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Browsing Tag

marion milner

inspiration & influence introversion

Thought pieces #2

July 1, 2013

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My daydreams are nearly all of country cottages, of little gardens, of ‘settling down’ with flowers in vases and coloured curtains. I don’t think of backaches, dish washing.

I want to live amongst things that grow, not amongst machines. To live in a regular rhythm with sun and rain and wind and fresh air and the coming and going of the seasons. I want a few friends that I may learn to know and understand and talk to without embarrassment or doubt.

I want to write books, to see them printed and bound.

And to get clearer ideas on this great tangle of human behaviour.

To simplify my environment so that a vacillating will is kept in the ways that I love. Instead of pulled this way and that in response to the suggestion of the crowd and the line of least resistance.

‘A Life of One’s Own’, Marion Milner, 1987 Virago (first published, 1934) p51

reading notes writing

Gems #1 Reading notes

May 29, 2010

Some gems shining a little light this week:

Via the communicatrix, news of a new online magazine for women called Delish. Focusing on ‘what’s real, what’s useful and what’s beautiful’, it is gorgeous, smart, savvy and multi-faceted and clearly will appeal to an audience with these same qualities. Congrats to the team – it’s sensational.

I laughed out loud this week reading the quirky hyperbole and a half and a great post on sneaky hate spirals – all about days when all the little annoyances just build up.

And a true vintage gem I love – Marion Milner’s ‘A Life Of One’s Own’ , published in 1934 under the pseudonym Joanna Field. A pioneering exploration based on her own diaries, the book is the record of a seven years’ study of living and identifying what makes her happy. From this, she provides  perceptions and suggestions that can be practised to increase focus and happiness. It concludes with a discovery about psychic bisexuality – balancing the best of both worlds from what Marion sees as our male and female orientations: the objective and the intuitive respectively. Some words from this beautifully reflective book:

My daydreams are nearly all of country cottages, of little gardens, of ‘settling down’ with flowers in vases and coloured curtains. I don’t think of backaches, dish washing.

I want to live amongst things that grow, not amongst machines. To live in a regular rhythm with sun and rain and wind and fresh air and the coming and going of the seasons. I want a few friends that I may learn to know and understand and talk to without embarrassment or doubt.

I want to write books, to see them printed and bound.

And to get clearer ideas on this great tangle of human behaviour.

To simplify my environment so that a vacillating will is kept in the ways that I love. Instead of pulled this way and that in response to the suggestion of the crowd and the line of least resistance.”

Image, Gems XII by fdecomite via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

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