a cure for the agony

Show Navigation

Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that. But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.

via//

i know with certainty that technology will not save us.

7 months ago

Although I didn’t anticipate it, being out of the kitchen while still in such close proximity allowed me to absorb practices organically, over time. Until I had a treasure trove of information in my mind. I began to mimic what I saw. [I learned…] just because I don’t get it the first time, or even the second or third – it doesn’t mean that I’m a fraud just that I haven’t mastered it yet and if I want to and if I’m serious about it I better keep going. And the best thing about it all is that the more I make, the more I eat out, the more I realize how little I know and how much more there is out there. Which instead of making me despair, makes me glad because as long as I will be on this planet, I will always have something to do.

7 months ago

Satisficers […] are those who make a decision or take action once their criteria are met. […] Maximizers […] can’t make a decision until after they’ve examined every option, so they know they’re making the best possible choice. […] Barry Schwartz argues that satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers must spend a lot more time and energy to reach a decision, and they’re often anxious about whether they are, in fact, making the best choice.

7 months ago

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” - S.J.

(Thanks, Carrie.)

7 months ago

‘And what is it,’ I said softly, more to myself than to John, ‘what is it that people do? What do we live to do, the way a horse lives to run?’
I didn’t expect an answer, and John didn’t give one. He just moved his chair closer to mine and put an arm around my shoulders. ‘You’re awfully tired, aren’t you?’
I nodded, trying to hold back another wave of tears.
[…]
John brought his other arm around and folded me to his chest. He was still wearing his bulky down parka. It was like a pillow against my cheek. I could feel his heart beating beneath my coat. For a moment, I let the anxiety in my chest relax, let myself forget everything I had to do that day, let myself feel utterly safe. And then I understood that John was answering my question, even though he didn’t know he was. This is it, I thought. This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.

8 months ago

I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful.

8 months ago

via

medicine

I have learned that health does not equal medicine does not equal health.

See: discussions of pharmacist interventions at work, MD stories in Ina May’s guide, Gawande, dietician’s chronicles in the nursing home, etc., etc., etc.

Long life depends on keeping active, staying interested, and eating a diet high in volume but low in calories.

11 months ago

Men do better when they are working for women than men.” [Para:] Women do better when they are working for men than women.

11 months ago