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"Beginning is easy.  Continuing is hard."  -Japanese Proverb

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difference

I mostly prefer experiencing life with someone else, while others mostly prefer experiencing life alone.   Recently, I had my first experience with rock balancing.   I was alone, and so I took a picture and sent it to a friend.   Not having someone with me made the experience somehow less real.   Only by sharing the experience could I truly enjoy it. Others better reflect upon things privately, perhaps through journaling, mediation, or art.  For these people, the presence of another person only distracts from their ability to reflect and so fully realize the experience. There is no right way but to live in harmony with one's self.
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on values

Do our values change?   Or do we simply lose track of who we are?   When I was a boy, I was obsessed with David Carradine’s character Kwai Chang Caine.   A fugitive shao-lin monk, he was forced to drift throughout the old west with only the clothes on his back and a few belongings, no place, no family, no friendships.   And while each episode presented a new hardship to bear, he faced each with complete equanimity, finding purpose in the spiritual care of others.   As a teenager, I longed to be just like him.   But I grew up, went away to college, started a career and a family, and became busy.   Then a couple of years ago, I found myself alone again – forced to sort out who I was and what I might want from life.   During one period of reflection, I conceived of a set of guiding principles that resonated deep within me:   simplicity – the avoidance of all but that which is either necessary or fulfilling, harmony ...
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efficiency versus flow

This diagram illustrates my frustration with contemporary life.  The square represents the most efficient way to complete an activity or task.  The circles represent the available blocks of time due to meetings, appointments, etc.  The square won't fit and so has to be divided over two time blocks.  The result is it takes twice as long to accomplish and wastes time that could've been used for something else (i.e. the white space within the circles.) In real life, this manifests mostly as having to divide my work day up due to doctors appointments, swimming with my son, etc.  And so, I start something, work on it a while, put it away, then start again the next time.  Rather than start and finish it in one block of time. I think this is a consequence of modern industrial life.  Our obsession with efficiency, causes us to schedule into ever smaller blocks of time.  But this has the unintended consequence of making meaningful work, that requires l...
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