#35

I am intrigued by a fragment of a Robert Frost poem:

"Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender."

#34

As you may know, every couple of months I publish the newsletter of the Breath and water Club. When I do that, I don't publish a Tenacity Notes issue that week. Here, then, is The Breath and Water Club Newsletter #65.

You can find all the issues of the newsletter of the Breath and Water Club on my Web site.

Breathe: 15 minutes of intentional breathing twice a day.
Drink: 8 glasses of water a day.

Remember Icky Rice?
A reader suggested that I remind you to re-read the issues on eating and drinking:

*Imbue and Imbibe, #16
*Intentional Eating, #27 and Intentional Eating, #28
*Icky Rice #44

I re-read them, which got me to talking with friends and acquaintances about the ideas in them. So I've been hearing people's stories about intent, and eating and drinking, and healing -- and I am inspired all over again.

I invite you to read the issues and be inspired to investigate the possibilities you have to literally eat and drink health and well-being.

#33


My Web site has a new design. Check out the new Savvy Psychic look.

Working with the site, I realized that the Tenacity Notes page was getting really long and unwieldy. So I created a blog, with a link on the Tenacity Web Page to the blog. I hope that will be an easier way to look at past Notes. Take a look, and please let me know what you think. Thanks.

It was fun to review all the past Notes as I was transferring them to the blog. Some that particularly caught my eye were: July 28, 2009; and being impeccable; and the golden rule; and January 5, 2010; and string theory rules.

What are some of your favorites? Let me know. I can publish a favorites list.

There is a feature on each blog entry for emailing it to a friend (an envelope icon at the bottom of each post). I hope you'll use that feature frequently.

"If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something." Isn't that true in every aspect of our lives?

Esteemed historian, activist, and teacher Howard Zinn died in January. In a newsletter I subscribe to, Nygaard Notes, I learned of a 2004 article of Zinn's published in The Nation magazine entitled “The Optimism of Uncertainty.” The Optimism of Uncertainty could be another name for Tenacity notes! The Optimism of Not Knowing; The Optimism of Not Needing to Know; The Optimism of the Unknowable; The Optimism of the Great Mystery; The Optimism of Surrendering the Illusion That I Know...

Anyway, Nygaard quoted the closing words from that article:

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

"If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something." Doesn't that make good sense?

What is the purpose of art? What is the role of art in your life?

This week, immerse yourself in art. Look at pictures, draw a picture, take a picture, read a novel, attend a poetry reading, write a short story, make a book, listen to music, play music, see a performance, sing, dance, audition.