Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that being truly present in the moment is more valuable and complex than simply being productive.
Maria Popova emphasizes the importance of presence over productivity, highlighting that the ability to engage fully in the moment requires more skill and nuance than just focusing on achieving tasks. It suggests that real fulfillment and richness in life come from being aware and attentive to our experiences rather than rushing through them to complete a checklist of activities.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a mindfulness workshop to emphasize the value of being present.
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.
Our chronic discomfort with ambiguity - which, ironically, is critical to both our creativity and the richness of our lives - leads us to lock down safe, comfortable, familiar interpretations, even if they are only partial representations of or fully disconnected from reality.
My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.
I used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man going by a schoolyard and you hear children singing your songs, playing jump-rope, or on the swings. That's the ultimate. You're in the culture.
The greatest story commandment is: Make me care.
I just make the music feel the way I want it to feel, and I don't put it out until I'm totally happy with it.
When the weather's rough and it's whiskey in the rain it's best to wrap your savior up in cellophane.
Ah, bien je prétends que les courbes des quatre areêtes du monument, telles que le calcul les a fournies, donneront une grand impression de force et de beauté._x000D_ _x000D_ Well, I think the curves of the four pillars of the monument, as the calculations have provided them, give it a great sense of force and beauty.
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