A thoughtful newsletter to help you slow down, be curious, and notice more.
Join a growing community of readers that receive a free monthly newsletter with a short contemplation, practical "looking exercise", and a curated list of inspiring things to read, listen and watch.
The ideas shared are drawn from attention and mindfulness research, design thinking, ancient wisdom traditions, and creative visual practices such as photography.
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Terribly Composed Photographs
Rule of Thirds. Golden Ratio. Leading Lines. The conventional rules are geared to work well for a certain palette of stories. But what if you want to tell a different story?
Make Your Own Beginnings
Once we've been a person for a while, it's hard to stave off feelings of mundanity. But who's to say we can't start again?
Ditching the Magic This Season
Sometimes it's not clear if a shadow is part of the perfection or part of the imperfection in a photograph. Maybe life is like that too.
What Reading Does To Our Attention
The word "spell" has a telling double meaning: both to arrange letters, and to cast magic. When we read, it's amazing how we can hear distant or even dead human voices telling us things, but at what cost?
Watching Ourselves Wait
Waiting is essentially about a desired future. It's the duration of time that is the obstacle between where we are, and where we want to be. No wonder it brings up feelings of discomfort, boredom, or even anger. But what if we could wait differently? What could we see?
The Loss Of Starry Nights
For thousands of years, the sight of a star-filled sky has been a unifying human inheritance. The invention of the electric lamp in the late 19th century changed that. This has come with so many benefits, but what do we lose when we can no longer see the starry skies?
Steady(ing) Presence
There are metaphoric mountains in the backdrop of all our lives. Standing strong through the different seasons, providing a steady reference point for all the change.
The Best Kind of Localist
Can you point north from where you're reading this right now? Do you know what grasses are native to your area? Many of us are urgently connected to global news yet know very little about where we're at: our local people and places.
You're Too Good For Perfection
Did you know that when we blush, our stomachs blush too? And that our eyes are sensitive enough to see the light of a candle 30 miles away? It's an amazing thing, our bodies. And its fragilty is a core part of that beauty.
Noticing Fragility
A crack, a wrinkle, or a moving cloud. If it's not forever, then it's fragile, at least on some timescale. Responsive to the sands of time. Alive. What reminds you of life's fragility?
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