podcast episode 1: why the recognitions?

January 26, 2012 in Podcasts
Click here to download the PDF that accompanies this episode

(Scroll to the bottom of the page to access the recording)

Key Thoughts:

Introducing “The Recognitions” – a biweekly podcast series from Patti Digh on living mindfully

  • Exploring ideas, interviewing authors and intellectual mentors, and opening space for discovery
  • Asking provocative questions
  • 5-20 minutes in length, twice a month
  • The root of “recognition” is “to think over again”

Ideas in this episode:

  • Our lives are stories.
  • We are storying ourselves at every moment.
  • Story is a yearning meeting an obstacle.
  • Stories are patterns of those meetings with obstacles.
  • We must learn to recognize our way out of patterns rather than repeat our way out of them.

Books mentioned in this episode:

  • The Recognitions by William Gaddis
  • Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Letters to the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
  • The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac
  • From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler
  • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

What is the second book Patti would take to a desert island, beside “The Recognitions”?

You can find out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-question-little-question/id492116403

Questions to Leave By:

1. What patterns have you recognized in your life?

2. What do you recognize about those patterns? What do you know, but deny?

3. What keeps you in those patterns? They must be serving you in some way–how?

(Podcast theme song: “Relearning How to Be” by Tamara Bailie, with music by Ryan Tilby)

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

6 comments to " podcast episode 1: why the recognitions? "

  • Reply
    Margie Jennings
    February 9, 2012 AT 10:53AM

    I read your rock above as “let yourself be flawed”. Funny how the mind works sometimes. Thanks, as always, for the inspiration!

  • Reply
    Douglas Parsons
    February 9, 2012 AT 1:01PM

    Thank you for beginning this series, Patti. I look forward to taking part in this process.  For the Questions to Leave by . . . do you believe writing the answers to the questions leads to more accountability or is the mental process of having the questions go through the mind an effective start?

  • Reply
    Jamie Ridler
    February 9, 2012 AT 1:04PM

    Congratulations on your new show! What a gorgeous beginning.

    I’m excited about taking this  journey with you. I’ve been committing to more thinking in 2012 too. I look forward to grappling with questions, ideas and wonderings together.

  • Reply
    Santalynda
    February 9, 2012 AT 4:31PM

    Thank you for this amazing invitation to think and be and see in 3D as sometimes I go along and mistakenly think I am being.  This is what I have been embracing – the “recognitons” as I take a midlife inventory…
    Love the song by Tamara Bailie and your voice! 

  • Reply
    Clara Boza
    February 10, 2012 AT 8:37PM

    What a wonderful new offering, Patti. Geeky English major that I am, I love the story behind The Recognitions. It’s now on my to-read list. Thank you for the reminder about patterns, and the opportunities for using our awareness to liberate ourselves from the ones that don’t serve us.

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