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    “It matters not where or how far you travel – the farther commonly the worse – but how much alive you are.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

      “So much of our lives takes place in our heads – in memory or imagination, in speculation or interpretation – that sometimes I feel that I can best change my life by changing the way I look at it.  As America’s wisest psychologist, William James, reminded us, ‘The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.’  It’s the perspective we choose – not the places we visit – that ultimately tells us where we stand.  Every time I take a trip, the experience acquires meaning and grows deeper only after I get back home and, sitting still, begin to convert the sights I’ve seen into lasting insights.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

       

        “The idea behind Nowhere – choosing to sit still long enough to turn inward – is at heart a simple one.  If your car is broken, you don’t try to find ways to repaint its chassis; most of our problems – and therefore our solutions, our peace of mind – lie within.  To hurry around trying to find happiness outside ourselves make about as much sense as the comical figure in the Islamic parable who, having lost a key in his living room, goes out into the street to look for it because there’s more light there.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

          “Going nowhere, isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

            “Not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays it’s often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize.  Stillness is not just an indulgence for those with enough resources – it’s a necessity for anyone who wishes to gather less visible resources.  Going nowhere is not about austerity so much as about coming closer to one’s senses.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

              “With machines coming to seem part of our nervous systems, while increasing their speed every season, we’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends, our nights off – our holy days, as some would have it; our bosses, junk mailers, our parents can find us wherever we are, at any time of day or night.  More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

                “Making a living and making a life sometimes point in opposite directions.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

                  “Sitting still with his aged Japanese friend, sipping Courvoisier, and listening to the crickets deep into the night, was the closest he’d come to finding lasting happiness, the kind that doesn’t change even when life throws up one of its regular challenges and disruptions.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

                    “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.  Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz