Hey ,

How often do you stop? Not sit and veg in front of the TV, or kill a few hours and a thousand bad guys on a games console, but actually stop. Like letting a square of chocolate melt across your tongue while giving it your complete attention, without worrying about the calories, the to-do list, or the myriad other things that fly through our brains.

Since our son's birth, I’ve got even faster, even more hectic. In my sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled state, I sink deeper into the Productivity Cult of our times, chasing every second for a goal. I struggle to sit and talk, without pulling out coins to practise a trick, or a book to skim read in the micro silences.

Fiction Bite - A well-earned break

Jane closed her eyes, shutting out the sprawl of toys, the washing basket heaped with three days of laundry, the kitchen sink overflowing with pots. She lifted her warm mug, wafting the earthy smell, and sipped, letting coffee trickle and warm its way down. A sigh as she unscrunched her shoulders, rejoining the world as baby cries shift into snuffling snores. She kept her eyes shut, only opening them to find more coffee.

Quote of the Week

“Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.” ― Alan W. Watts

Book recommendation - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Magnificent. A complex tale weaving in computing, linguistics, religion, politics, skateboarding, and philosophy with rushing suspense and fantastic characters. It’s worth reading just for the first two chapters where Stephenson turns pizza delivery into heart pumping action within a captivating world. And the book only gets better from there.

An exercise

I could not think of a better exercise than the Orange Meditation, found in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Your True Home (Day 125).

‘Take the time to eat an orange in mindfulness. If you eat an orange in forgetfulness, caught in your anxiety and sorrow, the orange is not really there. But if you bring your mind and body together to produce true presence, you can see that the orange is a miracle. Peel the orange. Smell the fruit. See the orange blossoms in the orange, and the rain and the sun that have gone through the orange blossoms. The orange tree has taken several months to bring this wonder to you. Put a section in your mouth, close your mouth mindfully, and with mindfulness feel the juice coming out of the orange. Taste the sweetness. Do you have the time to do so? If you think you don't have time to eat an orange like this, what are you using that time for? Are you using your time to worry, or using your time to live?’

Final Words

We’re on the cusp of the Christmas break, when here in England, we take a breath of overindulgent relaxation. I instead look forward to the year's end, calculating this year's accomplishments. But I’m going to fight this impulse, and choose the sleepy afternoons sitting in company with no aim but presence, and see if I can purge the urge to be productive. It’s my goal for the holidays...

With Love

Joe

P.S. What did you think of this week’s email? Which was your favourite bit? Hit reply and let me know.

P.P.S. Can you do me a favour? Just click this link here. I'm testing a feature.