Nov 10, 2023·edited Nov 12, 2023Liked by Jeff Goins
I think this poem is very well written. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, this topic is one I can relate to! Sometime last year, I realized that it was such a squeeze to attempt to get to social media (I was only really using one platform) because it's no longer a priority for me in terms of preferred hobbies. I usually posted to share sweet messages about our babies (which I now save somewhere that is specifically for our children) or thoughtful reflections about love, family, friendship, hope and kindness (I keep writing the messages and I still want to share them, but not necessarily on a regular basis at the expense of doing other activities). I accepted that it was okay to stop mentally "trying" to get to the platform (and have since started sharing some of the reflections in a newsletter!).
I also relate to your message as I recently simplified how I spend my evenings (this included putting my newsletters on hold) so that I could write and read more, and I'm SO happy with that. It's amazing what you can do when you approach things with a fresh perspective and mindset (I shared more details on this in case it helps here: https://doingthewritething.substack.com/p/writing-tip-7-know-what-your-character).
Thank you for sharing!! I am very passionate about topics that help people follow their heart and spread kindness, including being kind to oneself and what's in one's heart too.
I'm really looking forward to the Nov. 21 call on disappearing. I'm there in my life as well. I just wrote a column on it in my Motley Mystic Substack called "Quit It." I think it's the same idea. https://open.substack.com/pub/motleymystic/p/quit-it
I’ve read four separate books lately about Carthusian monks, the most ascetic and hermitic of all the Catholic monastic orders. They give up everything in life to live in cells alone most of the time, praying for the world. They disappear from society in order to be closer to God. I don’t know why they fascinate me, but I think it’s this notion that life is more than likes on social media and scrolling cat videos on YouTube. Thus, your poem resonates. Thank you, Jeff.
God shows up in us as us. Great poem Jeff. Meeting ourselves as a stranger every morning and falling in love with that energy all over again. A ghost in the machine. A body in a soul. I’ll see you and Kevin on the 21st. You two are 1+1=3. Add a few more to that love and we can move some mountains. 🙏❤️
This feels like a God-nudge after a conversation with my husband just this evening that he would like me spend less time on my computer and more time with him. Wow...
Great poem Jeff. Disappearing is like creating a presence for what is absent. Sometimes we have to disappear so that what we have inside us becomes present
I think this poem is very well written. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, this topic is one I can relate to! Sometime last year, I realized that it was such a squeeze to attempt to get to social media (I was only really using one platform) because it's no longer a priority for me in terms of preferred hobbies. I usually posted to share sweet messages about our babies (which I now save somewhere that is specifically for our children) or thoughtful reflections about love, family, friendship, hope and kindness (I keep writing the messages and I still want to share them, but not necessarily on a regular basis at the expense of doing other activities). I accepted that it was okay to stop mentally "trying" to get to the platform (and have since started sharing some of the reflections in a newsletter!).
I also relate to your message as I recently simplified how I spend my evenings (this included putting my newsletters on hold) so that I could write and read more, and I'm SO happy with that. It's amazing what you can do when you approach things with a fresh perspective and mindset (I shared more details on this in case it helps here: https://doingthewritething.substack.com/p/writing-tip-7-know-what-your-character).
Thank you for sharing!! I am very passionate about topics that help people follow their heart and spread kindness, including being kind to oneself and what's in one's heart too.
This:
To retreat is to advance
Into another unknown—
One that lives within
A deep yes from me.
I'm really looking forward to the Nov. 21 call on disappearing. I'm there in my life as well. I just wrote a column on it in my Motley Mystic Substack called "Quit It." I think it's the same idea. https://open.substack.com/pub/motleymystic/p/quit-it
This caused me to recall Sting's (The Police) "Spirits in the Material World" from the album Ghosts in the Machine - great memories
I’ve read four separate books lately about Carthusian monks, the most ascetic and hermitic of all the Catholic monastic orders. They give up everything in life to live in cells alone most of the time, praying for the world. They disappear from society in order to be closer to God. I don’t know why they fascinate me, but I think it’s this notion that life is more than likes on social media and scrolling cat videos on YouTube. Thus, your poem resonates. Thank you, Jeff.
Wishing you a peaceful and fulfilling month off, Jeff.
this is so wonderful
God shows up in us as us. Great poem Jeff. Meeting ourselves as a stranger every morning and falling in love with that energy all over again. A ghost in the machine. A body in a soul. I’ll see you and Kevin on the 21st. You two are 1+1=3. Add a few more to that love and we can move some mountains. 🙏❤️
This feels like a God-nudge after a conversation with my husband just this evening that he would like me spend less time on my computer and more time with him. Wow...
💯
Great poem Jeff. Disappearing is like creating a presence for what is absent. Sometimes we have to disappear so that what we have inside us becomes present
And yet you still poem about the very thing.
You have not disappeared but are still living there.
If you want to retreat you must go somewhere new and do something different...
Which I am suspecting, has always been your greatest fear.
May we all advance toward the unknown wishing us!
Would love to watch a replay of this convo if it’s available. ❤️