Grayson McDiarmid

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@joeybagovdonuts 1: Oasis
2: Metallica
3: Turnstile
4: Brand New
5: Alkaline Trio
6: The Smile
7: Tragically Hip
8: Thrice
9: Thursday
10: Manchester Orchestra

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@EricNMoody

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@lsdunes

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@BlueJays #NextLevel

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

Drove 9hrs from Ottawa Canada for both shows. Thanks for the original tweet that let me know it was happening.

[Equal Vision Records @equalvision]

Still can't believe Bane is playing Boston tonight.

[Susan Cain @susancain]

How to Experience Transcendence: 3 Questions to Bring You Closer!

Recently, I received an extraordinary letter from a BITTERSWEET reader named Grayson. Grayson told me that, since reading the book, he’s now constantly experiencing “stabs of joy” in his daily life – those everyday moments of soaring perfection, in our highly imperfect world.

The term “stabs of joy” comes from C.S. Lewis, who talked about the “inconsolable longing” for we know not what; it was “that unnameable something,” he said, “desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World’s End, the opening lines of ‘Kubla Khan,’ the morning cobwebs in late summer, or the noise of falling waves.” He’d felt it first as a young boy, when his brother brought him a dazzling toy garden in the form of an old biscuit tin filled with moss and flowers, and he was overcome by a joyous ache he couldn’t understand, though he would try for the rest of his life to put it into words, to find its source, to seek the company of kindred spirits who’d known the same wondrous “stabs of joy.”

Grayson is now following in Lewis’ footsteps. “I now am much more apt to notice those stabs of joy,” he writes, “those little moments of perfection within the mundane. The way my first sip of coffee tastes in the morning when it's just the right temperature, the funny little way my daughter will say something, the tiniest sliver of a moon, receiving a random text from a loved one, an unexpectedly meaningful conversation with someone and so on.”

He then goes on to relate this to his experience in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (this was shared with permission). “More and more often lately I have felt these stabs in meetings,” he wrote. “I will get goosebumps and it's often when someone is describing a difficult time. There seems to be something beautiful to me when someone is intensely vulnerable about something they are struggling with. I'm not glad they're going through it but I'm glad I get to be there when they share about it. That seems to me the very essence of bittersweet.”

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Where do you find your “little moments of perfection within the mundane”?
2. Do you ever find, like Grayson, that they happen during difficult or vulnerable moments?
3. And can you start to notice them more?

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(Photo Artist Credit: @endmion1)

#Introverts #Quiet #Leadership #QuietLeadership #Bittersweet #Kindred #SocialLife

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@susancain Thanks Susan! My parents reading that I was following in C.S. Lewis’ footsteps from an author they love made them very happy. You were so kind to share my thoughts with your many lovely readers.

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@GordQuotes In a world possessed by the human mind, It’s a good life if you don’t weaken, Nautical Disaster

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@equalvision Give Blood

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@five_books Pilgrim by Timothy Findlay

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@WomensPrize @radical_reads Bittersweet by @susancain

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@five_books

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@five_books Capture by @DavidAKesslerMD

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@GurdeepPandher No Great Mischief and The Orenda

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@ThatEricAlper Song of the candle by Stan Rogers

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@waub I gave my dad your book for Father’s Day a couple of hours ago and he can’t wait to read it. And after reading the book jacket there is a long list of family who want it after him. You were part of our family’s happy time. Enjoy your pizza! 🍕

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@bytownblayne @Ottawa67sHockey @OHLBattalion @TD_Place Just thought you should know that because of this tweet I brought the kids to this game. Thanks for the great idea! We’re having a blast.

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@MrTaz49 @amortowles Quick question: did I miss it where you explained why “Dennis” was always in quotations when it was a Wooly chapter? Was it just because of how he disliked him for always being too grown up?

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@five_books Bewilderment by Richard Powers

[Grayson McDiarmid @grayson_mcd]

@five_books Survivor by @chuckpalahniuk