Shellen Lubin's Monday Morning Quote

3 Aug, 2026 - #CareYetNotCare

Mon, 3 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

CARE YET NOT CARE

"Is it possible to learn
How to care and yet not care?
Since love has two faces
Hope and despair"
Joni Mitchell
"The Moon at the Window"

"You don't have to care about everything around you. Some things are best left ignored."
Scary Mommy
www.scarymommy.com

8202;
"No one had told me what a heady stimulant not caring was."
Emma Sloley
THE ISLAND OF LAST THINGS

My ears are ringing,
actually sizzling,
like eggs are frying inside my head,
non-stop. Days on end.
It may be a side effect from medication
or it may be a reaction to the state of the world
or my world.
Or it may be all of it.
I'm trying to figure that out.

I've learned how to say "no" externally,
although it took many years
and many feeble and half-hearted attempts.
But I have not yet learned how to say it internally
(or have been unwilling to
since caring is such a huge part of who I am,
how I work, how I act, how I write, and on).
But it is killing me
especially now, as I get older.

And right now I can't hear.
You know, the perpetual noise in my head.

So is it possible to find a way
to deeply care
and yet not care?
To let go of carrying how things could be?
(I wrote a song about it so many years ago,
"I'm the keeper of your ideal self ...")
Is it possible to not take on the travails and troubles
of those I love, those I teach, those I collaborate with?
Is it possible to just let be
while still deeply caring for them?
I just finished a song for one of the shows I'm working on
(the title came from Randi Vaughan and June Rachelson Ospa):
"Let Her Be Herself."
I need to hear that.
Can I let her be herself?
Even if her world is crumbling around her?
If I can't change it, if it's not my job to try,
what good is my carrying it?
I am still, after all the years and all the "no"s
carrying too much weight.

Is it the same with 47 and
this whole damned administration?
Can I completely separate from the external news
and yet still care--empathize with--
those who are suffering far more than me
from the current policies and procedures?
Can I still take action--must always take action--
but not carry it on me and in me
all the time?

I have to try.
The buzzing in my ears is saying it over and over
inside my head:
65279;"You have to try to care
and yet not care."

Shellen Lubin
August 3, 2026

27 Jul, 2026 - #Purposeful

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 UTC

PURPOSEFUL

"Too many people go through life with a false purpose, driven either by money, social status, ego... What they do usually doesn't align with their natural inclinations or strengths so they ultimately wind up miserable and unfulfilled."
Robert Greene

"But now, that false purpose is lifted and I am spinning in a temporary vacuum."
Sylvia Plath

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."
Patanjali

These truths have played out and proven themselves
through all eras
over the eons,
as long as humanity has been on this planet.

There is humanity left on this planet
although it has been challenged
and is somewhat bedraggled,
and we are the ones who must know it and feel it
and save it.

Not just saving humanity, but saving
our humanity.

That, now, has become our purpose.
At least it has certainly become mine--
in many ways, was always mine.
With all the work I do, all I write,
direct, teach, mentor,
that is always/has always been/
the intention:
to find and foster authentic self--
self-awareness, self-expression,
empathy, responsibility, accountability,
meaning, purpose--
the fullness of humanity.

And now,
(as in so many other phases of humanity's existence),
our purpose needs to focus on
standing up against despicable power--
now perhaps the most despicable
in many eons--
or just the most unleashed and visible both
(the plusses and minuses of social media
and the internet age).

We have 100 days.

And I am feeling purposeful,
full of purpose.
And full of caring for those who have been trampled on
and vilified
by this administration.

I set the intention now:
to move forward
through these 100 days
care-fully and
purpose-fully.

How about you?

Shellen Lubin
July 27, 2026

20 Jul, 2026 - #DogDaysDividend

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 UTC

DOG DAYS DIVIDEND

"...the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning."
Natalie Babbitt
TUCK EVERLASTING

"If you go back even as far as Homer, The Iliad, it's referring to Sirius as Orion's dog rising, and it describes the star as being associated with war and disaster."
Jay B. Holberg

"The heat made people crazy. They woke from their damp bedsheets and went in search of a glass of water, surprised to find that when their vision cleared, they were holding instead the gun they kept in the bookcase."
Kristin Hannah
SUMMER ISLAND

"The dog lives for the day, the hour, even the moment."
Robert Falcon Smith

It's been hot.
Hot. Hot.
Unbearably hot.
And orange soot from Canada wildfires.
And then crazy rainy.
And, of course, continued crazy politically.
The weather,
the summer escalation and exacerbation
of the dismantling of our government
oversight and services,
leaves all of our climates
(global, political, and personal)
suffering.

Heat, and all kinds of tension, pervade the air.

So what do we do?

The dog has the right idea
Of what to do with these days.
When it gets like this, all you can do is
Live in the moment,
which is, after all, an extraordinary-ordinary place to be.

Whatever else you're doing, I hope you can
find joy/peace/relief in this moment
however
wherever.

Immerse yourself in coolness, in humor, in beauty.
If you can't immerse yourself, drink it in
with any or all of your senses available.
If you can't drink it in, just touch it,
with whatever part of you that can,
feel it
seep into your being,
however possible.

And when all else fails?
Remember.
Remember coolness.
Remember humor.
Remember beauty.

They say the body goes through the same effects and changes
whether you experience something,
dream about it,
remember it,
or act it.

In the moment--
fully present--
somewhere inside us
it's all the same.

Shellen Lubin
July 20, 2026

13 Jul, 2026 - #RearrangetoChange

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 UTC

REARRANGE TO CHANGE

"Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed."
Frances Hesselbein

"A plan is what, a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done."
Peter Turla

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind.... it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."
King Whitney Jr.

When summer days feel like a morass of heat and humidity
and inaction
and you need incentive, inspiration,
here's a thought:
a choice, a decision, a plan
a schedule
can shift everything.

Rearranging a room can be
easier than cleaning the room, you know?
And when you're done,
the room is clean.

Also true of organizations,
individuals,
spaces, places,
objectives,
goals.

So make a choice about what is next,
make a plan, a schedule to see it through.
See what it does to your insides,
to your motivation, your desire.

It's a choice to shift the internal mechanisms,
a plan for accomplishment,
a schedule for change,
a welcome challenge to see it through.

Shellen Lubin
July 13, 2026

6 Jul, 2026 - #OldScripts

Mon, 6 Jul 2026 00:00:00 UTC

OLD SCRIPTS

"I'm still carrying the old versions of the script."
Carol Campbell

"As you learn to consciously observe the transformation process, you will watch yourself repeating a lot of old patterns long after you seemingly know better. Spiritually and intellectually, you realize there is another way, but emotionally you are still clinging to the old habits. This is a difficult time. Try to be patient and compassionate with yourself. When you recognize the futility of an old pattern so clearly, it's about to change! A short time later, you will suddenly begin to respond differently, in a more positive way."
Charles Duhigg

"Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost, but it's only here that the new and the good begins."
Leo Tolstoy

Carol was talking about versions of the play
we were rehearsing
that she had written,
but we all laughed when the line was repeated by an actor
because it was just
so true.
We all get caught up in old versions of the script,
and old scripts we've rehearsed
and played out before.

Sometimes it's not even your own script.
Sometimes I find myself in someone else's script
and somehow I can tell
what my next line is supposed to be
but I don't like it
and it's not my script.

The force of that pull can be fierce.

Trying to resist.

Lots of old scripts floating around.

Trying to observe when I'm being pulled into one
and improvise some new lines.

Trying to write new ones.

Shellen Lubin
July 6, 2026

29 Jun, 2026 - #InterDependence

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

INTER-DEPENDENCE

"From the conclusion of their war for independence, a nation begins going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of that war will remain on them long, will be made heavier and heavier, till their rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion."
Thomas Jefferson

"The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third and fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware only of one Earth."
Sultan Bin Salman al-Saud
from outer space

"The task that remains is to cope with our interdependence - to see ourselves reflected in every other human being and to respect and honor our differences."
Melba Pattillo Beals
WARRIORS DON'T CRY

Thinking about
interdependence
in this fraught week
celebrating America's supposed independence
as our petty tyrant becomes ever more powerful
with the assistance of others
(either at his behest or with complementary beliefs)
all of whom are pursuing money and power
at the expense of the people.

I am sick from it all,
and also sick, recovering from illness
which is why this piece has taken all day.
(But it's still being sent out well before the 4th
so hopefully allowances can be made.)

This is our current, greatest--and up until now
insurmountable--challenge,
the recognition of our interdependency.
We will die on this sword
if we can't find enough people who get it
and stand up for the value of all.
We must revive
or we just may expire.

One of the reasons why the civil rights movement,
the women's rights movement,
the movements for rights of native Americans
and immigrants
and people of every color, gender, sexuality,
religion (or lack thereof),
and more
are SO important to the health of our country
is that they are the internal wars that
continue to keep us vital, aware, less-shackled,
whether or not we are the injured parties.

We are all the injured parties when our world
becomes complacent.

There is no pure independence,
only aspects of autonomy woven together
with dependence and inter-dependence.

Challenges to the status quo are to be nurtured
and celebrated.

With or without fireworks.

Shellen Lubin
June 29, 2026

22 Jun, 2026 - #WritetheFuture

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

WRITE THE FUTURE

"Writing is medicine. It's an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion to any difficult change."
Julia Cameron

"I'm trying with all my heart to write the stories I need to hear, the stories younger me needed like air."
Mishka Hoosen

"I write to live. To breathe through the ache, to process the unbearable, to carve light into memory. My pen is my spine, my page the heartbeat. I write to exist wholly; raw, real, and still rising."
Vennie Kocsis

Write to know yourself
(and if you write by hand
and don't lift that hand up off the paper,
you will deeply surprise yourself at all you may discover).

Write to remember
(and to share with others your singular journey).

Write to process what has been--
not to give it more power,
but greater understanding
and less unconscious control.

Write to discover
what is inside you.

Write to create
what never has been.

Write to have hope,
to believe in progress,
in justice and equity,
for tomorrow
for you, your community, our
country,
the world.

When times are confounding, complicated,
and there is much to fear,
write your way through to
another way.

Write what has been.
Write what is.
Write what is possible.

Write the future.

Shellen Lubin
June 22, 2026

15 Jun, 2026 - #BeUseful

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

BE USEFUL

"The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something."
Barack Obama
8202;
"We only have what we give."
Isabel Allende

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived ..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

People put so much stock in getting,
in owning, in
holding,
in possession.

As if we really own anything,
as if anything is really
ours.

And as if having the most toys
(abodes, silks, jewels)
makes anyone happy when they're not.

Today is Barack Obama Appreciation Day,
and I think we all appreciate Barack Obama--
his intelligence, his warmth and savvy,
his grace--
even more than we did when he was President
(don't it always seem to go).

In hard times you can grasp and horde
or you can share and take care
and it always seems the caretakers
are "happier" (whatever that is)
than the hoarders.

You know?

Shellen Lubin
June 15, 2026

8 Jun, 2026 - #MakingHope

Mon, 8 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

MAKING HOPE

"Hope is a discipline."
Angela Davis

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all."
Emily Dickinson

Hope is a study, a practice,
a discipline--
applied optimism--
renewed enthusiasm--
finding it, working it, playing it
moment to moment
every day.

Hope is a study,
a practice, yes,
but, too, it can be a surprise.
A flutter in your belly, a swelling
of your chest, a wrinkle in your nose,
the corners of your mouth
slightly, gently uplifted.
Where did it come from?
Are you sure you know?
But there it is.
Because you found it, worked it, played it?
studied it, practiced it
every day?
Maybe.
Maybe.
And maybe sometimes it's just like
the bird flying past you,
the butterfly landing inches away,
the tune carried in the wind--
a luscious, poetic
surprise.

Shellen Lubin
June 8, 2026

1 Jun, 2026 - #OwnPath

Mon, 1 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

OWN PATH

"The road snakes south, then north, ultimately taking us east, and I wonder if life is like that ... go one way, then another, to end up ... someplace else."
Ellen Hopkins
PERFECT

"It's just a way to go. There isn't only one way to go. You're trying to find a road where there isn't one. It's like ... gleaning in the woods. You have to pick your way through the thickets and the trees, and it's different every time."
Naomi Novik
UPROOTED
8202;
"You don't have to know where you're going to get exactly where you need to go."
Marilyn A. Hepburn

My child, my soul,
I know you've learned from me
to forge your own path through
the brambles and thickets,
to make your own way
through these woods,
ignoring most advice,
the tried and tested ways and means,
the tools offered to you,
and I get it, I do.

But no one gets anywhere without
a family, a village,
fellow travelers,
whether reciprocated or not,
willing or not,
appreciated or not,
and so I say:

Do not just forge your own path,
you must also
own the path
you take,
own the choices, the costs,
the consequences to you and others,
the trade-offs you make each step
of the way.

It is your own journey.
Each step is yours.
Own the path.

Shellen Lubin
June 1, 2026