I thought I would share a few online finds to help you start your weekend off right. Yay for weekends! First, I came across this quote on a blog that I follow, which I really liked.
Man, I love that. It's something I've pondered a lot. It's not that we should go and seek out difficulties, I wouldn't recommend that. However, it is interesting to me that we (myself included) can become so embittered and lose hope when difficulties come. The people I admire the most are usually people who have overcome. I'm not doing myself any favors by wanting to avoid the overcoming aspect of life. Especially as I look back at past difficulties and see that is what has made me who I am, more so than any other experience. Being refined is such a lovely, hard, beautifully painful process.
Second, you know how I love studies that reinforce my loves and beliefs. I came across this study that has concluded that spending time in nature increases your creativity. This finding doesn't really surprise me, since it feels like my thought process seems to be hindered when too many electronic screens are on around me (ie the tv, computer, phone, ect.) Sunlight and fresh mountain air seem to be the recipe to clearing my mind. Speaking of which, I really miss those things, being that the temperatures have rarely reached over 20 degrees F during the past couple of weeks.
"The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of this, literature had come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege." -Marilynne Robinson
Man, I love that. It's something I've pondered a lot. It's not that we should go and seek out difficulties, I wouldn't recommend that. However, it is interesting to me that we (myself included) can become so embittered and lose hope when difficulties come. The people I admire the most are usually people who have overcome. I'm not doing myself any favors by wanting to avoid the overcoming aspect of life. Especially as I look back at past difficulties and see that is what has made me who I am, more so than any other experience. Being refined is such a lovely, hard, beautifully painful process.
Second, you know how I love studies that reinforce my loves and beliefs. I came across this study that has concluded that spending time in nature increases your creativity. This finding doesn't really surprise me, since it feels like my thought process seems to be hindered when too many electronic screens are on around me (ie the tv, computer, phone, ect.) Sunlight and fresh mountain air seem to be the recipe to clearing my mind. Speaking of which, I really miss those things, being that the temperatures have rarely reached over 20 degrees F during the past couple of weeks.
Aside from the increased creativity this study talks about, being in nature is very soothing and quiet time allows for all sorts of thoughts. A good day in the garden really strengthens my ability to deal with life's stresses.
ReplyDeleteMama Wood, I'm the same. I think that's why I like hiking and going up the canyon so much. It helps me unwind.
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