“I think that I cannot preserve my heath and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least, — and it is commonly more than that, — sauntering through the woods…” — In his essay Walking, Henry David Thoreau discusses the subtle art of wandering in nature and the healing effects and spiritual rejuvenation that arise when one manages it. Early on in the essay, he spends a fair few words dissecting the idea of sauntering. He claims the word originated in…

“Only a man at peace with his Creator could find sleep in a place of worship.” — In his stunning historical fiction Samarkand, Amin Maalouf crafts a historically-based story about Omar Kayyam during the time he was composing his famous Rubaiyat. Omar Kayyam was an 11th century poet, astronomer, philosopher, and mathematician. In the fictionalized account, Omar has been accused of insulting Islam (for many reasons including…

How Our Perspective Changes The Nature Of Work Itself — In his miraculous (and very short) novel The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran tells the story of Amlustafa, a fictional prophet about to leave the town he has lived in for twelve years. The townsfolk are sad to see him go and seek to ask for a final few shards of wisdom…

How The Distinction We Draw Between Work And Play Makes Us Miserable — In one of Alan Watts’ classic essays, Work As Play, he draws our attention to a common philosophical error: misunderstanding the very nature of work and play. He describes our sense of play or having fun as something that does not produce a useful result: We are delighted by it…

How The Passage Of Time Encourages A Belief In Fate — In Schopenhauer’s essay Transcendent speculation on the apparent deliberateness in the fate of the individual (I KNOW, that’s a title and a half), he explores the idea that our sense of free will changes as we age. His basic premise is that we are more likely to believe in fate…

The Lost Art Of Presence Discovered At Walden Pond — I don’t think Thoreau would respect the hustle. Maybe I don’t either? In his masterpiece Walden, Thoreau comes to a similar conclusion to Alan Watts regarding the lies we’re told about agency. He looks at the definition of a person much the same way Watts does, only he focuses his…

How Our Flawed Understanding Of What A Person Is Produces A Lifetime Of Frustration — Like most problems, this one is not new. It’s been floating around in the ether for quite some time now, whispered into journals or spoken in drunken slurred speech on the way home from the bar when the speaker knows that no one will remember their words. We tell children…

Letting Nature Lead Us; First Seeking God’s Kingdom; Matthew 6:24–34 — The idea of learning from nature is nothing new. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years, and current movements around the world are pushing people back into this space of contemplating the slow and gentle lessons to be found in nature. …

What The Studies Actually Say About How Babies Should Sleep | Part IV — Over the last couple of days, we’ve been exploring the brilliant paper by Elaine Barry, which compiled the known research on infant sleep to develop an overarching view of what we actually know about how babies sleep. So far, we’ve looked at the historical perspective, the medical view, and the…