Don't follow another's dogma; be your own song

What is life after a heart attack or after a diagnosis of incurable cancer? Jonathan Eastman talks about this in a short column,"Make sure your song doesn’t go unsung" for the St. Helena Star. Eastman writes, "Having a heart attack has a way of making you re-examine who you want to be. My life’s purpose, the gift that I bring to the world, is not yours. There is no one right way to be, to live. Discerning what is my way, what is your way, is a spiritual thing. It is a way of tapping into and experiencing the sacred. It means attending to the small things that keep your soul engaged, according to Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul. It means paying attention, focusing, being intentional, being present."

Eastman follows with, "The Hindu poet Tagore wrote, 'I have spent my days stringing and restringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.' In essence, living is about making sure your song doesn’t go unsung. And this is as true for families, and for communities, and for churches, as it is for individuals."

He also quotes Steve Jobs of Apple Computers who told a graduating class, "Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Artistic creations stem from artists' gardens

Earlier this month, Susan Smith-Durisek wrote about three Kentucky artists in her column "When artists garden:
The interplay of self-expression shows in their work", published in the Lexington Herald-Ledger.

Her profile of artist Nancy Evans Nardiello includes, "Taking the time to really look at the miracle of each plant allows Nardiello to garden and paint in the spirit of one of her favorite authors, Thomas Moore. In his Care of the Soul, Moore wrote that simply pausing and taking time to look around can transform a life."

Descriptions of the artists’ work support the column’s introduction, "Three local artists are growing three very different kinds of gardens. Yet there is a common thread among them: the interplay of self-expression in creating visual art and designing their own gardens. The combination has resulted in works that reveal intimate familiarity with the smallest details of growing things and hold an up-close and personal meaning in the artists' lives. For the rest of us, the result is some stunningly beautiful art."

Thomas Moore wrote,

"We may have to learn again the mystery of the garden: how its external characteristics model the heart itself, and how the soul is a garden enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored."

Moore's aphorisms underlined in reader's copy

bfrank has written about Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul for LibraryThing. Part review, part reflection, bfrank includes aphorisms that resonate with personal meaning. A profile page lets readers comment on the review and find other books of shared interest.