Straying maps the path. Poet, Rumi

In listening for it, recognize that most of the things that have truly changed your life have been the fruition not of elaborate plotting, but of coincidental accidents. Authors-Futurists Jim Taylor & Watts Wacker

Be prepared to be surprised. Open Space poster

With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we are in this state of being where we are open to life and all its possibilities, willing to take the next step as it is presented to us, then we meet the most remarkable people who are important contributors to our life. “Serendipity” author Joe Jaworski

It is only at the periphery that you can clearly see the world for what it is. “500 Year Delta” Author Watts Wacker

It is hard to know who is a greater fool, the one who makes a promise of safety, or the one who believes it. Author Peter Block

The truth is that some of the most important things in life are simply lucked into. The role that chance plays in our personal, professional, and business destinies is nothing less than enormous. Derm Barrett, author of “The Paradox Process”

A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, wants to be transformed. Tom Robbins, author of “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”

The more diversity of interactions a particle has, the more complexity, structure, and richer self it has–the more possibilities and probabilities it has. Mark Trodden, physicist

When you write everything down in a manual, people in the field read it. Worse, they base their decisions on it. Patrick Kelly, CEO PSS/World

If you want meaningful coincidences to change the story of your life, wander around the world randomly and willing to listen to whatever life presents. “There Are No Accidents” author, Robert Hopcke

All projects change in the course of their journey. It’s best to start with a plan and expect accidents along the way–accidents that allow you to revise the plan, “plus” the plan, and make it far better than when the journey began. “Corn Dogs Dancing In The Night” author, Don Hahn

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. Poet, Ovid

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*Some of my favorite quotes on Serendipity from the 365 Quotes at my primary website, DesigningLife.com (Mints for the Mind)

I see, for others, that is to say, in order to put on canvas the sudden apparitions which come to me. I don’t know in advance what I am going to put on canvas any more than I decide beforehand what colors I am going to use. While I am working I am not conscious of what I am putting on the canvas. Each time I undertake to paint a picture I have a sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet. It is only later that I begin to estimate more exactly the effect of my work.

When I find myself worrying about little stuff or whether I’m a hero or failure, I know I’m listening to the wrong voices.

Fast Company magazine co-founder, Alan Webber

Don’t go off sightseeing.
The real journey is right here.
The great excursion starts
from exactly where you are.

You are the world.
You have everything you need.
You are the secret.
You are the wide opened.

Rumi

The hardest thing is to get past your taste - past your own formulaic way of doing things. Otherwise, you’re stopped by what you know, which is limited. Chance is what a lot of artists use. In my case, I’ll arrange for ways for things to be unpredictable. That’s what’s nice about working with prints. You’re working with other people so you have to let go of some of your own ideas. Almost everything I do involves a collaboration. Artist Kiki Smith interviewed, today in the NY Times

When the master governs, the people
are hardly aware he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.

If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The master doesn’t talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, “Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”

from the new version of the Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell

Freedom from is ordinary, mundane. We have always tried to be free from things. It is not creative. It is the negative aspect of freedom.
Freedom for is creativity. You have a certain vision that you would like to materialize and you want freedom for it.
Freedom from is always from the past, and freedom for is always for the future.
Freedom for is a spiritual dimension because you are moving into the unknown and perhaps, one day, into the unknowable. It will give you wings.

Osho

Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words “the American People” provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it’s very comfortable.

This year’s Nobel Prize winner, playwright Harold Pinter, in his acceptance speech castigating US leaders for their use of language to anesthetize the American public.

True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.
/ Dave Tyson Gentry

Writer and former fashion designer, Agness Au, on her meditation practice that I can so resonate with. Thank you Agness…

With the benefit of thirty years of hindsight, I see that this path is actually an invitation to strip naked, at one’s pace, and in so doing to experience the vividness of an unfiltered life.