Towards a Year of Living Beautifully
On the Path to Flourishing and Fulfillment [Newsletter #36]
Happy 2023 (🎉!), and welcome back to the Good Life Newsletter -- an ongoing collection of quotes, links, and events from me, Sean Waters.
This is #36, with some fun opportunities to re-frame goal-setting, being, and becoming through an aesthetic lens. What happens, I've been wondering, when we approach our lives as emerging works of art?
💎 Inspiring Quotes I'm Considering
"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable."
― Robert Henri, Painter, 1865-1929
"I want to live in a world created by art, not just decorated by it."
―Banksy, Street Artist, 1974-
"Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul and without regard for personal results. Do the work though it was given to you by the universe itself because it was."
―Michael Singer, Writer, 1947-
"Beauty isn't all about nice loveliness like ... beauty is about a more rounded, substantial becoming, an emergent fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth ... a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life."
―John O'Donahue, Poet 1956-2008
🔗 Fun Links for a Newish Year
1.) Personal rituals for improving our relationships to time from the Stoa: a practice to recall, reflect, release, and resolve. Overview here.
2). Need a creative resolution? Consider living more beautifully. John O'Donahue's inteverview with Krista Tippet is gorgeous. (Thanks Adam)
3.) On launching a worthy pursuit, see Michael Bungay Stanier's How To Begin: Start Doing Something that Matters. Great book summary here.
2.)A life-design and systems-thinking approach to early retirement -- a review of Jacob Lund Fisker's Early Retirement Extreme via sloww.co.
5.) The New York Public Library's post on Philosophy as a Way of Life has me thinking about practical philosophy as a way of living well. (Thanks Brian)
📅 Spring 2023 Sessions
I'm more committed than ever to exploring projects, patterns, and relationships that matter. If you're feeling called to join us, let me know. Still space in these workshops ... (and you'll notice some live music events as well 😊.)
Coming up in February:
Tuesday February 7th. Cohort #1 of the Art of Living Beautifully. Explore ten creative habits of mind and heart from perennial world wisdom and modern psychology of creativity. So stoked on this one! Twelve weeks. $850 buy-in.
Wednesday, February 8th. Cohort #13 (!) of Writing the Good Life. Expand our capacities for mindful writing and authentic becoming. How can a daily writing habit help us cultivate lives worth examining? 7 weeks. $700 buy-in.
Tuesday, February 14th. Luxuriant Movement Group. Facilitated by certified Alexander Technique teacher Joshua Myrvaagnes, we explore our mind-body unity to move, speak, and sing with more ease. Drop-in. Reply for details.
Saturday, February 18th. Sean Waters Livestream. Hanging out in the garage studio, going through my songbook, taking requests, and celebrating the joy of singing and making music. Free and Live via Facebook Live.
... and if you're in Fort Collins, I'm performing all original music with some friends at The Forge Publick House on January 28th, February 25th, and March 31st. All events 8pm-10pm, free, 21+.
For all Wisdom Workshops, scholarships and $50/month payment plans available by application. If you're a kind and curious person who wants to commit to some surprising growth, we want you in one of these groups.
In 2022, we had over forty participants from seven countries, and our alumni include learning consultants at Microsoft, school founders, leaders, counselors, coaches, dancers, enterprise sales experts, early retirees, and college students. Here's what our participants have said about their experiences in the Wisdom Workshop.
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Here's to approaching our lives like inimitable works of art,
hope to get to see you in February,
Sean
😊 Thank you for your support! ~ your referrals and conversations mean the world to me.
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