aryn kresol | n o w h e r e

04 April 2013

Colin Wright, Defining Success

I love having options and not being burdened by things that might limit them. I love surrounding myself with my favorite things and people, and limiting contact with burdensome, non-value-adding possessions and relationships. And I love feeling like every moment spent — every calorie burned — is being traded for something worthwhile.

18 March 2013

Leo Babauta's 52 Changes for 2013

1. Meditate                                                  27. Value time over money
2. Unprocrastinate                                       28. Replace opinions with curiosity
3. Walking                                                    29. Read
4. Flexible mind                                         30. Cut out shopping
5. Identify your essentials                           31. Learn that you're good enough
6. Mindful eating                                        32. Create
7. Most important things                               33. Eat real food
8. Clear a shelf                                             34. Explore work you love
9. Start saving                                              35. Help others
10. Yoga or strength training                         36. Breathe
11. Floss                                                       37. Enjoy the habit (zen habits)
12. Pay a small debt                                   38. Solitude
13. Mindful exercise                                 39. Unclutter a room
14. Budget simply                                       40. Iterate the habit
15. Create a super crew                              41. Less busywork, more impact
16. Eat some veggies                                     42. Disconnect
17. Gratitude                                            43. Let go of a goal
18. Clear counters                                       44. Treat failure as a learning opportunity
19. Slow down                                             45. Reduce commitments
20. Play                                                         46. Turn problems into opportunities
21. Flow                                                        47. Savor
22. Let go of a vice                                        48. Clear your inbox
23. Don't wish things were different            49. Teach
24. Clear a closet                                           50. Compassion
25. Let go of TV                                          51. Reflect
26. Get more sleep 52. Realize you're not missing out

17 March 2013

Alighiero Boetti: Do you know why dates are so important? Because if you write '1970' on a wall, it seems like absolutely nothing but in thirty years time . . . dates have this beauty. The more time passes, the more beautiful they seem.

16 March 2013

Notes from a packrat with minimalist desires: if only for the hippos' sake

I had a dream a short while ago, in which I was standing near the window of a tall building looking out into the street. All of a sudden, there in the street, were baby hippopotamuses running into traffic followed by their much larger mama hippo. I was so afraid that the hippos would be hit. After a moment watching them, the mama hippopotamus collapsed on the side of the road, terrified, and human children gathered around throwing rocks at her. I ran down from the tall building determined to save the creatures. When I reached the ground, there was an older man that was "protecting" the mama hippo; at this time the babies had all been huddled on the other side of the street. I demanded that we find a safe haven for the animals: "Otherwise, she'll die!" But alas, in the middle of the street (by this time, I realized I was in Milwaukee) I had only my phone, without any super abilities, and so some girl who was standing by had this smart phone/tablet/ipad/something and was able to map and find a Milwaukee Hippopotamus Sanctuary. I woke up thinking: maybe I really do need to update my phone plan, for the hippos sake.

11 March 2013

Lu Yu (733-804)

The clouds above us join and separate,
The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns.
Life is like that, so why not relax?
Who can stop us from celebrating?

14 February 2013

untitled (come what may)
14 february 2013
beacon ny
© aryn kresol

01 January 2013

Top 5 of 2012

Top 5 movies of 2012
Another Earth
Beginners
Incendies
Moonrise Kingdom
Sidewalls

Top 5 books of 2012
Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go
Alan W. Watts This is It
Sarah Thornton Seven Days in the Art World
Andy Warhol The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
David Chadwick Thank you and OK!: Diary of an American Zen Failure in Japan

Top 5 songs of 2012
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova Drown Out
Pedro the Lion Second Best
LCD Soundsystem Dance Yrself Clean
Bombay Bicycle Club Dust on the Ground
Yann Tiersen / Al Bowly Guilty

Top 5 albums of 2012
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova The Swell Season
Bombay Bicycle Club Flaws
David Bazan & Pedro the Lion (any)
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Beirut The Rip Tide

19 December 2012

Notes from a packrat with minimalistic desires: Letting go of what's already lost

I lost some thing that was very useful to me, to which I had a pragmatic attachment. I had also had the thing for close to ten years, so I felt somewhat sentimentally attached too. I was in NYC for the day. I lost it a) on a park bench, b) in a subway station, or c) at a coffee shop. Once I realized the thing was missing from my person, I started retracing my steps, first physically, then mentally. When I reached place (a), I sat down to ponder. I could spend the next hour plus looking for the thing that may not be found (I strongly suspected wherever I had left it, it had been taken by now) or I could let it go. Was there anything about this thing that I absolutely needed? The answer was no. So I let it go, and went home.

15 December 2012

Notes from a packrat with minimalist desires: Free to a good home?

It is my observation that many people are unable to progress toward what they desire because of how daunting the process is. Lacking is time, energy, and mind (or motivation). The process is abandoned before it ever begins.

When I moved from Milwaukee to Beacon, I took a huge step forward minimalistically. I was able to put more time and energy into alleviating my apartment and my life of physical objects. Where before the process had been a slow and mindful transformation, the goal of moving and taking only what properly fit in my 4-door Grand Am focused and quickened my efforts. Still, a limiting factor was finding a place - a new, good home - for all of my unwanted things. An overwhelming task, it seems, for an in progress minimalist is finding places/people to which to rid the excess.

As a conscious individual, I am aware of waste; that awareness set me on this path to begin with. There does exist great need by a great many people. If most people have some instead of having most, then everyone's needs can be met. But is every thing needed? Much in the same way that I progressed to the realization that what I had was plenty more than enough, and what was more was no good to me, I progressed toward the realization that most of it was no good to anyone. Certainly some of what I intended to deaccession could be needed by someone, but I came to see that an overwhelming majority was best to be eliminated and not pawned off on some other person.

Our sentimentality makes us human, but it also makes us clingy. Even when we "let go" of our own attachment to an object, we hold onto the idea of that attachment, and apply it to others (side note: I am attempting to further avoid using "we" and language that reads as if my observations are truths). To say it simply, what I came to realize is that a good home does not need to be found for an unneeded object. One does not cancel out the other.

05 December 2012

Andrew Juniper, Wabi sabi: the Japanese art of impermanence

pix: Zen believes words are the fundamental obstacle to clear understanding. The monks seek to reach their goal of enlightenment not through learning but by the unlearning of all preconceived notions of life and reality.

30 November 2012

Alan Watts, The Way of Zen

p37: ...the value of emptiness lies in the movements it permits or in the substance which it mediates and contains. But the emptiness must come first.

19 October 2012

Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)

p155: I believe in living in one room. One empty room with just a bed, a tray, and a suitcase. You can do everything either from your bed or in your bed - eat, sleep, think, get exercise, smoke - and you would have a bathroom and a telephone right next to the bed. Everything is more glamorous when you do it in bed, anyway. Even peeling potatoes.

Suitcase space is so efficient. A suitcase full of everything you need:

One spoon
One fork
One plate
One cup

One shirt
One underwear
One sock
One shoe

One suitcase and one empty room. Terrific. Perfect.