Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012: Intentions

I'm thinking about the word elegance.

Elegance in the way my geometry teacher used to mean: like an elegant proof or an elegantly concise definition.

And the word silence, in particular, comes to me. I had to consider it for a few days to understand the connection.

Elegance means setting what is essential off with spaciousness, emptiness, so that you can see/hear/understand the essentials properly and appreciate how spare and simple they are are by nature.

Silence is the aural equivalent of space, and I crave it. I crave these kinds of sensory empty spaces. Deep winter, silence, bare rooms, dusk.

(My senses get overwhelmed easily.)

(I remember: the silence and pale colors and expanses of Iceland in early winter.)

Elegance is also deliberateness. I would like to remember to do less by default, to choose what I do and how. And then, to choose to do less of what I don't care about, and do what I do care about more simply, more beautifully, with more focus.

More elegance.

6 comments:

  1. i like this. i forget how important silence is far too often, and then realize how much i love/need it.

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  2. Fé - silence does not require consuming anything...so it doesn't get much publicity. ;) Pascal said, 'All men’s [sic?] miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.'

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  3. Erin - I hope YOUR intentions for this year are taking beautiful firm root.

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  4. For me, it can be hard to figure out what I care about in the first place. I get so engrossed or pumped up about certain things, but then I lose motivation later. I'm constantly questioning what is important both on an intrinsic level and personal one. You want to do what you care about with simplicity and focus. What DO you care about?

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  5. Steph - Even though we've talked about that now, I think I'll answer that question also in a post too, since it's such an obvious one to ask!

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