Gratitude
Hey everyone,
If you ever have books, essays, music, or resources you think would be worth sharing with everyone - feel free to reply in order to send them my way. I want to share more.
Quote of the week:
“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” — Virginia Woolf
I had an essay prepared to share this week but it still feels like there is something missing. This has been an absolutely bizarre year, and I thought it would be fitting if I instead shared some things I’m grateful for this week.
I’m grateful for good health.
I’m grateful for a loving family that I would do anything for.
I’m grateful for the freedom to express myself, and the voice I’ve found this year.
I’m grateful for community — those I’ve made friends with online, those I know from my past, my peers, my confidants, and those that believe in me.
I’m grateful for my love of learning and unnerving curiosity.
This year especially, it’s important that we share our gratitude with ourselves and others. Make sure you’re doing right by people. Live virtuously.
Next week, I’ll either be sharing an essay on career or an interview. Please keep an eye out, I’m extremely excited about both.
Reading Recommendations
There’s an insurgence of Airport Business Books these days, and they are mostly fine. In fact, a few below might fall in that category. Those books are often devoid of new ideas or any amount of depth in information.
I read quite a few different books and writers from various areas of influence. I wanted to recommend a few that I considered to be pretty paradigm shifting.
book: How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
book: How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital (Nathan Latka)
book: Superfans (Pat Flynn)
essay: How to Start a Blog That Changes Your Life (Nat Eliason)
essay: 1000 True Fans (The Technium)
essay: The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information (Tiago Forte)
Familiarity
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the idea of familiarity and belonging. A few weeks ago, I read this post from Simon Sarris and have gone back and read it over multiple times since. How often do we all glamorize travel in lieu of what’s familiar?
I spent the last three weeks at my stomping ground in Michigan. It was absolutely incredible being surrounded by my community once again. I absolutely love living in Denver and so everyone is always surprised to hear of my romance surrounding Grand Rapids. You just can’t beat the feeling of belonging.
Wishing you and yours the best,
Cullin
https://eytanmessikaoverload.substack.com/p/all-time-recommended-readings
My top essays. I think you'll like them :)
This is beautiful, and regarding Grand Rapids, I have a number of friends who live there. We forget about the beauty that resides within that which is familiar to us, and we love the new. The same "shiny object" syndrome we constantly struggle with - it is harder to cleanse your heart daily and to start anew with the same object, than to go off and to find something unfamiliar that we think will be better. But all this is human, and forgiving ourselves and others is part of life too.