We need to give up what no longer works
and find new ways of being
that keep us close to what matters
Mark Nepo
Category: Make the most of life
The real enemy
Death is not the enemy. Age is not the enemy. These things are inevitable, They happen to everyone. But what we ought to fear is the kind of death that happens in life. It can happen at any time that you are going along, and then, at some point you congeal. You know, like jelly. You’re not fluid anymore. Your solidify at a certain point in your life and from then on your life is doomed to be a repetition of what you have done before. That’s the enemy.
Gail Godwin, The Finishing School
photo silar
White and black keys
In life, nothing dwells. The wind blows and then stops. The blossoms burst forth and then fall. Things come and go. The melody drifts back onto an aching E flat and then back to E again. The song of your life is played on white and black keys. Sadness is … an essential truth of human life. But let’s not dwell there. Not while the song is still playing.
Karen Maizen Miller, Be Sad
Photo alisson felus
Sunday Quote: waiting and longing
I am like the air on a calm day
as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape.
Colm Toibin, The Testament of Mary
photo of early morning fog University College Dublin by Crys83
You gave your heart
When your life looks back—
as it will, at itself, at you — what will it say?
Your life will carry you as it did always,
with ten fingers and both palms,
with horizontal ribs and upright spine,
with its filling and emptying heart,
that wanted only your own heart, emptying, filled, in return.
You gave it. What else could you do?
Jane Hirshfield, When Your life looks back
Containers
Small animals, if injured or afraid, can seek refuge in the strangest of places, looking for a container for their fears. For us, our containers tend to be in words and thoughts – the overall story we place our fears in or the words in which we place our trust.
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them. But if we cannot find a way of telling our story, our story tells us – we dream these stories, we develop symptoms, or we find ourselves acting in ways we don’t understand.
Stephen Grotz, An Examined Life
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