Ever felt time is speeding up lately? Feelings of disorientation and something not quite right or… simply how the hell is it already September? I asked a dear friend futurist and elder, Paul Shumann, about time and space in one of our dialogue-chats. He shared a thought experiment with me. And after the conversation I [...]

The world is speeding up. Or this year has. And there is a TON of stuff going on. I feel that given I am not 85, where it could make sense to be June already, I am able to make this statement. I’m wondering whether the antidote is to slow down. Be extra slow? Musings [...]

(I recommend listening to this as you read) Over the last few weeks, whenever I started working on my family story project, I find myself taken back to a yiddish song my grandmother, Chana, used to sing with us…and all my grandparent’s knew: “Oifn Pripetshik” (also: oifen pripitchik, oyfn pripitchik). If you pressed on the [...]

Earlier this year, (think September) while reading Landscape and Memory, by Simon Schama, I read a single sentence about “der holzweg”, the forest way, that led me down a strange dark path of My Family Forest*… Image: The walk to paradise garden (c) W Eugene Smith The sentence was in the chapter of Schama’s chunky [...]

“From our deepest wounds come our greatest gifts” – Po Bronson, What Should I Do With My Life I  started reading this book again. It’s surprisingly honest and engaging. Refreshing even. Argh, I sound like some scary mark-comm writer. Still, the sentence above struck me. And as I write it, it gets me thinking again… [...]

These two quotes catch me today. I read the first and my mind said “Guernica” for an image and “Christopher Alexander” as an antithesis, or antidote or…somewhere in me, Simon and Christopher’s words connect. And Picasso’s landscape challenges, as does Andy’s, but in a different way…I guess my brain will catch up with my intuition [...]

I’m back from Poland…back to normality, day-day…and that’s lovely (always nice when friends and colleagues say they missed you ;)) but I must admit I’m still digesting… While I let my thoughts simmer I wanted to share these two photos – I took them while we sped through Poland and I think they’re special: Poland [...]

“Here is our long-forgotten family home. And, having heard now and then the voice of ancestors calling, Like a grey little forest bird, from far-away centuries, I fly to you,…” …It’s late, I’ve just finished some last minute work and I’m off to Poland on a “roots trip” with (almost) ALL my family very early [...]

 The other week I posted my favourite quote at the moment "Relax – Nothing is under Control" … Ok, so let’s say we accept that as true. Nothing is under control. But what if your situation feels more extreme than usual. If things really are spinning away differently from how we ‘planned’ or ‘assumed’. How [...]

It has been quite a hiatus! I hope this finds you well!? I realised today I haven’t officially blogged since February 15th. That’s over a month – and I think the longest time I haven’t blogged since I started www.natalieshell.com. It isn’t that I haven’t had material. It is just somehow it didn’t materialise online [...]