Find Stillness, A View from Above, & Nature’s Immensity
Wednesday Wisdoms for November 6, 2024
Wednesday Wisdom is 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
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Find Stillness
🤨 Quote
“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Franz Kafka
Source: The Power of Wonder
Observation 🧐
So much of life is filled with constant motion. We’re told to constantly context switch, to be on top of anything that crosses our desk.
But this impedes our capacity to sit still and embrace life.
When we’re too busy always ‘living’ we have no time to just live.
This means we inevitably lose out on the ability to enjoy the more nuanced aspects of life, things that are not just handed to us. Rather than having a deep connection to life, we have light touches with some of its most amazing moments.
The Instagram movement filled with FOMO (fear of missing out) is real partly because we all know we are missing out on life’s grandest parts.
Seeing people going on hikes, being around nature, visiting a new country—these are some of the greatest awe-inspiring moments of life.
It’s in these moments that we get to truly experience awe.
When we can just be still and learn to embrace life outside of the hustle and bustle, we open ourselves up to life’s beauty.
🤔 Question
When you’ve been stuck in the hustle and bustle of life, what do you do to refresh and re-energize yourself?
A View from Above
🤨 Quote
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.
From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.””
Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut
Source: Starry Messenger
Observation 🧐
Often referred to as the overview effect, it is a reminder of just how awe-inspiring life can be if only we can learn to take a step back and see it from afar.
So much of our lives are waged over differences and vices, conflict and greed and anger.
These things cloud our ability to properly see life, to be open to any of its awe-inspiring beauty.
When we’re in conflict, we’re often in distress, thinking only about the situation at hand.
The Stoics had a cure for this—takes a step back and imagine the situation from above, like a god looking down upon it.
When we’re are provided distance, when we can separate ourselves from the immediate dilemma, we have space to better see.
Whereas before we cared only about the matter at hand, no we can see from a distance just how little it will matter in a week, month, or years.
Providing ourselves the grace of distance allows our mind, and heart, to open to the world and not be limited to only what sits before us.
🤔 Question
What is one thing you can do today to gain distance from the situation at hand and allow yourself distance?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of John Muir. Click below to support and get access.