Words

“Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.”

humans are not the kings of the jungle, that the road to understanding our own minds, and selves, begins with appreciating the unique minds of other beings, from animals to artificial intelligences to aliens

**Resting is doing**

You don't need to be busy. You don't need to justify your existence in terms of productivity. Rest is an essential part of survival. An essential part of us. An essential part of being the animals we are. When a dog lies in the sun I imagine it does it without guilt, because as far as I can tell dogs seem more in tune with their own needs. As I grow older, I think that resting might actually be the main point of life. To sit down passively, inside or outside, and merely absorb things - the tick of a clock, a cloud passing by, the distant hum of traffic, a bird singing - can feel like an end in itself. It can actually feel and be more meaningful than a lot of the stuff we are conditioned to see as productive. Just as we need pauses between notes for music to sound good, and just as we need punctuation in a sentence for it to be coherent, we should see rest and reflection and passivity and even sitting on the sofa - as an intrinsic and essential part of life that is needed for the whole to make sense.

**The Comfort Book · Matt Haig**

The <n>Recipe for Happiness T-shirt</n> by <n>Vuja Dé Studio</n>, 2020.

A quote from the 13th-century poet <n>Rumi</n>.