A somewhat goofy mini-collection of stuff I’ve been reading, stuff I’ve been thinking about and oh, some completely random crap.
Basically the stuff that never gets mentioned here because I’m not the kind of person who can just make some teeny little point. Not into the whole brevity thing, as the Dude would say.
Actually, I’m under the strict compulsion to write ten pages about anything on my mind. So this is me. Practicing brevity.
So yeah, I’m still in Taos at Jen’s Retreat.
Still teaching. Still writing. Still experiencing cool things that I will report on later. Still suffering Twitter withdrawal. Okay, semi-withdrawal.
In the meantime, let’s have some Items! And some exclamation points!
And no, I’m not running around on the internets this week. But I have been collecting these (sneakified me) just for today.
Because of course I could not leave you without some Items! And exclamation points!
Shall we?
Item! Post No. 28 in a semi-ongoing series that gives me full reign to use exclamation points in an excessive and inexcusably ebullient manner.
Item! Find out what happens to creative ideas!
Beautifully depressing. Or depressingly beautiful.
Or something.
It’s a video from Obsessed with Conformity.
Item! Advice on what to say to your bank (from Ramit)
Tim Ferris posted a chunk of Ramit Sethi’s book on his blog a while ago.
Ramit is super smart. And while I’m not really his Right People, I do really appreciate smartnesses.
He gives some scripts for what to say when you want to renegotiate bank fees or get fees waived.
Useful.
Item! This is the best name for a knitting blog.
I realize that this is a pretty hardcore statement to make, given how many excellent knitting blogs there are out there with extra-clever names.
However, I stand by my wow.
It’s called The Hook and I.
Ohmygod the great.
She’s @plainsight on Twitter.
Item! What is a mensch?
We heard from Melynda last week too, but this post is too great to not include on its own.
“What’s a mensch?” asked Little Sunshine.
“A person,” I said. “A civilized, courteous, compassionate, thoughtful, grownup person.”
She’s @melyndahuskey on Twitter.
Item! Part of what you’re paying for is not being first.
Nice post from Jonathan Fields about why it costs a lot to hire someone who is good at what he does.
He’s @jonathanfields on Twitter.
Item! Dubai is in the Middle East, last I heard. Right?
I was absolutely fascinated by this article about the dark side of Dubai, which I found (of course) via Boing Boing.
But I was even more astonished to read the following from a now-homeless expat woman:
“Before I came here, I didn’t know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada’s or any other liberal democracy’s.”
Seriously? What made you think that? Saudi Arabia, people.
Even if you had no idea about the “this is basically a slave society” thing and the repression thing, you could still have made an educated guess about the “our entire legal system is different” part, right? Gah.
This reminded me of why I tend to avoid other expats when I’m in expat mode. But it was also really fascinating.
Item! His own personal sadness troll!
Luke has his own personal sadness troll. Oh. Sad face.
But it kind of looks like a really sweet muppet. So don’t feel too bad.
And he used smart interviewing techniques to figure out what’s going on with that.
This is just inspiring.
Interviewer: Why do you make Luke so sad?
Sadness Troll: I have to keep reminding him that he needs to be successful! So yes, he gets sad when he doesn’t measure up, but he needs reminding!
Int: Why does he need to be successful?
ST: Hmmm … not sure. Because a lot of his identity has been bound up with that ever since school? Because people expect it of him?
Item! Update from the land of the Peculiar Shivanauts!
A really sweet post from Danielle called slowly but surely.
Lots of good thinkey-ness there. We love Danielle!
And another guest post (I know!) from Gina called brain mush, patterns of fear, and writing guest posts. Love it!
So the Shivanauts are rocking it. And I’m feeling pretty happy about that.
Danielle is @dmonique on Twitter and Gina is @gloreebe88.
Item! Comments!
So it was really cool the other week when I got to work on my practice of how I ask for stuff and you guys gave me the best reading recommendations ever!
So I’m going to try it again.
Here’s what I want:
- Any insight or realization you had this week, if you had one.
- A favorite word.
My commitment.
I am committed to giving time and thought to the things that people say, and I will interact with their ideas and with my own stuff as compassionately and honestly as is possible for me.
Even though asking for what I want still feels awkward for me, I’m just going to remind myself that this is a thing I’m practicing.
That is all.
Happy reading.
And happy Blustery Windsday. See you tomorrow.
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Havi, Is it cool in Taos? Here we’re in the midst of a heat wave, and I haven’t slept in three days. (Sigh) Wishing you a beautiful, nourishing, retreat!
My insight this week came from spending an evening with my son, who is the wisest young person I know. His life works in seemingly miraculous ways. He met the love of his life when he was still in his teens, and married her last year. He’s always worked at things he loves–whether at university or at jobs he’s held–with people he enjoys, in surroundings that inspire and nurture him. His life is filled with people who love, appreciate, and adore him. He’s had his share of difficult times and sadness, but he remains kind, generous, compassionate and, above all, happy.
So what’s his secret? It’s mostly this: he’s always in alignment with himself, with his own sense of integrity and wholeness. He knows what he wants, and he makes choices that let him live his life according to his values. There are no tug-of-wars between one part of himself and another. No shoulds, no the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side, no what-ifs and yes-buts. He understands the connection between the self he incarnates each moment, and the shape his life takes.
So that’s my insight for this week. Alignment in action = a peaceful, creative, happy life. Not bad for a lesson from a 21-year-old. 🙂
A favorite word: Today, the word is Round. Don’t know why, other than it has connotations of wholeness, containment, beauty.
Love, Hiro
.-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Sunday Poem # 2 =-.
Gubernatorial. Just so fun to say.
@Hiro – what a wonderful insight from your son! I’ve had moments of alignment like that, but I can’t say it’s all the time!
My insight for the week so far: I think this ShivaNata thing is going to be good for me… Oh. And that I don’t have to hate the color pink just because everyone around me seems to. It doesn’t sound like a big epiphany, but it was!
A favorite word? Splendiforous: Webster’s says it means extraordinarily or showily impressive, but I prefer this definition from yourdictionary.com: gorgeous; splendid: a jocularly pretentious usage.
It’s a lovely big word that sounds made-up and needs beads and sparkles on its costume. Just like me. Yup. Starting to come to terms with my shiny side.
.-= G. Romilly´s last post … My not-quite-a-UFO pile =-.
Hi Havi! Just want to say thanks for your blog, it’s been an inspiration to me.
My biggest insight of the week came from my new journaling habit… Every time the Shy part of me tells me that someone out there is judging me, he never realized that it felt more like HE was doing the judging.
One of my favorite words is biblioteca, which is Spanish for library. I’ve just always liked how it sounds 🙂
.-= Aaron Ulbricht´s last post … Early Riser + Journaling Day 2 – Talking to Shy Guy =-.
I happen to like the word: Craptastic
Okay, so it isn’t a real word. But it somehow reflects my opinion on a great many things. Somethings aren’t just crappy; they are craptastic!
.-= Avonelle Lovhaug´s last post … The life and times of a software detective =-.
“What’s a mensch?” you post.. and then you ask for our favorite words. Well, one of mine is mensch.
I carry it with me on a small piece of paper in my wallet. I see it whenever I open the wallet, whether it’s to take something out or put it in. Just that, on a piece of torn paper. Nothing fancy. Just “mensch.” It reminds me.
On the back of my grandfather’s headstone, where no one would see it unless they knew to look, we had carved, “a true mensch.” He was. I have a lot to live up to.
.-= Pirate´s last post … In Which the Pirate Casts On. =-.
Favorite word: scrofulous. My dad uses it to describe people he does not care for. I love it.
.-= Sonia Simone´s last post … Are You Sure Your Content MarketingStrategy Is a Good Fit? =-.
Havi, seriously. Three times mentioned in your item post? If this keeps up, we may have to get engaged or something. Or at least meet in person.
And I happen to have a little rubber friend too, to bring along for Selma. We can double-date. 🙂
Favorite word? Will get back to you once I narrow it down…
.-= Gina´s last post … Taglines That Didn’t Quite Make It =-.
Favorite fake word? Scrumtrulescent… one of the made up words Will Ferrel used during an SNL skit where he is impersonating ‘Actor’s Studio’ host James Lipton. According to urbandictionary.com it is “so great that any other word employed would be woefully insufficient, and would serve only to limit the sheer magnitude of the greatness intended as a descriptor.”
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I am having a stuck. Major stuck. I need hugs… a coffee?…. a group whiney-urgh! session… a kick in the pants? I don’t know!
.-= melissa´s last post … Humble Pie for Breakfast =-.
smock.
smock smock.
smock smock smock smock smock.
a wonderful object and a wonderful word.
I current favorite would be sublimity. As in “Ah, the sublimity of fresh, cotton sheets.”
I also adore all nouns turned into verbs. Like google…or well, I know there are a gazillion other fun nouns I regularly verbatize but my mind has suddenly gone blank. But you get the idea.
Ooooh. Lauren… you made me think of another one: serendipitous.
.-= melissa´s last post … Skunk! =-.
A great word for today: Tintinabulation. Doesn’t it just sound like bells?
This week’s realization: Marketing will be less hard and foot-draggy when I find the right marketing for me. It’s like finding my just-right clients, I need to find marketing activities that are fun and interesting instead of subtle torture. Just say no to cold calls!
.-= Amy Crook´s last post … Work Like a Gift =-.
There are so many, many words I love, it’s hard to choose. Infundibular (shaped like a funnel). Numinous (the presence of Holiness). A great thing about numinous is that it comes packed with two great Latin phrases; we know we are in the presence of the Holy when we feel mysterium tremendum, or awe and trepidation, and mysterium fascinas, wonder and delight.
Gelid is a really great word. Crepuscular. Fabric. Celerity. Interrogatory.
I have to stop!
.-= Melynda´s last post … Orderly Transition of Power Salad–with homemade chutney! =-.
Exacerbate.
Might seem counterintuitive as a favorite word, but it pleases me nonetheless. The x, the soft c, its multisyllabicness. Enjoyable to say. Part of me quietly feels a little joy when I get to use it organically in conversation.
Also: azure.
@Melynda: Celerity is a great one too,
@Melissa: and serendipity as well.
.-= claire´s last post … The Problem With Polka Dots =-.
Havi, Cheers for sneakifying. Hope you are having a magical time in Taos.
HIro, thanks for writing about your wise and beautiful child. He just may get some of that from his mother!
Insight of the week is also related to being in alignment. For as little as I’ve written as of yet on my blog (and certainly via my tweets) people are finding me and resonating. I really don’t have to do anything calculating or network-y. It’s liberating to say the least.
Favorite word, flugzeug. I thought it was a word my father made up. When I was little he would point to the sky and exclaim “flugzeug!” just to make me laugh. In college, on a very long train ride in Germany, I spent many happy hours sandwiched between 2 preschool aged children with their picture dictionary. I would dramatically pronounce each word and we 3 would giggle helplessly while their mother kept a straight face and kept knitting. Low and behold came a drawing of an airplane with the word flugzeug printed boldly below. Happy times.
.-= Mahala Mazerov´s last post … Your Turn To Ask, A Meditation Survey =-.
Lunch. Don’t ask me why. I just love that word. Lunch. So satisfying. 🙂
eleemosynary – so much more fun than “charitable” (did a lot of research on this topic during law school; leave it to lawyers to choose the fancy language rather than the plain.)
.-= Jennifer Breazeale´s last post … 7 Things I Learned From Lyle Lovett About Managing a Community =-.
Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates, not Saudi Arabia.
Also, not all countries in the Middle East are the same. I’d doubt Saudi Arabia wants to compare itself to Israel, for example. And Jordan seems pretty liberal from what I’ve heard about the place.
“slave society”? Really?
Your comments about Dubai sound like someone saying all Asians are terrorists because of the Bali bombings (we had people cancelling tours to Malaysia and Singapore EIGHTEEN MONTHS after 9/11 because of this stupid excuse) or that all North Americans are fat lazy capitalist bastards.
You normally write more enlightened things so this is rather disappointing.
.-= Tiara´s last post … The Class/Privilege Checklist [2] =-.
scrofulous! Scrumtrulescent! Smock! Tintinabulation! Numinous!
Ohmygod. I’m going to do this every single week. These are the best words ever, and my brain and my mouth are delighting in saying them over and over again! Smock smock smock smock smock smock smock!
Yay! Thank you.
@Tiara – It sounds like you’re feeling really upset and also surprised when you read what I wrote because you need to know that I’m not lumping all people together or encouraging other people to make hurtful generalizations.
I can appreciate that. I can’t promise to what extent I can meet what you’re needing right now, and at the same time maybe I can at least help clear up some of the confusion or disconnect.
For the first part: you are right. I was reading a bunch of articles at the same time, hence the skipping back and forth between Saudi and the Emirates. So apologies for that. Not cool.
For the second part:
My intended point point — which apparently wasn’t very clear in how I wrote it — was about how it’s useful to assume that new things are going to be different than the thing you know.
To go from there to making the point that all of the middle east is the same is definitely not what I was getting at (I lived there for over a third of my life, as you know, and have visited many places, all of which are their own thing).
And of course I did not mean in any way to imply that it’s dangerous to travel there. I would have no qualms about being back in Israel or in Jordan or in Egypt, and there are many other great places to visit. I was visiting the States in September 2001 and my flight back would have been on the eleventh, but of course it was cancelled. And it never occurred to me not to return home or to advise anyone else not to visit Dubai or anywhere else.
So I’m guessing that maybe some of the echoes of the words I used may have brought up some shadows of past conversations you’ve had with other people. Because many the things you seem to think that I’m implying don’t seem to be mine.
The only thing that I really wanted to get across was that the dangerous thing is to go somewhere with drastically different customs, politics, language, modes of behavior and history and to expect that things will be fine because all legal systems are more or less the same. Not that we shouldn’t go places or that we should lump everything that is different into a big soup of “different”. Just that we can expect to be surprised.
You’re completely allowed to feel upset and angry — I don’t want to diminish that in any way, just to shed a little light on where I started from and where it might have gotten tangled.
The only thing that I really wanted to get across was that the dangerous thing is to go somewhere with drastically different customs, politics, language, modes of behavior and history and to expect that things will be fine because all legal systems are more or less the same.
That’s true, and I agree completely. But your sentence about how you’re surprised she’s surprised because it’s Saudi Arabia and it’s a Middle Eastern country so “slave system” duh didn’t really help in clearing that up. If you’ve said that from the very start it wouldn’t have come off as being so lump-together-y.
Unlike you I don’t have any personal connection to the Middle East, but I have had my culture & people lumped in in very similar ways and after a while you just get tired of it all!
I appreciate the response and the clarity. I just wanted to point out something that wasn’t so clear and could be damaging.
.-= Tiara´s last post … The Class/Privilege Checklist [2] =-.
@Tiara – I can’t help pointing out that Havi did not say what you think she did — that “slavery” line came from the woman she was writing about.
Havi clearly identified the external source of the “slavery” sentence that you objected to by placing it in quotation marks, not to mention linking to the story that the line actually came from.
Whew. I feel better now. 🙂
my insight this week has been that my home is completely manageable. I have felt so overwhelmed for so long and now there’s somehow been a shift and I am reveling in it. I am the queen bee of my home . . . and my life.
fave word of the moment: cheese
Yes, I actually had an insight! (I’m so inordinately happy, because I usually operate from the not-yet-defeated assumption that if I thought of something, it must mean it wasn’t worth thinking. *sad*)
My insight: I always disliked the ‘just get out of your comfort zone and DO IT’ school of personal development, because I always felt guilty for resisting making my life even worse.
But yesterday I had the lightning flash that I do not HAVE a comfort zone.
There’s nothing in my life that I can just do and be ‘comfortable’ for longer than an hour or two, and those ‘comfortable’ things tend to be the things that are traditionally not part of comfort zones, such as having mastermind meetings and going to really challenging courses.
People always tell me that they think I’m so brave for daring to do a lot of things they wouldn’t dare, but that’s because the status quo is already so uncomfortable that doing something different isn’t worse, and may in fact be better.
Sitting in front of the TV and vegging, or reading a nice book, or puttering around in the house? Massive guilt and discomfort!
So, my new main goal for now: building a truly comfortable comfort zone. :p
Oh yeah, favourite word: Halcyon.
I’m way behind on even reading my email, so I just came across this. You asked for an insight this week. I’ve had more than I can process. But here’s the biggest.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer in his bones a few weeks ago. Now they think it is also in his brain. What I am realizing about myself going through this is that as my heart breaks, the walls come tumbling down.
My favorite word all month, oddly enough, is gratitude. For the love, for the closeness, for all the years I’ve had with him.
Lynne
.-= Lynne Tolk´s last post … Overwhelm – and a little help from my Higher Self =-.
I was traveling in Tucson on biz this week, and it was one of those wonderful trips that have more free time than biz time.
I went out for a hike early one morning (5 am…the two-time-zone-difference thing really affects me). Forgot to bring water (duh!), and got semi-lost.
The whole walk I kept tripping over rocks. It’s like the world kept telling me, get grounded and look at your feet!
After about an hour and a half of this, I came within less than half a foot of stepping on a rattlesnake. He did his curling-up-and-rattling thing at me. I hung out for a few minutes watching him, watching me. Then I said, “Thanks Mr. Snake, you really woke me up. Do you mind if I just sneak on by now?”
So my insight for the week: It’s a good thing to spend time up in your head, but don’t forget to look down and make sure you’re on firm ground now and again too. If you don’t, LOOK OUT!
My favorite word is equanimity. http://burlapnbeads.com/category/words/ I just wrote about it last week on my blog. It is the state of emotional stability and composure. I’ve described it to my son as the relationship in your life between what is happening to you and what you are doing about it.
I’ve been moving from Brasil back to Michigan this week, so I’ve really been working on maintaining my equanimity. Thanks for letting me share.
.-= Pam Belding´s last post … Our Brazilian Cat =-.