iCiNG Transformation Challenge: 15/28
[ 15 February 2009 ]
“Make for yourself a world you can believe in. It sounds simple, I know. But it’s not. Listen, there are a million worlds you could make for yourself. Everyone you know has a completely different one — the woman in 5G, that cab driver over there, you. Sure, there are overlaps, but only in the details. Some people make their worlds around what they think reality is like. They convince themselves that they had nothing to do with their worlds’ creations & continuations. Some make their worlds without knowing it. Their universes are just sesame seeds & three-day weekends & dial tones & skinned knees & physics & driftwood & emerald earrings & books dropped in bathtubs & holes in guitars & plastic & empathy & hardwood & heavy water & high black stockings & the history of the Vikings & brass & obsolescence & burnt hair & collapsed soufflés & the impossibility of not falling in love in an art museum with the person standing next to you looking at the same painting & all the other things that just happen & are. But you want to make for yourself a world that is deliberately & meticulously personalized. A theater for your life, if I could put it like that. Don’t live an accident. Don’t call a knife a knife. Live a life that has never been lived before, in which everything you experience is yours and only yours. Make accidents on purpose. Call a knife a name by which only you will recognize it. Now I’m not a very smart man, but I’m not a dumb one, either. So listen: If you can manage what I’ve told you, as I was never able to, you will give your life meaning.” — Jonathan Safran Foer, A Convergence Of Birds.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Tags: inspiration,
life,
quote Add Gala on Twitter!
What a wonderful quote! I actually read it twice because I think it is so beautiful – and so true! It is a little bit funny, since I heard of Foer, I have been wanting to read his books and during the last couple of weeks I seem to stumble upon his quotes everywhere. Maybe a sign? :)
Brilliant. So inspiring. I post a quote every Monday over at my blog Charade: www.studentcharade.blogspot.co…
x
I tend to always fall for these kinds of quotes that are “beautiful” and “inspiring,” but really it just makes me feel good for a minute and then it goes away, because the idea is abstract & I don’t know how to implement it…I need fantastical roadmaps, plans, diagrams, step-by-step how-to’s…but I can’t seem to make them for myself. David Horvitz’s tumblr comes a bit closer (http://davidhorvitz.tumblr.com/), but even those ideas aren’t enough to come close to the magic described by this quote.
help, I think this is called ennui!
:\
^i thought it was rather interestingly expressed in this quote, actually.
However the people who ‘make their worlds without knowing it’ sound like they have the most fun.
dxxx
Excellent quote. Excellent.
And I agree that the core ideas have been talked about a lot lately, but not always very well, and not always in a way that makes it all sound all that interesting, let alone inspiring…
So I really enjoy coming across quotes like this that sort of reignite the excitement and wonderment for me. Stokes the fire, I suppose.
It was exactly what I needed this morning, and I’m feeling all Happy Dance / What a Great Day after reading it. Awesome.
Thanks, Gala!
Wow. I really like that quote. Nice one!
I find it highly inspiring, but I still think that many people, even though knowing what they need to do, don’t know how to achieve it.
So it got me thinking, if there was a blog or a webpage for those people. A place where people could discuss every question and every new idea thet crosses their mind. iCiNG is probably one of these perfect lighting pages, but it would just be great to know more…
heyyyyyyyyyy if my life is all skinned knees and emeralds, i don’t mind. xx
WOW! lol at the words are pictures muck up on the comment board.
still working on my vocabulaary..
www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/54…
That is beautiful.
Well I like, even if others don’t…
reminds me of a magnet i have on my fridge that reads:
you know you do create your own world, so paint pretty pictures!
i live by this credo:) thanks gala d!
This was incredibly beautiful.
Thank you.
falling in love in an art museum :)
love the quote – thanks, gala!
xox
That was a beautiful quote. I heart it, thanks Gala. x
Love Jonathan Safran Foer, and if you haven’t read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I would definitely recommend it. His way of looking at life inspires me.
It reminds me a lot of words by one of my absolute favorite authors. His motto of sorts is “Live a life deliberate” which is so simple, but so true. I’m sure you would absolutely adore him gala
Here is one of the tracks from his audiobook-type thing
Christopher Gutierrez-“This One Is Mine, So I’m Taking It Back”
www.box.net/shared/bx5t79i9ll
jonathan safran foer’s writing is wonderful
This is incredibly beautiful.
Beautiful words always make me happy, happier — & I love the enumeration here. Books dropped in bathtubs! The history of Vikings! Sesame seeds! Lovely.
I love quotes, all sorts of quotes. & I love this one because it’s not especially authoritative — you make of it what you want, & it’s still right.
So thank you!
That is such a cute quote! The problem is, the sesame seeds & holes in guitars sound like a better manifesto than living a deliberate life . .
Laura, I’m just the opposite! The more abstract, the better. It’s interesting how different people work — if I got a list of concrete things to do to achieve success, I would never do them. It’s stuff like this that actually gets me going.
This quote resonated with me a lot. “Make your world” just puts things into a perspective that I tend to forget. Instead of “take control of our life, think positive, make things happen” the idea of “make your world” sounds so simple yet all-encompassing. You make your environment, you make your friends, you make yourself, you make your thoughts. It all seems so simple. The only decision you ever really need to make is deciding to make your world positive.
How’s everyone’s challenges going? Nobody seems to be talking about them anymore.
a beautiful quote – and a good reminder. it reminds me of being eleven or twelve and reading anais nin – the way she describes creating her own world, and the way as a kid my brain just exploded at the thought that i could do that as an adult as well, and life didn’t have to give way to responsibility and unconscious tedium.
now i am an adult, i do need reminding.
so thanks, kitten.
It’s interesting how things go, hmm? No one is really talking about their challenge at all any more, which is sad & makes me feel like there’s not a lot of point in continuing to post about it EVERY day until the end of the month! What do you think?
As for the quote… Obviously I love it, which is why I posted it. & I think you can write how-to’s & draw treasure maps for people all you like, & I feel like I do a lot of that, & the world is full of those really, but ultimately it comes down to the individual to select what’s actually important to them & then to put it into action! Plus… My plan will be different for yours, or hers, or his. Which is why there’s not really any ultimate rulebook for life. Which is nice ;>
I am totally rambling, I just woke up & haven’t taken my vitamins yet!
I simply love Jonathan Safran Foer!
It’s as if every single word he says or writes goes straight into my heart.
Wonderful quote, and so true!
my motivation is going through the roof from this challenge, i spent about 5 hours in the garden today ripping out weeds, mowing and generally cleaning up, i have so much more energy now that i’ve been going to the gym 4 times a week, i just feel like i can spend my time much more actively rather than hibernating inside with my computer.
my reward for all my good work was feasting on a big juicy mango and something i’ve never tried before dragonfruit! it was so tasty, alomst like a lemonade-kiwifruit hybrid. the skin is such an amazingly vivid pink i just had to try it.
i’m sad that there aren’t as many messages on here than at the start too. keep up the messages everyone! we are past the half way mark now :)
thought i would post an image because the dragonfruit is so cool
teagans.files.wordpress.com/20…-
fruit-3.jpg
thought i would post an image because the dragonfruit is so cool
teagans.wordpress.com/2007/10/...
gala, please don’t stop posting about this. i for one am getting so, so much out of iTC. i’m reading ‘how to heal your life’, which has made me see things in such a different light. that’s one of a whole bunch of things i’m doing (i have to g oout now so i won’t go into it all!) and reading your inspiring words every day makes this fun. it could be seriously hard work, but knowing that there’s support out there and that other people are doing this too makes it infinately easier. and your quotes do too. i can’t tell you how glad i am. and the changes are showing up in so many wonderful and unexpected ways.
don’t stop! take your vitamins! x
xx
I agree with Ashleah and beckyecky- the things that you post are insrpiring and helpful. I guess that I haven’t posted much because I’m new to posting on here, and because I’ve felt guilty as one of my main challenges (start a journal) hasn’t started at all (I think I posted a few days ago about the problems I was having, so I won’t bore everyone again with that). But seriously, you help so much. It is appreciated. :) * pokes people to comment more *.
keep talking, everyone, and keep going!
I worked out extra today and talked to my love about self-improvement and am feeling so delightful! ahhh I would say more but brevity suits me at this moment. keep posting though, gala, I look forward to these.
Jonathan Safran Foer is a total genius with words! He stirs my deepest feelings like very few authors do(and I read a lot of books!)
And Gala I think we should pursue the iTC – I hit a few bumps but have really come into this week blasting with energy and inspiration and I think it makes a difference to have a daily reminder/kick up the butt/inspiration session courtesy of your brilliant mind! – please don’t feel you are wasting your time coz I think many of us are getting a lot out of it!
I love how Jonathan Safran Foer sees the world. I’ve been a fan of his since Everything Is Illuminated, and I have the book from which this quote is taken. I’m always so inspired by people who see the world so differently and magically. And having met him several times, I think he genuinely does that every day.
By the way, Gala, I think you should continue to post every day. You are inspiring people more than you probably realize. People lurk, and sometimes don’t comment…doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention or being helped. :)
I’ve had a horrendous few days! Not exercising and eating like CRAP. I’m back on the wagon as of today, though.
Tomorrow, I’ll work out!
I love Jonathan Safran Foer so much. You have no idea.
But most of his books make me cry.
Yay, ITC comments. :) I think you should keep posting every day, I enjoy the reminder.
As for me, how I’m going has been a mixed bag, but I’m going to think about it positively. I’m halfway towards opening my business, got an internship for uni, started french lessons, and have exercised every day except this weekend (and what an awful weekend, I needed the break – did not need to eat Wendys, donuts & pizza though!), I got a new hoop and can keep it up for the length of a song FINALLY.
I’m really glad to be making changes in my life that I’ve been meaning to for ages. Off to attempt more blog posts!
This just clicks, you know? Those are some very good words and I thank you for sharing!
As for my iTC, today has been a good day! I think… gosh, I feel like at this stage, it’s beginning to get hard to tell. Is anyone else feeling like that?
Anyway, now for me to brag: Only six people in my class passed our maths test, and – I really couldn’t believe it – I was one of them! The night before the test I had a major anxiety break down and I really thought some things over. I truly believe having a clear mind the next day helped me much more than if I had of spent that time studying.
Now: when I heard only 6 in my class passed, I pretty much took that as ‘Oh crap, I’ve failed”. Occasionally the idea that I had passed popped into my mind but I pushed it away! One of my bad habits is avoiding positive, hopeful thoughts in fear of disapointment. I think I should work on that, too. I have to allow myself to see things working out well, because, as the wise Universe keeps telling me, ‘Thoughts become things’!!
Okay, I wrote way more than I set out to, but oh well. You guys insprie me to no end! LOVE.