Present Peaceful and Joyful* You told me about that* Extraordinary Mix of Paradoxes and Opposing Views*

Present Peaceful and Joyful*

Isabelle Elja on Insight Timer has a "Self-Compassion (Metta)" guided meditation.  Instead of the Sharon Salzburg phrases (May I be safe, be healthy, be happy, live with ease," Elja uses the phrases "May I be present, may I be peaceful, may I be joyful."  

You told me about that*

I was making small talk with Jeff P at Ben's celebration of life.  I said something about how I was building a door frame for the basement and it was causing me some trouble.  Jeff responded with a "Oh, yeah, you told me about that."  Which I took to mean "That's old news.  I know that you're working on your basement."  That shuts down the conversation... I have to move to a new tack; try a new lob to get the conversation going.  It tells me that what I decided to bring up is not very interesting or worth investigating.  Instead, what might have been a more helpful (?) response?  Maybe something like "how's that going?" or "Is that hard? I've never done it."  or "What's challenging about that?"

Extraordinary mix of paradoxes and opposing views*

“I would agree with that, that extraordinary mix of paradoxes and opposing views on these issues. You asked a question why Vienna, Vienna was unique over a period of that 10 to 15 years of having this kind of melting pot, this heated melting pot of ideas underlined by all these other difficult political, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, sexual ideas, which caused this extraordinary outflowing of art and culture in so many different ways, music, literature, the arts”

From In Our Time: The Vienna Secession, Jul 3, 2025

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-our-time/id73330895?i=1000711164724&r=3159