Pleasure delayed

Let the ice cream soften on a hot summer day.

Stop and smell the flowers while they're right in your way.

Let the mint melt, rather than take a bite.
The only way of being sure you take the full delight.

Take a little sip, if you really want a taste.
a chug is for the greedy and always such a waste.

I think you'll find walking is better than a drive.
Savoring every moment you're blessed to be alive.

Listen to the end before you formulate a thought.
The thing you started thinking isn't worth a lot.

The beauty lies in waiting. Pleasure, best delayed.
The work of a moment should sometimes take all day.

Consistency over effort

We tend to put a premium on effort, but consistency is the real key. In fact, often effort is the enemy of progress. Consistently leaving something in the tank means you don't get stuck on the side of the road. Hemmingway famously would stop his days writing mid-sentence. We should try to apply that to all the areas we seek growth and progress.

Think what we'd have if Tolstoy had tried to write the 1200 words of War and Peace in a week rather than the six years he took. Besides, the joy is in the doing, more than the being done. So stop working until you fall asleep at your desk. You're hurting your creations and worse, you're hurting yourself.

Savor the doing, stop when you have lots left to give and you'll be excited for tomorrow.

Shortcuts

There are no shortcuts. Finding a "cheat" that shortens your building time or lessens your learning curve only cheats yourself of the experience. Or worse, the feeling of achievement.

It's no coincidence that the more valuable a skill is to you personally, the longer it will take you to master. But, if you're concerned with how long 10,000 hours will take, then that's probably not a skill that speaks to your heart anyway.

Trees don't grow overnight. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to become the person we imagine we can be. 

Things

It's nice to have things. The right things can make your house a home, enhance your life, or just bring you a little joy. Even the simplest things, like shoes, can be a great luxury if they make it easier to walk. Or even if they just make you smile at your feet. Just be aware that there's a cost of acquiring things that go beyond the financial. There's a cost to your freedom.

Every time you add a thing to your life you make it harder to be fluid. To answer if the universe calls you away. Also, too many and you run the danger of filling your life with only giving the things the care or attention they need. Or worse you stop giving being mindful of what you're surrounded by. Things carelessly owned should be given to people who need them. Get lost in life, not your things.

Hope is scary

Hope that our hearts are right is a key to happiness. Hope and faith.

Hope that you're learning and growing. That tomorrow you'll be better equipped to be filled with acceptance and gratitude, for the gifts the universe has presented and will present to you. Faith that what we hope for matters. That we're a part of something bigger than ourselves.

But hope is scary. It's scary because you might get let down. You might find out that you were foolish to hope. That none of it matters and you're not connected. It would be easier to be cynical and jaded and snicker at the hopers.

The thing is, deep down I feel a connection to everyone and everything. I think we all do. So I have faith in hope.

Release and persevere

Release your idea of what's right. You don't know. It's not for you to know. All that's required is for you to persevere. When you know in the pit of your stomach what to do (and you do know), you persevere. There will be obstacles, no doubt. Most of them will come from within. There will be days you lose faith. Release and persevere. There will be days you feel you're not doing enough. Release and persevere. When you find those things that sing in your heart and are too beautiful to be anything other than rooted in truth, you release and persevere.

Call them, write it, quit the job, make the move, hold their hand, take the job, demand respect, give your love, be heard, listen. Create. Release and persevere.

Art not manipulation

Somewhere along the way we started confusing art with manipulation. That the point was to trick the observer into seeing our brilliance. Then, we tried to define what defines good art for some unknowable reason. Even tried to find a simple meaning for a word that was a meaning. 

Art is available for us to try to communicate an idea that's too big for simple communication. To connect us through the pieces of us that aren't easily explained or calculated. It takes on all sorts of forms. Some of them even look nothing like what we've come to think of as art. But, the minute we start manipulating that, putting our rational brains to it, it ruins it. We all have an artist inside us. The only way to let them out is to release.