Just Be

ByHeather

Sometimes the best thing we can do is to stop “doing” and just be. You don’t have to “be” anything. We don’t have to “be” quiet, or productive, or useful, or nice. Just be.

In his brilliant album that gave music and lyrics to Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Neil Diamond wrote:

Be, as a page that aches for a word that speaks on a theme that is timeless.

These words appear nowhere in Richard Bach’s writing. They are Neil Diamond’s interpretation of what he thought Bach was trying to say. I think Diamond nailed it!

Be … as a blank page … that is aching for words … that speak on a theme that is timeless. Sometimes it’s okay to just be.

Similar Posts

  • Growth

    ByHeather

    Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

    — Edward Abbey

    Perhaps it is my natural temperament to do things deliberately and with purpose (after all, it is the tortoise who wins the race). Maybe it is my persistent skepticism. Quite possibly it is an outgrowth of my intuitive personality type (INTJ). Whatever the reason, I have always been resistant to Wall Street’s incessant demand for growth from public companies.

  • Embrace It!

    ByHeather

    I love it when I meet people who understand winter, as in the only way to thrive during winter is to take it head on, get out in it. Dress warm and get outside. If you are cold, dress warmer, get moving.

    — Jeff Smith, editor, Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine

    From A Cross Country Ski Tale

    I’m a northern girl. I was born and raised in an environment whose seasons were punctuated by the first frost and the spring thaw … and the highlight of the year was the day the ice broke on the river.

    The secret to happiness in these “harsh” environments is to meet them head on. Dress warm and get outside. Do not let the weather control your emotions or your happiness. If you are cold, dress warmer, get moving.

    But isn’t life itself a harsh environment? Life is hard. The secret to happiness is the same. Embrace it. Meet it head on. Get out in it. Dress warm. If you are cold, dress warmer, get moving.

  • Time without attention is worthless

    ByHeather

    The worst of states is when you experience neither relaxation nor productivity. Be focused on work or focused on something else, never in-betweeen. Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time.

    — Timothy Ferriss, 4-Hour Work Week.

    I am on the final chapters of 4-Hour Work Week. As hard as it is for me to imagine enjoying his company, Ferriss is nailing it.

  • Influence

    ByHeather

    You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

    — John Morley

    How many times have I wished that I had this pithy little quote on a card in my purse, ready to be handed to a belligerent blowhard, or an incessant evangelist, on a moment’s notice?

  • Checks and Balances

    ByHeather

    Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    — Lord Acton

    I was born in Canada and came to the US between my sophomore and junior year in high school. One of my first courses in my newly adopted country was high school civics. I learned with a newcomer’s sense of awe about the three branches of government and their important role in each checking the power of the other. It is highly attributed that this system of checks and balances is the genius of the America.

    In the intervening years since those wide-eyed high school years I have been a casual observer of the reality that power and money are self preserving. …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.