lqb2weekly #201 (4 nov 2024)

Nov 04, 2024

hey,

PHEW! TEAM. WOW. do you know what i am right now?

tired.

and i know it’s not just me. see panel 2 of this recent post from chani.

if you’ve known me for a while, you know that mid-sept holds “no new things” day. this practice in seasonal boundary work is aimed at supporting me to slow down heading into winter. one of the benefits of the practice is helping to manage my waning energy as the days get shorter and the temperate gets colder (well, at least it’s supposed to get colder…).

this fall, i’ve had what feels like an extra hard time self-motivating. obviously, the election uncertainty and being on the verge of another potential trump presidency has me and many of my people consciously or unconsciously spooked, but there’s so much else going on (including the weather being weird af).

that said, i am beginning to discern (thanks to meditation) the difference between physical tiredness and emotional tiredness. i’m definitely experiencing both but they feel different. are you feeling tired, too? how are you noticing it? email responses or comments on this substack both are both welcome. i’m curious!

on that note, two relatively brief thoughts about the election and palestine & lebanon:

the likelihood that we’ll have election results on tuesday night seems very low to me. my guess is it’ll be at least a few days for initial results and then it’ll be contested for weeks if not months. trump seems to have already (at least rhetorically) been contesting the results already. whichever side wins, i can only imagine the other side not believing the numbers. so, whichever way it goes, i hope you and yours are ready for a long journey. wishing everyone the spaciousness and long-arc memory to hold onto the knowledge that transformation, revolution, evolution have never been the work and role of the american president. electoral politics is not political home.
i tried to write something brief but couldn’t really. so instead i’m just gonna share these two podcast episodes:
1. how to survive the end of the world: Palestinian Grief and Undying Liberation
2. how to survive the end of the world: Endurance Check In with Hala Alyan

ok on to share a few things:

random thing i learned in a james clear newsletter: did you know vincent van gogh only sold ONE PAINTING while he was alive? that is wild. how do i want that to shape how i move while i’m alive? what impact might i have after i’m dead? what loosening does that knowledge offer me in my day to day?

another random thing: the digital/email/text message scams these days are getting so NUTS. check out this one i got via email the other day. like wtf? 🤬

also, i’m late here but my friend marlo has been continuing to run cool men’s groups. the 9-month one he launched last week i assume isn’t joinable but if you’re looking for men’s groups, definitely check out his stuff and stay tuned there to look for other openings: https://www.marlopedroso.com/mens-groups

my friend, DSL, shared this fundraiser that is for plum villages first BIPOC retreat in the northeast. contribute if you can!

other friends, matt and nina, shared this fundraising ask via an email a few weeks (months?) ago. if you live in cambridge and have ever experienced the joy that is/was starlight square, please contribute!

one last thing: a work colleague, kenyora, has been working on and running an organization, end rape on campus (EROC) for years now and they just achieved a big milestone: regaining their 501c3 status! EROC is starting a campaign to raise $1 million by may 2025. i absolutely believe in kenyora’s ability to hit this goal. and i absolutely believe that ending rape on college campuses is critical to creating the world i want my nibblings to live in. i have many nibblings who are within spitting age of college (13/14/17) and given what i saw happen on my campus, i love EROC exists and i hate that it is even needed. but it is needed so for now, i support!

i actually have several other thoughts i want to share, but i have been draaaaagging my feet on getting this newsletter out so i’m just gonna cut it here and get to the hitting send part.

on to the things!

(!!) pick of the pack

writing

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

Sep 30, 2024 | happy "no new things" day 2024!

quotes

there is nothing new under the sun. also, full transparency, many of these quotes come from james clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter (which i love).

In many cases, what you hope to learn by reading books or listening to podcasts can only be learned by attempting what you fear. Some knowledge is only revealed through action. — James Clear

Creativity is the focused combination of unlikely things. Your mind locks onto a certain element and then searches widely for something unexpected that fits with it. What can scuba diving teach you about agriculture? What can trees teach you about public speaking? There is always some connective tissue between disciplines. If you wish to be more creative, look for the connections between two previously unconnected things. — James Clear

Communication is about what is received, not what is intended. If there is a gap between what you are saying and what they are hearing, you have to find a new way to say it. — James Clear

Finding your way in life is like unlocking the combination of a safe. You have to go forwards and backwards. Life is not a direct march from A to B. The twists and turns are progress, not regression. What feels like a setback in the moment is later revealed to have been part of the path all along. Each move was necessary to get to your end goal. — James Clear

Someday, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. — Phillips Brooks

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, air-less—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. — C. S. Lewis

Whose life do I admire that is secretly miserable? — Morgan Housel

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. — James Baldwin

All sins are attempts to fill voids. — Simone Weil

The secret of creative work is to make a lot and publish a little.
Don’t underestimate the power of giving yourself permission to create junk. Most of what you create will be mediocre or bad.
But that’s okay. You only have to show people the good stuff. Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best. Create, create, create. Edit, edit, edit. — James Clear