Ben – Page 2 – Notes from Ben

Collaboration

My little daughter occasionally takes my phone when no one is looking and manages to activate the camera. Then I find lots of photos like this: I thought this next one was actually very good, no idea what it is: When she went to bed I put it into Photoshop, spun it 90º, fiddled withContinue reading “Collaboration”

Change 4: The Body and the Bird Feeder

A few days ago I had a nice conversation with one of my sisters about the bird feeders in her garden, how her family love watching all the local bird life gathering there to eat. ‘I want to buy some bird feeders!’ I thought, so I jumped onto Amazon and entered ‘bird feeder’. Hundreds ofContinue reading “Change 4: The Body and the Bird Feeder”

Change 3: Effortlessness

The first two changes I’m making are tangible, you can hold them in your hands and see them with your eyes: drawing, and reading books. This third change is abstract, but just as real. Change 3 is Effortlessness. To live with Effortlessness. What does that even mean?! I have been going to the physiotherapist everyContinue reading “Change 3: Effortlessness”

Change 2: Read!

We are practically Neanderthals. We don’t have a tele, we’ve never owned an iPad or tablet, and we only occasionally subscribe to a month here and there of Netflix, which we watch on the laptop. But the last few months have seen a definite swerve from these Thoreauvean tendencies. It started when we rented aContinue reading “Change 2: Read!”

Change 1: Draw

There are a series of nice changes I am making in my life. I’d like to write about them, and see how they stick. The first, is to draw more again. My grandmother was an artist, and my mother worked for a while in a shop selling antiquarian books and art, which meant that weContinue reading “Change 1: Draw”

The Joy of Rain

Reasons why rain is wonderful… 1. Song It’s raining, it’s pouring,The old man is snoring,He went to bed and bumped his head,And couldn’t get up in the morning. I love singing that to my kids whenever it rains. It takes me back to being a child, and I suppose singing always makes little children happy. Adults too. 2.Continue reading “The Joy of Rain”

They were right all along…

I used to look at Zen Masters and other renowned wise people and think, they must look at us people of the world, running around like crazy all day long, filling ourselves up with food and stuff and every kind of wild entertainment, always searching for the next thing to make us happy… and theyContinue reading “They were right all along…”

Feeling Wonderful About The World

There are 500 ways to get depressed about the world today, and 500,000 ways to feel wonderful about it. Let’s start with the problem. Depending on who you talk to or what YouTube video you watch, the number of existential threats available to us to latch on to seems to be greater than ever. IfContinue reading “Feeling Wonderful About The World”

The Silence and Joy of Books

I found myself in a state of total digital overwhelm by the end of Friday night. Working on this blog, swapping back and forth between two Instagram accounts (why, oh why!?), admin tasks for Notes in Spanish, reading endless fascinating links from two newsletters I subscribe, unsubscribe and resubscribe to. My brain was fried. IContinue reading “The Silence and Joy of Books”