Marlow's Musings 11/17/24
Insights, adventures and fun stuff from this week.
Audio narration by David Marlow
We had color photography back when I turned 21 years old. It just so happens my younger brother was taking a photography class and had to take and print a photograph as an assignment. He could only develop black and white film: voilà, this photo.
Pictured with me is my lovely finacé now wife. On the anniversary of that photo, I share a thought about each day in our lives from Frederick Buechner.
“In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another day just like today, and there will never be another just like it again.
Today is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death.
If you were aware of how precious today is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all.”
Frederick Buechner
As Buechner points out, birthdays are special, no more so than the miraculous day we experience anew every day.
Enjoy your miraculous day.
Word of the Week
tarrion (n.)
Pronounced tar-ee-uhn.
“An odd interval of blankness you feel after something big happens to you but before you feel the resulting emotional reaction—stunned by a sudden loss, a stroke of luck, or an unexpected visitor—like those tension-filled seconds between a flash of lightning and the thunderclap that follows, which gives you a hint of how near you are to the coming storm. From tarry, to be late to react, or linger in expectation + carry on.”1
In case you missed it…
This week there were two Ikigai Thoughts for Today.
The first…Always Flexible
From wartime gallows humor to life philosophy - discover how Marines use the attitude of 'Semper Gumby' (always flexible) to face life's challenges, and why it matters for your Ikigai journey.
The second…Big and Small
Through Rilke's eyes, we explore how children see magnificence in the tiniest details - and why reclaiming this perspective might transform our own view of the world.
Ikiquest+
This week’s Coffee Contemplation: These things
A stranger's final tweet made me stop and think, prompting a real-time and raw reflection about life's priorities - both at its end and in our everyday moments.
Ikiquest+ subscribers can listen to it in audio narration or read the transcription.
If you aren’t yet an Ikiquest+ Subscriber, give it a try for free by clicking the box here.
Interesting Thing
The Smithsonian Institution just made an incredible 4.9 million digital items from their collections freely available to download and use. Through their Open Access initiative, you can explore and download treasures from all 21 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo – no permission needed.
Whether you're an artist looking for inspiration, a teacher building lessons, or just love browsing historical artifacts, you now have unlimited access to one of the world's greatest cultural and scientific collections right from your device.
I decided to use the search to find something near and dear to my heart. A plane I actually worked on while in the Marine Corps is on display in the Smithsonian. I found this…
I can still remember the ceremony and seeing it take off from our base in Hawaii to fly to the Air and Space Museum.
Give the search engine a try yourself.
Comment of the Week:
This week’s comment comes from Tom on the Coffee Contemplation: Falling Awake
“There is a lot that's been written about mindfulness in recent years. For as grounding as it is supposed to be, mindfulness has at times felt complicated to me. But David, you really crystalized something for me in your intro to this Coffee Contemplation. "...being present enough to notice when life offers you something unexpected." Boom! I love that. It really simplifies the essence of mindfulness and the impact it can have in our lives.”
That’s exactly my hope in sharing ideas here. To make complex things simple, approachable, and easy to incorporate into your lives. I appreciate Tom for sharing his thoughts here and so well. He often has marvelous deeper insights and reflections based on the reading. If you get a chance I encourage you to take a look at his comments any time they come up.
Quote I’m Pondering
This thought is from my friend Flor Lafuente…
“The past touches my shoulder, I greet it kindly and continue on my way forward.”
I want to reminisce and draw on the good energy of the past without staying there too long.
Final Thoughts
Growing up, our family had an unusual birthday tradition: the sibling who wasn't celebrating would always receive a small gift, usually mine was a Hot Wheels car.
Years later, I asked my mother what sparked this tradition, since none of my friends' families did anything similar.
'Because of you,' she told me.
I have three brothers whose birthdays all fall in May, while mine is in November. My older sister was already a teenager by then, and my youngest sister wouldn't arrive until I was a teenager. When I was very young—too young to remember—I struggled with watching my brothers celebrate one after another while my own birthday felt so far away.
To help me through those May celebrations, my parents started giving me small gifts on my brothers' birthdays. And to keep things fair, the tradition extended to all of us - a little something to make everyone feel included on each birthday.
Now I’m the one who shares a birthday month with my two granddaughters which is even more fun than getting a Hot Wheels car.
Quest Well.
Koenig, John. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (p. 54). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
That last little story, though. Brought me tears. (A uncommon thing to do, my friend.)
P.S. Sto Lat! David, As my people sing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14kApBJuEN4