A minute too late
is still too late.
The veil drops behind my eyes
as I drift away into some world
other than my own.
it’s a strange life to live
-Saschia ✨Jayne✨ Johnson
Understanding Responsibility from an Existential Perspective
Looking at Jean-Paul Sartre’s Bad Faith and applying it to ourselves.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. –George Bernard Shaw
What if we were fully accountable for ourselves in this world, good and bad?
We are raised to think that we don’t have the capacity for handling life as mere humans. People are taught that it’s impossible for humans to bear the idea of being fully responsible for themselves. According to existentialism, phrases similar to “only God can change me,” would be considered an aspect of Bad Faith coined by John-Paul Sartre. He believed that humans are not finished beings, they are capable of…Read More…
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Give Life a Million Chances
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou
It’s ok to not be perfect. We are all out here trying our best in this life. Instead of holding out until things feel perfect, learn to give yourself grace when things go wrong. No one likes it when things go wrong, especially when there’s a lot at stake. I think everyone wants smooth days where nothing goes wrong. Those days are possible and happen all the time. At the same time things are going right, things are going wrong somewhere. There are times things go wrong, and you wouldn’t even know it because of how well some people handle little mishaps. They let it roll off their shoulders. Or maybe they just put on a good face in front of you but lose sleep over it for weeks. I’m not saying you have to be that way, I’m saying that your perception of perfect might be tainted.
Give this life a million chances! The best part is learning to find beauty in all the little imperfections lurking around.
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This is My Life Too. This is Your Life Too.
The breath inside these lungs,
my first gift
Your curious eyes searched for something familiar but
it wasn’t something you saw.
It was something you felt.
The warmth
the rhythm of life
Seeing wasn’t believing
feeling was.
-Saschia ✨Jayne✨ Johnson
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Above Ground
wooden slabs nailed to hold me above ground
beneath em
a jungle thriving and peaking around the edges.
It’s not the end of the plank I need,
it’s the middle
-Saschia ✨Jayne✨ Johnson
Curious Eyes
Under a blanket of stars
the world awaits something new,
improved, unused.
Forgetting about the craft
created with intention
knitted from threads
passed down from a stranger
into the same hands that belong
to curious eyes.
-Saschia ✨Jayne✨ Johnson
Gentle Reminder: It’s ok to take a seat.
Big feelings hide behind movement. It’s ok to sit still.
When the world gets too unpredictable beneath my toes, I move. I clean; I work and get to things that I’ve been putting off. It feels right. It feels productive and better than mulling around all day. But it doesn’t leave time for healthy processing. It pushes aside what you’re feeling and leaves the hard for later. Because whatever feelings you don’t process are coming out whether you take time to process them or not.
So many times, I didn’t realize that all my overworking was just me not attending to my needs. The better thing to do would have been to sit and process.
But you know what helps?
Having writing sessions built into your daily routine. So, no matter what, I’m going to have to sit down and process at the end of the night whether I want to or not.
What’s your writing routine looking like lately?
Appreciate Your Disciplines
“Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results.” – Robin Sharma
I love that I learned this so much. The thing is that it seems like it’s going to take forever if you take baby steps but then life just keeps on going and every day, you’re a small step closer to your goal.
I’ve said it a million times, discipline is a form of liberation. It takes away the pressure to have to do it all at once. It allows you to take small steps to reach a larger goal and eases the pressure over time. It also builds trust within yourself which builds your confidence to do even more.
I don’t really want to talk about writing every day right now because honestly, I wasn’t eager to write this evening. I want to write, yes. Even then, there are times when I have to write through wanting to do something other than writing. It’s challenging to maintain your disciplines even after a decade of it. So, if you’re still showing up with consistency, you should appreciate yourself for that. Consistency and discipline in people are hard to find. Honor that.
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Writer’s Life
Fingers dance across the keys
as my mind wanders too and fro
some lines might have to go
but then there’s lines
we need to hear about 15 more times
-Saschia ✨Jayne✨ Johnson
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And I Forgot to Mention the New Graphic Novel Section
There’s so much reading to be done that I think I might need to find a shortcut.
The thing is I feel like I missed something or I actually do miss the best most important part. For a little while I tried speed reading. What worked best for me was having a huge reading rotation and spending hours at the library regularly. Things are different now but also, I have better understanding of access to books that can change me while I read them.
Can we talk for a minute about how much more books are accessible now?
I can literally go on Project Gutenberg and read over 70k books for free from my phone or computer. We have Jstor where we have access to 10 free Journal articles a month which is honestly more than enough for one person. Now this one is a bit a touchy but there’s a lot of quality articles from good thinkers on Substack that you can read for free and also lists of amazing resources outside of the Substack community. YouTube has a ton of free audiobooks, especially the classics which I love. Plus, we still have libraries that are going above and beyond to make reading more accessible. There’s no more late fees, you can drop your books off at any library and they’ll be returned, and you can have books from other libraries sent. Not to mention their eBook apps where you can borrow an eBook. We did not have this as children and I’m so glad that I can take advantage of all this for my kiddos. It makes a difference in ways they don’t even know, and I like it that way.
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