Out to sea
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 02.26.21
This week: be the change, nature therapy, book reviews, and more…
It’s classic bumper sticker wisdom: be the change you wish to see in the world.
For a long time I thought it meant this:
These days I’m coming to embrace a different understanding—one in which meaningful change is hard. Like, really hard. It’s a process that is almost never complete and feels more like being out to sea:
To survive at sea, you need to strengthen certain muscles:
When you finally arrive at Change Island, after you take a well deserved rest, different work awaits—guiding new arrivals into port, exploring the island, and perhaps, eventually, launching your boat yet again. Those experiences will require things like:
The bad news is that meaningful change requires hard work and personal growth. However, there is also good news: whether you’re out to sea or hanging on the island, you don’t need to be fixed, or right, or perfect. You don’t have to be changed.
It is equally impactful (perhaps more so) to be the change in process.
🖤
For more of my writing on change, see “Out to Sea,” a companion essay to this newsletter, along with “Unfolding” and “Order —> Disorder —> Reorder.”
I Didn’t Know. Did you?
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but there’s a little more to the story. Nerd out about it here.
Field Notes
Time in nature has been essential mental health self-care for me in the past year. I hear similar reports from clients, including a few who have successfully implemented mid-day walks to counter feelings of burnout. These anecdotal observations track with research on the link between outdoor recreation and mental wellness. The important thing to know is that the threshold for positive impact is pretty low—just 2 hours spent outside per week. This seems accessible, even for a busy schedule.
Book Notes
Since we are nearing the end of February, here’s a look at my booklist from the past month, with ratings and micro-reviews.
Treasure Chest
I bet you find a gem! ➔ how to wrap your head around 500,000 COVID deaths | updates on progressive stuff: defunding police in Austin and McDonald’s as a minimum wage case study | why we miss hugging | the history of the high five1 | you’ve heard of slow thinking and slow food, but what about slow media2 and slow art? | vacation with an artist | March 10 - a virtual meditation with sage Sharon Salzberg | A Warning to My Readers3 | Not Our First Goat Rodeo
Have a great weekend! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
Via Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport.
Via Austin Kleon.