If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs. ~ Assyrian Proverb Don't pick things ahead of time; some bear fruit later. ~ Sumerian Proverb Owoce i warzywa Fruit and veg Copyright Content Catnip 2015 If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. ~ Assyrian Proverb Illustrator John Tenniel 's…
Continue reading ➞ Powerful proverbs from Mesopotamia about fate, luck and fortune
"Art would not be important if life were not important. And life is important. Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to them from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible.…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: Whistling in the dark
James Baldwin, France, 1970 If you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover them too - the terms with which they are connected to other people. This has happened to every one of us, I'm sure. You read something…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: James Baldwin on why art is important
Ahoy there! Here is a quirky internet sea shanty, plucked from poseidon's breast. I haven't done one of these posts for a while, because I have been busy with another project to do with animals and conservation. I hope to keep up with these posts as I know some of you like them. Stay piratey…
Continue reading ➞ 10 Cool Things I Found on the Internet #29
"We laud our almost boundless freedom of choice as if it were a good thing per se, irrespective of what the choice is between. This is of course absurd because any rational person would prefer to choose between two good things rather than between a thousand bad ones. But, under these circumstances, how do we…
"The cycles of nature and the cycles of time predate the modern world. The world we currently live in is linear and about more, more, more or ‘harder, better, faster, stronger’. This way of thinking dictates that we should not miss out on anything. We are encouraged to grow throughout our lives, as a part…
"If we were all disruptive artists all the time – nothing in society would be coherent. No one would be obliged to do anything other than follow whatever short term whims took their fancy. Fortunately- many people are instead curators. Those who set up permanent exhibitions based on unifying themes and help to rein in…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: Disruptive Creators Versus Custodians & Curators
"Opt out of the relentless pursuit of personal optimisation of our lives. Opt-out of picking and choosing a new partner when we get bored of the person we have been with for many years simply because we are bored. Opt out of trying to become a social media influencer with a million friends on Instagram…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: If We Want to Do Something Well – We Cannot Do It All
Two great appetites of the soul – the urge to independence and self-determination and the urge to self-transcendence – were fused with, and interpreted in the light of, a third – the urge to worship.~ Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception and Heaven & Hell Entrance to the Night by Michiel Schrijver We live together,…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: The appetites of the soul by Aldous Huxley
Although the wind Blows terribly herethe moonlight also leaks between the roof planksof this ruined house ~ Izumi Shikibu, 10th Century Japanese poet Izumi Shikibu More inspiration Remember that if you wall up your house too well you will stay dry, but you will stay moonless. We should strive to let the world into our…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting thought: A 10th century Japanese poem about courage
I remained where I was, standing with one hand in my pocket and the other around the handle of the pram. The triviality of the ketchup and mustard bottles, the blackened hotdogs. The camping table where the soft drinks were lined up, was almost inconceivable there beneath the stars, the dancing light of the bonfire.…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting thought: The World of Terrifying Beauty By Karl Ove Knausgård
You shouldn't want it all by Piet Hein You shouldn't want it all You are only one part You own a world in the world You need to make it whole Choose just one path, and be as one with it. Other paths must wait. We always come back. Don't hide from troubles. Confront them…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting thought: You shouldn’t want it all
"The main threats to humankind were once posed by the forces of nature. Now they are self-inflicted. We are the cause of our own problems and they can only be solved at the level of the society that created them. One help would be to collectively rediscover the ancient virtues of frugality, moderation and the…
Continue reading ➞ How to Counter the Anthropocene: Frugality and the ‘Joy of Missing Out’
"When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
“Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop than when we soar.” ― William Wordsworth, The Excursion 1814 “Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”― William Wordsworth “With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”― William…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: We see into the life of things
A mere friend will agree with you, but a real friend will argue. ~ Assyrian Proverb "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller with Charlie Chaplin Tell me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are.…
Continue reading ➞ Hauntingly relevant ancient Mesoptamian Proverbs about love and friendship
Here are some randomisities both old and new that I found this week and wanted to share with you. Take 1 or two with a cup of tea and a few buttered scones and have a good lie down if you want to have a break from the world for a while. 1. In the…
Continue reading ➞ 10 Uplifting Things I Found on the Internet This Week #8
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”~Anais Nin It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars. ~ Richard Evans "I’m here. That’s the miracle I’ve been looking for."~Brian Vaszily "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, "I'm possible!"~Audrey Hepburn "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big…
Continue reading ➞ Inspirational quotes to help you have courage
The Kindness Economy Kindness isn’t weak but strong: a foundation from which to grow a business that has truth, integrity, longevity and commerciality. As we move away from a time of rabid consumerism and ‘peak stuff,’ we are entering a new type of economy. One built on kindness and a Triple Bottom Line: people, planet and profit…
Continue reading ➞ 10 Uplifting things I found on the internet this week #5
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it." — Marcus Aurelius (The Emperor's Handbook)
“Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth. The speck of dust represents the odds in favor of your being born; the huge planet would be the odds against it. So stop sweating the small stuff."
“That’s the dream of replication: infinite attention, infinite regard. The machinery of the internet has made it a democratic possibility, as television never could, since the audience in their living rooms necessarily far outnumbered the people who could be squeezed into the box. Not so with the internet, where anyone with access to a computer…
Continue reading ➞ Infinite attention, infinite regard and the minor deities of the internet
“If you want to get an idea of a friend's temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life.” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. A terrace house in Sevilla, Spain. © Content Catnip 2010 And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the…
Continue reading ➞ Comforting Thought: And the people stayed home by Kitty O’Meara
"Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent." Virginia Woolf, The Waves Time Moves Slow by Bad Bad Good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgPQ2J_uM3A “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness…
“The desert could not be claimed or owned–it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names... Its caravans, those strange rambling feasts and cultures, left nothing behind, not an ember. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished…
Purple dusk in Chefchaouen A palm tree stands in the middle of Rusafa, Born in the west, far from the land of palms. I said to it: How like me you are, far away and in exile, In long separation from family and friends. You have sprung from soil in which you are a stranger;…
Continue reading ➞ You have sprung from soil in which you are a stranger
The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sunstruck hills every day. Diane Ackerman
At night I lie awake In the ruthless Unspoken, knowing that planets come to life, bloom, and die away, like day-lilies opening one after another in every nook and cranny of the Universe... Diane Ackerman Wild woman quote: show your soul ''Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.'' Maya AngelouInside of the walls of…
One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too deeply? Diane Ackerman
