You can outdistance that which is running after you,
but cannot outdistance that which is running inside you.
African proverb
Tag: heart
A wish when times are difficult
Help us to be the always-hopeful gardeners of the spirit,
who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth,
as without light nothing flowers.
May Sarton
Having infinite faith in each other
Même pour le simple envol d’un papillon,
tout le ciel est nécessaire.
(Even for the simple flight of a butterfly,
all of the sky is necessary.)
Paul Claudel
You are not alone
There are no quick fixes to some of the problems which people can face. Sometimes they can seem even greater by the sense of isolation which they produce. Fear can close us in on ourselves. However, through remaining open to others and sharing, we realize that there is no law that states that we have to go through problems all alone.
The human story is both personal and universal. Our personal experiences of pain and joy, grief and despair, may be unique to each of us in the forms they take, yet our capacity to feel grief, fear, loneliness, and rage, as well as delight, intimacy, joy, and ease, are our common bonds as human beings. They are the language of the heart that crosses the borders of “I” and “you”. In the midst of despair or pain you may be convinced that no one has ever felt this way before. Yet there is no pain you can experience that has not been experienced before by another in a different time or place. Our emotional world is universal.
Christina Feldman. Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World
When we are hurting
Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you. Rumi
It is a bewildering thing in human life, that the thing that causes the greatest fear is the source of the greatest wisdom. Jung
Making barren places fruitful with kindness
When we consider that Helen Keller was blind and deaf, her words on how to make the most of life are reminders to all of us to look beyond the difficulties that come our way each day. Her focus was on what she could do for others and on not what the thoughts in her mind or others’ minds said she could not do.
Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings. The great, enduring realities are love and service. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty.
Helen Keller
