My Sunday List
February 9, 2025
Words
“A person with a vocation is not devoted to civil rights, or curing a disease, or writing a great novel, or running a humane company because it meets some cost-benefit analysis. Such people submit to their vocations for reasons deeper and higher than utility and they cling to them all the more fiercely the more difficulties arise.” —David Brooks, The Road to Character
Music
Yes, I’m listening to a bit of Kendrick Lamar this morning. I think his Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a masterpiece. I don’t know anything about or care about whatever he has going on with Drake, other than to say every time I hear something about it, poor Drake appears as if he’s always three or four steps behind with zero chance of ever getting ahead of his nemesis.
I’m sure the Super Bowl halftime show will be a spectacle as always. It’s interesting how we’ve become so used to extraordinary productions.
What I’ve Been Writing About
In the mornings I try to do three things: read an entry in my prayer journal and write my thoughts about it to God, record the previous day’s events in a dated, page-a-day Smythson planner, and then I turn to my favorite way to process what’s in my mind and write a page or more in my black Romeo notebook, my favorite kind I’ve ever found. The pages are so smooth they practically beg me to drag my pen across them.
Those steps keep me sorted out, at least in a general sense. There’s something about morning rituals that makes me feel alive, present in my mind and body, and like I’ve gotten to the bottom of things so I can start my day with clarity.
More than brain dumps, I try to write into the center of what’s happening both internally and externally, spiritually and practically, emotionally and physically. It’s amazing how much those pages end up in song lyrics.
There’s one reason I hope I see my death coming: so I can throw the notebooks and prayer journals away. I’ll leave the planners just in case anyone is ever interested—working in a museum has made me see the importance of personal documentation as a way to contribute to what’s said about us after we’re gone.
Book
Same. Still on The Book by Alan Watts.
True to form, I’m reading a few others as well—everything from David Brooks to a trashy Kennedy family tell-all.
Gratitude
There are days on which the interconnectedness of everything is more obvious than others. There are big manifestations of that reality, but also small ones that we can choose to see or not see—even just deciding to change my outlook can have a tremendous butterfly effect on things in my life and even in the lives of those around me. Today I’m grateful for that knowledge of available empowerment. I can draw on it any time. So can you. The trick may be to stay in a zone that doesn’t encourage us to forget what we can be. So much power is in perspective.
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
Why Don’t You…
(apologies to Ms. Vreeland, of course).
give something you’d like for yourself the next time you need to give a gift?
find a new way to think about something that’s been bothering you?
consider figuring out which shade of red is best for you and wear it more often?
listen?
What I made.
I finally made some space on my work table. I cleared away my paints and pushed my jars of brushes to the back, by the window. I stacked up some half-finished pieces I’d lost inspiration for and tucked them into a pile of papers I have in a basket on the far right corner to where I normally sit. The little stack of notebooks that receives my daily writings moved from my bedside to the work table. As I shift my focus to spending more free time writing, with the loose goal of beginning work on the thing that’s burning me up, I know the needed hours will be found in the early part of the day. So I have to make a habit of going to my work table first thing in the morning instead of snuggling up with a cup of coffee in my warm bed to work out the first thoughts of the day. We’ll see how the first steps of this journey go. All I know is, the way is made by walking.
Favorite photo of the week
What brought me joy
yoga.
writing.
painting.
good conversations.
laughing.
animals.
sunshine and rain.
when my coffee was just the right color.
Prayer
Thank you, Great Spirit, for the life you give me every day. Thank you for the blessing of my son, my sister, my family both biological and chosen. Thank you for the blessing of this experience, even when it seems like the hard times are too hard and too many. I know I must walk through periods of difficulty in order to learn what I need to learn until I transmute the lessons and see that every encounter with my woundedness is an opportunity to address it, not to try to numb the pain.
Humble me and lift me out of my pit. Send me the tests I need to remind me to choose the path that leads my soul home and to turn to you with every breath. Please strengthen my faith so I might hand all matters over to you and the wisdom to know you will work miracles in me through whatever you place in my blessed path. Remind me my choices determine my experiences and my lessons can come through positive ones rather than the opposite.
Allow me to gracefully release what is not meant for me and to hold tightly and lovingly to what is. Allow me to be open to change every day as you remind me it is the only constant besides you. Allow me to repair what is broken. Allow me awareness of my dissociative tendencies and keep me present so I may make choices that reflect the life I desire. Allow me clarity, focus, and courage. Allow me to rise to my highest vibration each day and spread truth and beauty wherever I go. May I learn how to truly forgive. With deep gratitude I pray that your will, and not mine, shall be done.
Intention for the week to come
May I be present and fully inhabit my mind, spirit, and physical body.
May I walk through the world with an open heart and without judgment.
May I be curious and ask questions before I decide.
May I breathe peace in, and breathe love out.
May I be humble and see myself clearly so I may accept my limitations while working to lovingly decrease them. May my progress be reflected through my actions, seen and unseen.
May I have the self-possession and grace to meet others with the kindness and acceptance I desire for myself.
May I find the flexibility in myself to gracefully accept the imperfections of life and not take inconveniences personally.
May I think before I speak.
May I think MORE than I speak.
May I first do no harm.
May I be grateful for what I have and may I not seek more for my selfish gain.
May I allow myself to trust but may I also always use my discernment.
May I have CLARITY and find a way to be CALM about it.
May I be patient.
May my vibration resonate in harmony with the universe.
May I remember it isn’t about me.
May I do good work.
May I have optimism and positive thoughts.
May I be open to what the Great Spirit knows is for me, and may I walk my path accordingly by remembering I can only take it one step at a time.
Something I’m thinking about
What is right amount of clutter vs. space? What sort of environment feels good both to the eye and the skin? I surprise myself a lot with my own home—I feel like I’m more minimalist than I really am. I always have the desire to pare down but I’m not sure that’s the only voice I hear—the collector and curator in me loves beautiful things and I’m not above having something just because it brings me a good feeling, in fact, I’m very likely to have something just because of that reason and that reason only. Because I like it or it makes me feel something. I guess when we can look at something and not feel that same emotion, we know it’s time to let it go. No rules. Only mindfulness.
Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. — Buddha
Habit
Yoga before daylight.
Wishes
That we all are and will be well.
That we all are loved.
That we all put our pasts behind us every minute.
That we all have a glorious and fulfilling week.
That everyone who reads this will feel peace in at least some small way.
That you will forward this to one person you think might like it.
Have a wonderful, peaceful, joyous week. And thank you for supporting my work here at The Autotelic.
Peace. Love.
Allison
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I hope more of your writings become song lyrics that you share with the world. I also hope you continue to enjoy composing these Sunday Lists, and they never become a chore.
Smythson and Romeo (and topdrawer)- omg, so very thankful to you, AM!