“Isn’t it the human tragedy that we try to organize our experience before we have it?”
This was a question posed in an online lecture I attended this week - I haven’t stopped contemplating it since. It was asked at the end of a talk given by Mark Vernon, a psychotherapist and writer whose special interest is in spirituality and inner being. The talk was hosted by Dr. Iain McGilchrist, in his membership site I’ve spoken of recently.
I had to snapshot the screen of the attndees, to save for a good laugh now and again. You could double my age and I might be as old as the average person in attendance. It seems I’ve taken my interest in being with those who are older and wiser than me to a new level.
I wouldn’t attempt to put the experience into words, as it would only diminish it. I will only say I had a euphoric glow for the remainder of the day and a sense that a small window of my brain that had been painted shut was finally open, letting in a rush of fresh air and sunlight. I changed in those 90 minutes in a way not worthy of words.
The question asked at the end is worth sharing because I believe it wraps all of our binary problems into one succinct statement. The tragedy of life isn’t that we experience suffering - it is that we try to organize it and anticipate the future from it.
A note: excuse the typos and lack of editing in these short pieces I send. They are a mind dump, unedited and un-perfected. A journal entry of sorts for anyone to read.
Your happiness is not a gift given to you by others.
Create a mantra for your life. If you aren't writing your story, someone else is writing it for you.
Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eml-radio-talking-truth/id1498113483?i=1000558947971
Hello my friends!
I'm finishing up the transition away from Locals onto Substack and wanted to be sure each of you have made the necessary adjustments to your accounts. For those of you who have remaining months left on your paid support here, I have comped you the balance over at Substack.
This will be the final week I post content here.
I will resume the live recordings over there, starting with our first call on Friday, March 3rd at 9am/12pm. Invitations to join the Zoom calls will go out on Substack. Mark your calendars!
Also, be sure to download the Substack App! I love the app and find it so helpful in organizing content I want to read later by keeping it on my dashboard.
See you on the other side!
https://eviefatz.substack.com/
One of the biggest challenges in writing my book is not being able to share any of it along the way. Given my narcissistic need for constant approval and attention, not having any feedback is killing me. Even negative attention is better than no attention at all (which explains a lot of my behavior in life), so not only am I missing the praise but I also miss my haters.
I need to break out of this cave. Thanks to Chuck Palahniuk who writes Spoiler Alert on Substack, but you would know as the author of Fight Club, I got the idea to share some excerpts and things that won’t make the final edit. This will give us both what we need. I get some attention and you get some thought provoking words to make you think (and possibly laugh, cry or both.)
Today’s snippet is from the first draft of a chapter titled, Remove Your Kindergarten Name Tag. I am currently on my third revision and we can all be thankful for this. As I walk my readers through the dark hallways of my earliest years, and attempt ...
Wanted to pass this short video along. We think of health in very limited ways. Faith, nature, love, communality, shared human experience…all prove to be just as necessary, if not more so, than going to the gym.
I’ve always viewed and taught health from this perspective. It is my belief the lack of these essential elements is as big an issue in our culture as poor diet and lack of movement.
The takeaway-we can do better🙏🏼
