Through no fault of your own, there never seems to be enough stillness —
enough cool, clear space —
for you to stop and think.
— Johann Hari, “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again” (Crown, January 25, 2022)
Notes:
- Photo: DK @ Daybreak. 6:19 am, March 2, 2022. 34° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More pictures from yesterday morning here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Live & Learn 
yes, and how lucky it is there for you to discover
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Yes, so true Beth.
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I at least find a few moments of stillness in front of your gorgeous photos, pal…
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Thank you Lori. Your comment reminds me of:
The country is broken but the mountains and rivers are still here.
— Du Fu, from “Gazing At Spring” in Volume (juàn) 224, no. 69 in the Complete Tang Poems (via Alive on All Channels)
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Ahhhh yes!
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Finding those moments, and inhaling them deeply – not an easy task these days – but absolutely necessary…
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Yes!
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Have you ever considered selling your photos? I could see this one printed on a canvas.
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Laila, that is so kind of you to say. No, I haven’t. And I came across this quote that seemed to sort of explain why:
“7/ 21/ 43. We can make things alone for pleasure—and the moment they’re sold and bring in money, we’re ashamed of them! Why? Because too much is expected of the thing that is “sold”? or more likely because we have betrayed this innocent, docile, unsuspecting little living thing.
— Patricia Highsmith, “Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995.″ Anna von Planta (Editor). (Liveright, November 16, 2021)
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Great quote! We shall continue enjoying all the photos you take for pleasure 🙂
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Thanks!
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Sometimes it feels like there is less and less of it unless we make time for it. It no longer seems to be given.
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I began to laugh, though I didn’t know why. I was almost drunk with exhaustion. I was thirty-nine, and I had been working nonstop since I was twenty-one. I had taken almost no holidays. I fattened myself with information every waking hour to make myself a more productive writer, and I had started to think that the way I lived was a bit like the process where, in a factory farm, a foie gras goose is force-fed gross amounts in order to turn its liver into pâté. In the previous five years, I had traveled over 80,000 miles, researching, writing, and talking about two books. All day, every day, I tried to inhale more information, interview more people, learn more, talk more, and I was now manically skipping between topics, like a record that has been scratched from overuse, and I was finding it hard to retain anything. I had felt tired for so long that all I knew was how to outrun it.
— Johann Hari, “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again” (Crown, January 25, 2022)
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Wow… I started reading this article and then had to leave it. It is disconcerting, to say the least to find yourself exhausted at 39. The body decides when it has had enough.
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Yes, it does. Enough is enough.
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Definitely. At least you have started taking your special time every morning 🙂
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I feel like living through these past 2 years, constantly scrolling news feeds, searching for information, trying to juggle staying safe from the virus with living life have created this space where I am constantly flitting from one news feed to another, checking to see if one has something different. And now… add on top of that what is happening in Ukraine and my constant need to know, to see, to learn, to understand — yup. Exhausted. And I agree with what others have said — your photos bring me spaces of calm.
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Agree with you Louise. Same with me. Thank you.
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Thank you for giving all of us “enough stillness” to be at peace…if only while appreciating such a photo
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Thank you Valerie.
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A person owes themself time in the early hours to stop, breath, settle to ground thus setting the tone for the day…some components of focus: gratefulness, compassion, patience, strength in body & mind…not letting your mind to race ahead to prioritizing which brings on stress, chaotic @ times …The Bible talks of the importance of early morning stillness & pray…/// Time is a gift…some see time as a double edge sword…/// Your photo: the quiet colors of Pastel Cream, the reflection upon the water, the cleansing smell of cool air, the silence occasionally blessed with the Joy of Sparrow’s singing, the coo of Morning Doves, a Loon calling…thank you, Dave for the beautiful, respite…
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Thanks Christie!
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