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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 131 (Jan 29, 2023) — How to Appreciate, Life Purpose Books, Mind as Garden, & More
Sloww Sunday shares creations from Sloww along with curations of fascinating finds to 10,000+ students of life. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding the email version of this newsletter to other lifelong learners.
🌎 Lighter Living
How to Appreciate People for Who they Are
People are like seeds. Like seeds, we did not choose or control our environments. Like seeds, we were and are shaped and developed by our environments. Like seeds, our potentials were and are hindered and helped by our environments. Understand that there are reasons why we are the way we are—reasons that none of us chose or controlled. Once you truly see this, it no longer makes sense to blame someone for who they are not. Instead, appreciate them for who they are.
🌹 A rose is a rose:
- “When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as ‘rootless and stemless.’ We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.” — Timothy Gallwey
🌲 Tiny seed to giant tree:
- “We are rooted in our environment and depend on its offerings no less than a tree whose health is inextricable from the sunlight, air and soil that surround it. We, too, begin as a seed whose growth and development depend on its environment. Our capacity for happiness, confidence, ecstasy, empathy, love and hate, is not of our own making. None of this means that we cannot change, learn and grow, or that making the effort to do so is unimportant – on the contrary, it is essential – but it does mean that the extent to which we succeed in our attempt, relative to others, is not something for which we can take credit. Just as the tiny seed that grows into a giant redwood cannot take credit for its height, we cannot take credit for what we become. In an important sense, our achievements are not really our achievements. We are notes in life’s melody, not its composer.” — Raoul Martinez
🏞️ Seed + system:
- “As I learn more about the seed of true self that was planted when I was born, I also learn more about the ecosystem in which I was planted—the network of communal relations in which I am called to live responsively, accountably, and joyfully with beings of every sort. Only when I know both seed and system, self and community, can I embody the great commandment to love both my neighbor and myself.” — Parker Palmer
🌱 One seed:
- “It only seems as if we differ from each other. A flower on a blossoming tree can think that it is a separate being, but all flowers are parts of the same blossoming of one apple tree, and they all come from one seed.” — Leo Tolstoy
🌌 Go deeper:
- “All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the ones that make plants or children? Go deeper.” — Marcus Aurelius
🦵 Why do we forget all this? Because humans have legs:
- “There is really and truly no way of separating out independent things. And this is difficult for people to understand because of our method of motion. A plant is understandable as something growing out of the earth because it’s rooted. But human beings wander about on legs. And we don’t seem so stuck to things as plants do. And therefore we have delusions of separation.” — Alan Watts
Pair with: Money Mind Manifesto: Master Your Mind from the Mental Disease of More Money
Explore more: How do I design a lighter life (Sloww Stage 1)?
🧭 Deeper Purpose
What are your favorite life purpose books?
A couple months ago, I asked you for your intentional living book recommendations. Now, let’s tackle life purpose. What’s missing from the lists below? Let me know, and I’ll include them in next week’s newsletter.
⭐️ My favorites so far are:
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl | Book Summary | 🔒Premium Summary
- Yes to Life by Viktor Frankl | Book Summary | 🔒Premium Summary
- A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle | Book Summary | 🔒Premium Synthesis
- Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer | Book Summary | 🔒Premium Summary
🔥 Most excited to read next:
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces & The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
- Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life & Living an Examined Life by James Hollis
- How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen
- The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
- The Element & Finding Your Element by Sir Ken Robinson
- The War of Art & The Artist’s Journey by Steven Pressfield
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Get the eBook: Ikigai 2.0: A Step-by-Step Guidebook to Finding Life Purpose & Making Money Meaningfully (+ Bonus Workbook)
Explore more: How do I find higher purpose (Sloww Stage 2)?
🧠 Mental Wealth
The Mind is a Garden
Let’s stick with the theme of seeds from above.
According to Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements:
“The human mind is like a fertile ground where seeds are continually being planted. The seeds are opinions, ideas, and concepts. You plant a seed, a thought, and it grows. The word is like a seed, and the human mind is so fertile! The only problem is that too often it is fertile for the seeds of fear. Every human mind is fertile, but only for those kinds of seeds it is prepared for. What is important is to see which kind of seeds our mind is fertile for, and to prepare it to receive the seeds of love.” — Don Miguel Ruiz
And James Allen in As a Man Thinketh:
Get Mini Mind: 365 Daily Emails of Bite-Size Brain Food
Explore more: How do I master the mind (Sloww Stage 3)?
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
On Pride of Achievement
Any time you find yourself feeling superior, wanting to take credit, or maybe even spiritually narcissistic, remember these words from Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Lottery of Birth: Public Summary | 🔒Premium Synthesis
Explore more: How do I embody wisdom (Sloww Stage 4)?
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Go with the Sloww,
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur
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