GM and happy new year! If it isn’t too late?
I hope November and December were kind to you. I appreciated having a break from this newsletter to rest and to stretch different creative muscles. (To rest, mainly. Much needed.) Cheers to a new year of leading and reading + caring and sharing + doing and being. May 2024 herald an era of flourishing for all. ✨
Here are this fortnight’s 5 things to consider:
#1
adrienne maree brown’s out/in list for 2024 is sublime.
out: trying to fit into predetermined paths and structures of success (from love to business) which reinforce the status quo
in: form following the function of freedom – when, where, why and how do you feel the most freedom with the most people? who you with? what you doing? we have never been there! grow that path
—adrienne maree brown, ”out/in dreams”
#2
If you have mindfulness on your 2024 bingo card, the best place to start is seated, eyes closed, with a deep breath. After that, check out Jon Kabat-Zinn’s advice on developing a meditation practice (Ten Percent Happier) and this wide-ranging conversation between Sharon Salzberg and Roshi Joan Halifax (Metta Hour). Halifax has just published a deck of micro-meditations for those of us who struggle with sitting for a long time. 🙋🏼♀️
#3
Knowledge work expert Cal Newport weighed in on professional fatigue for The New Yorker. His books develop the ideas well: My favorite is Deep Work, which I recommend for folks who want to harness focus. A World Without Email is great for leaders who want their org/team to tame the chaos of digital communications. And Digital Minimalism offers a personal path for unhooking from tech. If you’re the pre-ordering kind, Newport will publish a new book, Slow Productivity, this March.
#4
I just finished and loved Daniel Mason’s North Woods, a historical fiction novel that stays in one place—a home and forest in Western Massachusetts—for four centuries. (It reminds me of Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book, which performs a similar feat with an object.) Throughout the saga, Mason traces the interconnection of people, families, generations, species, trees, panthers, time, and even metaphysical realms. Every story touches another.
Related: Martin Luther King, Jr. described the phenomenon of interconnection as “an inescapable network of mutuality,” a foundation upon which he preached the power of nonviolence, the urgency of loving one’s enemies, and the promise of beloved community. The concept provided spiritual grounding both for King’s criticisms of racism, poverty, and war and for his constructive “third way” of nonviolent resistance. May his dream become our reality; let’s make it so. 🖤
#5
How to light the dark months, according to Wintering author Katherine May.
Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription (coming soon), share this post, or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.
Peace,
Jenny
P.S. Lil’ pep talk👇🏼