The Best of The Marginalian 2023, in One Place

NOTE: This newsletter might be cut short by your email program. [View it in full](.  If a friend forwarded it to you and you'd like your very own newsletter, [subscribe here]( — it's free.  Need to modify your subscription? You can [change your email address]( or [unsubscribe](. [The Marginalian]( [Welcome] Hello {NAME}! This is the annual recap of [The Marginalian]( by Maria Popova. The weekly newsletter remains on its regular pulse-beat and will be with you at the usual time. If you missed them, here are my [favorite children's books]( and [favorite grownup books]( of the year. And if my labor of love enriches your life in any way, please consider supporting it with a [donation]( — for seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive (as have I) thanks to reader patronage. If you already donate: I appreciate you more than you know. NOTE: This is a long edition and your email program may cut it short. [Use this link]( to read it uncut. [Of Wonder, the Courage of Uncertainty, and How to Hear Your Soul: The Best of The Marginalian 2023]( Hindsight is our finest instrument for discerning the patterns of our lives. To look back on a year of reading, a year of writing, is to discover a secret map of the mind, revealing the landscape of living — after all, how we spend our thoughts is how we spend our lives. In accordance with the [annual tradition]( here is the best of The Marginalian in hindsight — a Venn diagram of what I most loved writing and what readers most loved reading, spanning from the outermost reaches of the universe where physics probes the nature of reality to the innermost regions of being where poems reckon with the truest truths. [17 Life-Learnings from 17 Years of The Marginalian]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Most Important Thing to Remember About Your Mother]( Read it [here](. * * * [How to Love the World More: George Saunders on the Courage of Uncertainty]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Donkey and the Meaning of Eternity: Nobel-Winning Spanish Poet Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Love Letter to Life]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Seamstress Who Solved the Ancient Mystery of the Argonaut, Pioneered the Aquarium, and Laid the Groundwork for the Study of Octopus Intelligence]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Courage to Be Yourself: Virginia Woolf on How to Hear Your Soul]( Read it [here](. * * * [Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism]( Read it [here](. * * * [Ursula K. Le Guin on Change, Menopause as Rebirth, and the Civilizational Value of Elders]( Read it [here](. * * * [Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Brought to Life in a Spanish Flashmob of 100 Musicians]( Read it [here](. * * * [How to Bear Your Loneliness: Grounding Wisdom from the Great Buddhist Teacher Pema Chödrön]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Transcendent Brain: The Poetic Physicist Alan Lightman on Spirituality for the Science-Spirited]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Double Flame: Octavio Paz on Love]( Read it [here](. * * * [Nick Cave on the Art of Growing Older]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Work of Happiness: May Sarton’s Stunning Poem About Being at Home in Yourself]( Read it [here](. * * * [How We Render Reality: Attention as an Instrument of Love]( Read it [here](. * * * [Everything Is Already There: Javier Marías on the Courage to Heed Your Intuitions]( Read it [here](. * * * [Center of the Universe: Non-Speaking Autistic Poet Hannah Emerson’s Extraordinary Poem About How to Be Reborn Each Day]( Read it [here](. * * * [The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the Antidote to the Cult of More: A Lovely Vintage Illustrated Poem About the Meaning and Measure of Enough]( Read it [here](. * * * [Spell Against Indifference]( Read it [here](. * * * [bell hooks on Love]( Read it [here](. * * * [How to Be More Alive: Hermann Hesse on Wonder and the Proper Aim of Education]( Read it [here](. * * * [Blue Is the Color of Desire: The Science, Poetry, and Wonder of the Bowerbird]( Read it [here](. * * * [How to Bless Each Other: Poet and Philosopher John O’Donohue on the Light Within Us and Between Us]( Read it [here](. [Forward to a friend]( Online]( on Facebook]( donating=loving This year, I spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — 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 aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference. monthly donation You can become a Sustaining Patron with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a Brooklyn lunch.  one-time donation Or you can become a Spontaneous Supporter with a one-time donation in any amount. [Start Now]( [Give Now]( Partial to Bitcoin? You can beam some bit-love my way: 197usDS6AsL9wDKxtGM6xaWjmR5ejgqem7 Need to cancel an existing donation? (It's okay — life changes course. I treasure your kindness and appreciate your support for as long as it lasted.) You can do so [on this page](. A SMALL, DELIGHTFUL SIDE PROJECT: [Uncommon Presents from the Past: Gifts for the Science-Lover and Nature-Ecstatic in Your Life, Benefitting the Nature Conservancy]( [---]( You're receiving this email because you subscribed on TheMarginalian.org (formerly BrainPickings.org). This weekly newsletter comes out on Sunday mornings and synthesizes what I publish on the site throughout the week. The Marginalian NOT RECEIVING MAIL 47 Bergen Street, 3rd FloorBrooklyn, NY 11201 [Add us to your address book]( [unsubscribe from this list](   [update subscription preferences](