you know I love this...

"Libraries are not made; they grow"

~ Augustine Birrell

The International Public Space Library (IPSL) offers books in public spaces around the world.
Unlike a traditional library, the IPSL is not permanently housed in a physical building; any public space is a temporary location for the IPSL. Anyone can donate or borrow a book.

Read Me... ready and waiting

To get involved and donate a book, download a pdf copy of the IPSL ex libris image Here. Print and affix it inside the front cover of the book you want to share... then leave the book in a public space, free to pick up. Readers are encouraged to return the book after reading it by placing it in another public space.  It's a fun way to support the free exchange of ideas and connections.

"This book was graciously and anonymously donated to the International Public Space Library. You are welcome to borrow it and enjoy it. When you are finished, please leave it in another public place where someone else might find it as you did."

The idea for the IPSL was launched by Momentech and was inspired by the discovery of a book in a public space in St. Montan, France, inside of which was inscribed similar text.

Joy = Love-Fear

I am currently reading an amazingly simple, yet wonderful, book: Emotional Equations by Chip Conley.

It's a book that can help you to see light in darkness by using simple mathematic equations.


To paraphrase Nietzsche, the measure of ourselves is how we transform pain or suffering into something worthwhile or meaningful in our lives.



Chip Conley - Emotional Equations from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

From Emotional Equations:


Victor Frankl wrote, "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." You have the power to choose how you respond. You are a product of your decisions, not your conditions.


Think of your emotions as messages that give you the freedom, rather than the obligation, to respond. Fear protects. Regret teaches. Sadness releases. Joy uplifts. Empathy unites.


Letting an emotion move through you is healthy. Letting an emotion define you is not.

to the curious

"The questions are more important than the answers."



The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

"We are all lifelong learners, 

from day one to twenty-thousand-and-one, 

and that’s why we keep exploring, 

wondering and discovering, 

yearning and learning, 

reaching with more than just our hands… 

The future belongs to the curious.”

see what happens

I've been reading and thinking a lot about passion and purpose.


I've been focused on passionate, purposeful doing this year... as opposed to striving, frenzied accomplishment.


The idea of mindfully working at those creative things that are important to me... those things that I do when I'm taking a break from the things I am suppose to be doing... all sounds wonderfully Zen and calm and right. But sometimes, sitting alone in a room with a blank something (paper, canvas, word document) and trying to fill it up with something meaningful, something soulful, something wholehearted... well, that can be a daunting task.

Then I remember... I just need to show up. No more striving... no more frenzy. One simple step forward... show up with the blank something and the goal of seeing what happens.

have the richest fluency

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

~ Walt Whitman 

(In his preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition)

How is your own This is what you shall do... for the new year going?

Perhaps Whitman had it right... maybe we shouldn't worry so much about a list of resolutions... instead, hold a vision of the person you aspire to be.

What do you need to do to be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in words?

Don't get discouraged... you have 51 more weeks to give it a try.

a leap toward passion

I will begin something new this year and it excites me. I am curious and I want to write about something I love. I am following my passion, with no thought to where it might lead. The destination isn't the point, the act of doing is what I'm after. 


If you're curious, check it out here.


What new ideas excite you this year?


Do you want to travel, or write a book, or take up singing, or painting?  Maybe you want to run a 10K, or ride a bike, or do yoga. Maybe you just want to organize your closet.


If it excites you, follow through. We can take the leap together.

give us what you've got

Have you heard about the man who, after learning he only has three months to live, quits his job and becomes a painter?

A year later the cancer is offi­cially in remission but he doesn’t pick up his old life... he continues on as a successful painter. He says he has never been happier. 
The idea of death does not cause people to change; it causes them to step back and see how necessary change is. It gives them a reason to overcome resistance.


I am reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It's about creativity and overcoming resistance.

“The most important thing about art is to work. 

Nothing else matters except 

sitting down every day and trying.” 

~ The War of Art

My favorite quotes from the book all seem to come from page 146:

“We’re not born with unlimited choices. 

We can’t be anything we want ot be. 

We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. 

We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become."

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves 

into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, 

but to find out who we already are and become it.”

“If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance

 and injustice of the world, 

it’s our job to realize it and get down to business.” 

As a last bit of advice, Steven Pressfield challenges all of us:


Your creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention...  It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

“So, I love you because 

the entire universe conspired

 to help me find you.”

~ Paulo Coelho

to the undeniable poetry of it all

in a new year...
all that you sought and didn't find
all the good that you tried for and didn't achieve
all that you dreamed but didn't dare do
all that you hoped for