in places where that moment is likely to occur, such as amidst shimmering images and exquisite sounds. When the liminal space sneaks up, something moves my body energetically, pulls at my heartstrings intensely, or mists my eyes uncontrollably. In that posture of surrender, I find myself being undone, swept away, or overtaken by a force that is inaffable and inexplicable. I am rapt. Though fleeting, the call leaves me with a sense of wholeness, whether it is a loving union with the Holy, an intimate communion with another person, or an immense oneness with the Earth. After this glimpse, murmur, taste, or touch of the ephemeral - both enthralling and fulfilling - my soul yearns for that homecoming again. Since the experience is not at my command or on demand, I cherish the sweet desire itself, if not its fulfillment. However, the longing becomes the seedbed for future unfolding and primes the tender soul to receive what it truly cares about.
I love music as a portal too Susan. I love stillness- that utter moment of complete stillness where one apprehends the other… But I’m working on cultivating another threshold place- the everywhere.
I’m standing in an incredible small coffee place on a Sunday morning. There’s Spanish music, there’s the sound of the coffee machine, the bacon frying and people - all sorts… all sorts of faces, smiles frowns, greetings. I’m reminded of Thomas Mertons moment in Louisville on 4 th and Walnut…it’s too long to quote I think but easy to find… it’s a gorgeous statement of waking up to the incredible thinness of every place but also of every human being…
As I stand here everything and everyone lights up with a hidden wonder…
I believe art in general and music and poetry in particular are among the purest expressions of our humanity. When I walked around the corner at the Academe in Florence and saw the David I was stunned and got a bit misty. This piece blessed my soul, and I'll keep it around for a while.
I deeply care about connecting to my soul through music and poetry. I deeply care about children and education. I deeply care about nature and the planet.
I cannot express thoroughly enough how much I care for animals. All animals. One could say that my “religion” is biocentric spirituality with a keen focus on the wellbeing of animals. I feel a strong connection to them and grieve whenever I see their tragedies—murdered, run over, poached, poisoned, etc. Yes, I am that person who saves spiders. We are all a part of universal creation.
Yesterday I received an impromptu invite to go see and hear elk. We drove up the road as the sun was setting. With binoculars we could barely make out the large elk bodies moving amongst the trees and shrubs. The moon was bright and eventually the elk moved into the open grassy area. They looked more like a trail of ants. They just kept coming…a long trail of elk moving like a slow train. Then we heard the “bugling.” Three or four male elk were making themselves heard in the darkness. It was a sound unlike any I had heard before. It sounded more like it belonged in the sea. Was it a whale out here in the canyon? Were my ears playing tricks on me? I was transported to another world. When at last the darkness sent us on our way it seemed an hour and a half had gone by in a blink. The kind of blinks that happened all the time when I was a child but seem far too rare now. Call it a thin place. Call it magic. Call it joy. I feel so lucky to have heard the elk bugling last night.
There’s a necessary edit of my comment -- I HAVEN’T seen the night sky at sea...
Reminds of a solo scuba session in Sea of Cortez and happening into a vast school of uncountable thousands of fish, I swam to their center : at which point in mid-day it became dark. To unite with nature in some or another way is deeply touching to soul, … neurology … all … the nonmaterial feminine … … .. .
The night sky so vast
A wonder alas
Cannot be sailed
With mortal mast.
The night sky is brilliant. I’ve seen the sky at sea when there wasn’t a lot of ambient light. But I’ve seen the stars in the desert southwest, AZ and CA. Magnificent!!
so true, the stars in the desert SW almost reach down and touch you. Nothing quite like that.
The thing I treasure most above all else is peace and quiet. The world is an incredibly noisy place, especially for us folks with super sensitive nervous systems, and it is sometimes difficult to find pockets of tranquility.
I spent my entire childhood living in utter chaos as one of six children in an archetypal dysfunctional family, with no respite. My only escape was to go walking in the nearby woods. These days I purposely seek out quiet places when I travel, like empty churches, for calm relief.
I have had two stays in a zen monastery which are surprisingly noisy places during activity time, but blissfully quiet during meditation.
Music has a place too, but similarly it’s the quiet spaces in between the notes that give music its true meaning, like the white spaces between letters that turn text into a poem. Treasure the spaces in between - the non-things are very important!
I already replied, but came upon this video this morning and thought some of you might love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRzI8y-EJJ0&list=RDdRzI8y-EJJ0&start_radio=1
I had overextended myself today and so when I finally read your post, I lay down, closed my eyes and focused only on the music. Afterwards, I was restored . One thin place for me is to notice the nightly sunset.
I find the “thin place” in (mostly classical) music, in poetry, in some visual art, and physically in dance (especially with a live accompanist).
I care about authentic human connection and the natural world.
I am grateful that on this gloomy afternoon, I was privileged to hear this piece of music played so beautifully. Definitely helped me access the deeper part of myself and take a moment to step back from the world.
Daily, I clear my mind by practicing two twenty-minute meditations called Centering Prayer. Often, it is hard to still my body and my mind, but I never regret it.
Nature and animals provide me much comfort, joy and contentment. I feel a sense of peace and connection to my higher self.