Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it.
~ Polly Berrien Berends
Experience life in all possible ways – good, bad, bitter-sweet, dark, light, summer, winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.
~ Osho
~ Image credit: TheOtherKev on Pixabay
… books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. They are full of all the things that you don’t get in real life—wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift …
~ Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
~ Image Credit: Mike Gattorna on Unsplash
Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.
~ Michael J. Fox
I am not the story. The story is the power of optimism. That it’s really a choice. Acceptance doesn’t mean being resigned to something. You look at it and say: What does this truth require of me?
~ Michael J. Fox
~ Image: PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay
If every single person who has liked you in your lifetime, were to light up on a map, it would create the most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in the strangers you’ve been kind to, the people you’ve made laugh, or inspired along the way, and that star-bright web of you, would be an impressive sight to behold. You’re so much more than you think you are. You have done so much more than you realise. You’re trailing a bright pathway that you don’t even know about. What a thing. What a thing indeed.
~ Donna Ashworth, from Wild Hope
~ Image: Miguel A Padrinan on Pexels
Where do you put your heartbeats?
~ Eliud Kipchoge
We all have a certain number of heartbeats in our lifetime. This question made me pause and reflect on where I’m expending mine.
From the podcast of Dr Rangan Chatterjee interviewing Eliud Kipchoge which can be found in full here … There is also a bitesize version which can be found here
I had forgotten about onbeing.org which I used to follow some years ago. It has some fabulous resources. I recently listened to a podcast called Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh, Brother Thay, released to mark the second anniversary of his death. His gentle voice and words not only thought provoking, but also very soothing.
To hear the podcast, or read the transcript, follow the link here
Image: Wikimedia Commons
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
~ Aldous Huxley
And for an expression of the inexpressible, follow this link to hear a performance of Amazing Grace by Gurrumul and Paul Kelly.
Image: Rod Long On Unsplash (Aerial View of Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia)
Curating Quietude 