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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nHOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE<\/strong>
\nby Maria Popova<\/em><\/p>\nDon\u2019t try to wash
\nyour tired hands
\nclean from the bloodshed
\nof your private wars.
\nJust unclench the fist
\nthat has come to feel like home
\nand let the story slip
\nbetween your trembling fingers
\ninto the river of time,
\nsilver and indifferent.
\nYou may have to kneel
\nfor days
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0or decades
\nin a pool of silence
\nblue and lonely as a heron
\nbut it will be there,
\nthe small green stone
\nlying at the bottom
\nlustrous with a peace
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0larger than joy.
\nWhen you rise,
\nkiss the tombstone
\nof your past
\nand step barefoot
\ninto the garden of the future,
\nthe garden of infinitely forking paths
\nin which any flower can be yours,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0any one at all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\ndonating = loving<\/h3>\n
For seventeen years, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month composing The Marginalian<\/em> (which bore the outgrown name Brain Pickings<\/em><\/a> for its first fifteen years). It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, no assistant \u2014 a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider lending a helping hand with a donation<\/a>. Your support makes all the difference.<\/p>\n
\nnewsletter<\/h3>\n
The Marginalian<\/em> has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week\u2019s most inspiring reading. Here\u2019s what to expect<\/a>. Like? Sign up.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Maria Popova Don\u2019t try to wash your tired hands clean from the bloodshed of your private wars. Just unclench the fist that has come to feel like home and let the story slip between your trembling fingers into the river of time, silver and indifferent. You may have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-life"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 12:55:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}