When we let go of the continual construction of a self or even the need to be a “somebody,” then we are free to be who we are. When we are completely ourselves, we forget about needing to be the center of our perceptual world and thus we can take in others and our environment with greater sensitivity, compassion, and openness
Michael Stone, The Inner Tradition of Yoga
The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island
The secret of change is to focus all your energy
not on fighting the old,
but on building the new
Dan Milmann, Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book that Changes Lives
I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something;
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
Helen Keller
No one needs to tell us
we are already on our onward way,
no one has to remind us
of our everyday and intimate
embrace with disappearance.
We were born saying goodbye
to what we love,
we were born
in a beautiful reluctance,
not quite ready
to breathe in this new world,
we are here and we are not,
we are present while still not
wanting to admit we have arrived.
David Whyte, Cleave
I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood. Slowly, no doubt. I’m not talking about a vacation.
Of course, at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.
Are you following me?
Mary Oliver, I Have Decided
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