A Moment of Pause and Stillness

My annual invitation to slow down, to quiet yourself

Each year, I take an issue of this august newsletter to suggest to my dear readers, gently and respectfully, that they should slow down. If only for a week, if only for a day, if only for an hour, if only for a breath. As I wrote last year, slow down “to create space for the magic inside themselves to come to the fore.”

Yes, there is magic inside you, my friend, their is magic only you can access. It takes time and patience to discover it, turn it over like a prism reflecting waves of light beyond description, and embody it. We in the modern West find time and patience uncomfortable concepts, and even scarier to actualize. I invite you to reacquaint yourself with them. 

Take a few minutes to simply be with yourself, by yourself and for yourself. 

You May Have Missed

How to Make Every Day Count
Patrick J. McGinnis of FOMOSapiens interviewed me about living and thriving with a chronic medical condition

How a Heart Defect Affected the Trajectory of My Life
Julie Browne of Bold Becoming interviewed me about staying motivated and seeing the possible while living with a congenital heart defect.

Worth Your Time

• Legendary Wall Street investor Jim O'Shaughnessy interviewed my friend Ellen Fishbein recently. They discussed the how traditional publishing disrespects intelligent readers, the new wave of book publishing, Ellen’s “bible," Shakespeare’s sonnets, and much else. They also riff on Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, instantly making this podcast one of my all-time favorites.

• A Buddhist monk plays the Beatles’s Yellow Submarine. Amazingness ensues. (h/t Ian Leslie)

• The rise and surprising staying power of the George Foreman grill. (h/t MR)

• If you live in or are visiting the Washington, DC area, check out Lady Camellia in Old Town Alexandria for a delightful afternoon tea experience.

Photograph by Russell Smith. Taken on an iPhone while walking along a South Carolina beach, 2024.