Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that being truly present in the moment is more valuable and complex than simply being productive.
Maria Popova emphasizes the importance of presence over productivity, highlighting that the ability to engage fully in the moment requires more skill and nuance than just focusing on achieving tasks. It suggests that real fulfillment and richness in life come from being aware and attentive to our experiences rather than rushing through them to complete a checklist of activities.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a mindfulness workshop to emphasize the value of being present.
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.
Our chronic discomfort with ambiguity - which, ironically, is critical to both our creativity and the richness of our lives - leads us to lock down safe, comfortable, familiar interpretations, even if they are only partial representations of or fully disconnected from reality.
Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.
France is not poetic; she even feels, in fact, a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse, those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic.
I'd like to get something together - like a Handel, Bach, Muddy waters, flamenco type of thing. If I could get that sound, I'd be happy
A friend of my mother's, Irene Lopez, was a Spanish dancer. She saw me bopping around the room and said to my mother, 'Rosita might have talent. Can I take her to my dance teacher?' There was no thought of a career at that time, but I knew I loved the attention, and that's so much a part of being a performer.
One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with paintings.
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