Friday, October 10, 2025

Imposter Syndrome

Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.

On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”

And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”

And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.

                        Neil Gaiman, 2017 blog entry

 

 

 

  


Thursday, October 9, 2025

The secret to having extra time

I don’t know whether my life has been a success or a failure.
But not having any anxiety about becoming one instead of the other,
and just taking things as they come along,
I’ve had a lot of extra time to enjoy life.

                Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

No insults

Re-examine all you have been told
at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul.

        Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Looking for light

It's October, and the shorter days have made us hungrier,
depriving us of light and forcing us to look for it in other people.

         Billy-Ray Belcourt, Coexistence: Stories

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, October 6, 2025

What did you expect?

People generally see what they look for,
         and hear what they listen for.

                Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Yes or No

I have come to believe that there are really two religions in the world:
Those people in religions who say ‘yes’ to life and
those people in religions who say ‘no’ to life.
And I think people who share the ‘yes’ to life in different religions
have more in common with each other than they do with people
in their own culture or specific religious tradition who say ‘no’ to life.

                    Rabbi Arnie Belzer, 1944-2025 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Poem: Prayer for Tashlich

Here I am again
ready to let go of my mistakes.

Help me to release myself
from all the ways I've missed the mark.

Help me to stop carrying
the karmic baggage of my poor choices.

As I cast this bread upon the waters
Lift my troubles off my shoulders.

Help me to know that last year is over,
washed away like crumbs in the current.

Open my heart to blessing and gratitude
Renew my soul as the dew renews the grasses.

And we say together:
Amen.
             

                        Rachel Barenblat