⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

⏳Putting Time In Perspective: Humans are good at a lot of things, but putting time in perspective is not one of them. It’s not our fault—the spans of time in human history, and even more so in natural history, are so vast compared to the span of our life and recent history that it’s almost impossible to get a handle on it. To try to grasp some perspective, Tim Urban mapped out the history of time as a series of growing timelines—each timeline contains all the previous timelines (colors will help you see which timelines are which). All timeline lengths are exactly accurate to the amount of time they’re expressing. See it here.

🐺 Lone Wolf, Letting Go: Rob Hardy chronicles his transition from a "lone wolf" lifestyle to embracing community, challenging his previous notions of self-reliance, ultimately discovering the importance of trust and interconnectedness. Read it here.

🏛 Stoic Internal Goals Stop You From Ever Losing: Many in today's society grapple with feelings of envy and frustration, often due to external factors beyond our control. Epictetus teaches that true freedom and happiness lie in understanding the distinction between what we can and can't control. Instead of competing in external contests that can lead to inevitable defeat, one should focus on personal growth and character. Watch it here.

🎇 Image of The Week

This gorgeous photo of raindrops on a rose was captured by Filipp Kabanyayev who invented this style of lightpainting on leaves and flowers. See more of his stunning work here.

 🎥 Becoming A Personal Archivist

In navigating the ebb and flow of life, one profound lesson I am embracing is the inevitability of loss. It propels me to take preemptive actions today, actions that may console me when the face of loss appears on the horizon. Recently, the three-year anniversary of my grandmother's passing marked a day of reflection. This loss remains one of the profound sorrows of my life. Though she lived a remarkable 103 years, her absence has left an indelible void, stirring a poignant grief within.

A few weekends ago, an inexplicable pull led me to a 90-minute recording of a conversation I once had with her. The moment I pressed play, it became a voyage back in time. I am not sure what inspired me to hit the record button that day, but the gratitude I feel is boundless. This recording morphed into a time capsule, each word a reverberation from the past, each laugh a reminder of her essence. It was akin to being there beside her once more, engrossed in dialogues that would have faded in the chambers of memory.

This experience underscored the remarkable era we are living in. A time where technology gifts us the ability to capture life's ephemeral moments, to encapsulate the imagery, voices, and emotions that paint our lives. It's a call to action for all of us to morph into personal archivists, documenting the meaningful instances that thread the fabric of our existence.

By recognizing the harsh yet truthful reality that loss is an inevitable companion of life, we shatter the illusion of permanence. The beautiful tapestry of relationships and experiences we hold dear isn't bound to stay forever. This awareness births a proactive endeavor. It propels us to capture snippets of the present, a thoughtful gesture for our future selves who will, one day, traverse the path of grief.

Encouraging this practice isn't merely about preserving memories; it's about crafting a legacy of moments, each recording a token of love, each photograph a memoir of time spent well. It's a gentle beckoning for us all to live with intention, to appreciate the now, and to create a reservoir of memories that will console, remind, and inspire in times yet to come.

🌬 My Mother As A Child

I came across this poem from Nikita Gill a couple of weeks ago. Last week I shared a poem about meeting her father as a child. She has another about meeting her mother:

“In another universe,

I meet my mother

when she is a child.

We go for a walk at the seaside

and she tells me all the things

she loves about the world.

We share a hundred jokes

and she laughs so easily,

without a single worry.

I want to meet that version of her.

Wide eyed and full of joy.

Easy laughter and carefree.

Before the same world

she loved so deeply

broke her heart.”

🤓 Learn This Word

Lightgassing is when one person agrees with or validates another person's false beliefs or misconceptions in order to be supportive. Unlike gaslighting, a tactic of jerks and abusers, lightgassing is an (unintentionally harmful) tactic of friends and supporters.

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

Consolations from the Forest: Life-Altering Wisdom from Six Months Alone in a Siberian Cabin

“I am poised on the gangway. I will finally find out if I have an inner life.”

In February of 2010, philosopher-writer Sylvain Tesson took a hiatus from his fast-paced city life and headed for a small cabin on the banks of Lake Baikal in Russia. With a hearty supply of pasta, tabasco, vodka, and Nietzsche, Tesson embarked upon the impressive 3-day journey from Irkutsk to the western shores of the deepest lake in the world, where he planned to spend six months in solitude. His consequent book, Consolations of the Forest, is a collection of journal entries written during that time, not to mention an inspiring and galvanizing peek into the vast realm of retreat.

If his reasons for going sound familiar, or at the very least intriguing, you too may be prime for a retreat of your own:

• I talked too much

• I wanted silence

• Too behind with my mail and too many people to see

• I was jealous of Crusoe

• It’s better heated than my place in Paris

• Tired of running errands

• So I can scream and live naked

• Because I hate the telephone and traffic noise

But before we get into some sage yet refreshingly unabashed admissions from this intrepid explorer, let’s address the pertinence of ‘the retreat’ with relation to our own lives.

The Need for Retreat

Our modern world is dynamic, thrilling, and full of potential. Our modern world is also incessant, confusing, and rife with conflict. Although retreating is a centuries-old concept, civilization as it currently stands offers certain conditions from which it may be wise to periodically step back. For those who may feel that stepping back implies a certain ignorance of responsibility—a mere entertainment of fantastical whim—I offer Maria Popova’s words as comfort; “we inhabit the world more fully by mindfully vacating its mayhem.”

It’s not a question of turning our back on the world, but of creating the necessary foundations from which to turn our heart towards it. By periodically stepping away, suggests travel writer Pico Iyer, we can “see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.” Who doesn’t want to see more clearly and love more deeply?!

So many of our interactions are shrouded by adopted stories, context, and a heavily-influenced narrative. But if we give ourselves a chance to shed those strongholds, we liberate our ability to view people, places, and situations as they actually are.

That chance is offered through the paradigm of ‘the retreat,’ where isolation, simplicity and silence intersect to form the bedrock of awareness. Silence is now a rare and valuable commodity which, coupled with extended time, can unveil extraordinary (and typically dormant) creativity within each of us. Sometimes it arises from a heightened connection with our natural surroundings, or perhaps from inhabiting a space without distractions. In any case, the revelations are often profound and life-changing.

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With Wonder,

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