Allies

If you can only read one book on calling or vocation, make it this one: Callings by Gregg Levoy.

I have a lot of this kind of book, and have read even more than I have (see widget on the right hand side, if those widgets still work). I originally read the library copy but then bought it and I'm reading it again now. It's chock full of wisdom and blends principles and practice in a helpful way. Some quotes from merely the introduction and first chapter:

What happens when you discover, too, that you yourself are the prime saboteur, that whenever you have a breakthrough, it's followed by a breakdown, that you unconsciously blow a fuse every time you think too big, move too fast, get too excited, run too much juice through the system, as if you're sending up balloons in a room whose ceiling is studded with nails.

Be willing to approach obstacles as if they might be allies, and make your leaps of faith accordingly.

Awakening is attached to suffering like a rope to a bell, and you're not going to pull on it without making some noise.

Ruins...have to remind you that all your greatest efforts, all the greatest efforts of even hundreds of generations of men and women, thousands of years of human history, will yield nothing absolute, nothing that will last, and that the great thing, the real accomplishment, is building your house in full view of the volcano.

I decided to do some painting yesterday. I had it in mind to do a self-portrait of sorts and this is what happened. It started as an eye, I think. Perhaps it still is. I'm just glad it's colourful and positive and not black or scary.

And this is the obligatory leftover paint picture which, as usual, I like just as much. The paper ruckled so it was hard to get a decent photo. I am still finding tiny orange dots on my kitchen cupboard doors.