Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,

on purpose,

in the present moment,

non-judgmentally.

 

—Jon Kabat-Zinn

Claudia L’Amoreaux

Mindful Digital Life

Maria Popova

Reinventing…

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

The year 2020 has challenged us to reinvent many aspects of our lives. In these last remaining weeks of a year we’ll all be happy to see end, I’m thinking about reinventing how we gather and celebrate. And I’m paying attention in particular to how orchestras are reinventing themselves because we need the arts more than ever. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Symphony has a new director—Esa-Pekka Salonen. They are offering a beautiful reinventive program that includes music by Ellen Reid, John Adams, Kev Choice, and Ludwig van Beethoven, and “a world premiere of Collaborative Partner Nico Muhly’s Throughline, a San Francisco Symphony commission written specifically for a digital medium and filmed in locations around the world.”

I recommend the concert for your family co-viewing as you reinvent how you gather and celebrate. Listen here.

And for another time together, Maria Popova, the prolific curator of Brain Pickings, shared a beautiful spoken word + musical moment with Meshell Ndegeocello reading Walt Whitman’s On the Beach Alone at Night with music by cellist Dave Eggar and guitarist Chris Bruce.

Here’s to creative reinvention. May these artists bring some reinventive inspiration into your lives.

Esperanza Spalding and musicians in Throughline, San Francisco Symphony

Take good care. Keep your spirits up. Connect. Reinvent.

Contemplating the work required to claim knowledge

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

Maria Popova in conversation with Krista Tippett

I spent a few hours today writing a blog post. This isn’t it. I couldn’t find my heart in it. So I dove into my Mindful Digital Life “editorial” folder in Evernote to see what captured my attention this week. I scrolled down through 20+ notes until I got to this one—a quote from Maria Popova on Krista Tippet’s @onbeing Instagram that struck me when I first saw it, and struck me again tonight.

If you’ve been reading my posts for a little while, then you know I’m slowly working my way through the book A Velocity of Being that Maria edited with Claudia Bedrick.

I’m listening to the interview that is the source of Maria’s quote. And I’m contemplating the work required to claim knowledge. That is actually what I was writing the post about earlier today—practices we can cultivate to help us do that work. I think it’s very related to what Maryanne Wolf is exploring in her book Reader, Come Home—The Reading Brain in a Digital World.

I like to listen to Krista Tippett’s unedited interviews…this one is 81 minutes and 31 seconds long. Imagine that. A deep conversation.

I hope you’ll listen with me.

Photo by Lucie Dawson

UPCOMING EVENTS—BAY AREA

Slow Art Day

If you’re in the Bay Area on April 6, SF MOMA will be hosting their annual SIow Art Day—an event “that aims to transform the act of viewing art. On a single day each year, people all over the world are encouraged to visit local museums and galleries to look at five pieces of art for an hour or more. After the slow-viewing exercise, participants meet for lunch to talk about their experiences.” I will be facilitating the lunchtime conversation this year. Tickets are $10. You can register here.

teen wisdom panel 2.0

I am looking forward to attending this event on April 26th, 7–9 pm, at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, sponsored by the Love Your Nature folks. It’s a rare opportunity to learn from teens themselves about what matters most. If you’re local to the Bay Area, you can register to attend here.

These little moments that reconnect me in the web of life and restore me to my senses…

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

2018 First Place Winner, Composition: American Robin, Christy Solo, Oregon 

Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then—open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.

~Last stanza of “Such Singing in the Wild Branches” by Mary Oliver

A few days ago the trees in my neighborhood filled with Robins gathering for a Winter berry harvest. It was the loud chattering of all these birds that got my attention, before my eyes took in the unusual movement in the trees above me. To describe the moment beyond that, I would have to turn to poetry. These little moments that reconnect me in the web of life and restore me to my senses…

The Great Backyard Bird Count is February 15–February 18. Even if you don’t actively participate, it’s good to know it’s happening. Explore the website with your family members. And if you don’t have a backyard, walk around your block and notice the birds more than usual. Here’s the GBBC page to help you identify birds you don’t know, and recommendations for various apps including the Merlin Bird ID app that I use.

“Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.”

Here’s a post I wrote almost a year ago that you might enjoy: “Lost in a sea of browser tabs? Cornell Lab of Ornithology to the Rescue.” It points to an amazing interactive website on bird migrations. I encourage you to spend a little time there.

What I am watching: Nicholas Thompson is the Editor-in-Chief of Wired. In this 7 minute video he discusses AI, Teens, Instagram, and Free Speech. If you live or work with teenagers, this is an excellent conversation catalyst.

What I am reading: My strategy of reading one letter a day in A Velocity of Being, edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick, is working. A special book. You could take turns reading letters to each other with your kids who are readers, and for kids not yet reading, pick out your favorites, read them aloud, and take time with the beautiful accompanying art.

Art by Cindy Derby, A Velocity of Being