As there's no real theme to this collection, let's just dive in.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

Says about all you need to hear, right?

Relatedly, check out Jedidiah Jenkins on awe:

The first and truest spiritual practice is awe.

Let awe be my religion.

On how to push progress in a city:

Baltimore has plenty of problems with many potential answers, but all of them start, Harris says, with talent — the brightest and the best, the kind of people cities like New York and San Francisco take for granted. As the CEO of Baltimore Corps, his budding operation of about a dozen full-timers, Harris plays matchmaker between civic-minded idealists and the local groups who could use their brilliance. They are a mix of homegrown Baltimoreans and those attracted to the fellowship’s aspirational pitch of “The best place in the world to change the world.” In two years, he’s placed 45 “fellows” in leadership roles. Roughly 75 percent of the fellows’ have their salaries paid by their employers, while the other 25 percent are paid by Baltimore Corps.

I love this approach. It's smart and inspiring.

Frank Chimero on the pencil:

The pencil is the great equalizer.

I'm a big believer in the analog amongst the digital.

James Shelley on writing as a way of life:

You should be gathering, organizing, and developing your knowledge on the topics you care about most, as if you are conducting the research for your magnum opus. Build your archives and give definitive (albeit tentative) shape to the schematics of your understanding: then, as you move through the world, you will be able to bring everything you come across into the ‘mental laboratory’ of your mind for analysis and investigation.

I'm working on this myself.

Seth Godin on projects vs. jobs:

Projects are open-ended, chosen and ours. Working on a project opens the door to possibility. Projects are about better, about new frontiers, about making change happen. When in doubt, dare.

It's so hard to break out of the job mindset, but when you do, the potential of projects can be refreshing.

Finally, can we ever get enough of Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese"? I don't think so. The first line:

You do not have to be good