Climb the mountains and get their glad tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow to you as the sunshine flows into the trees.
The winds blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares drop away from you
like the leaves of autumn
John Muir
To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday,
otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is.
Krisnamurti
It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing.
Indeed, it is as essential to transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells.
Anxieties and doubts can be healthy and creative, not only for the person, but for the society, because they permit new and original approaches to reality.
Joanna Macy
Marcus Aurelius reminding us that external events or people cannot corrupt our inner self — only our own choices and thoughts can.
It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.
If once you realize this, you will never lose it again.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5, section 16
A noble lord once visited the monk Ryōkan in search of rare wisdom. Ryōkan said nothing. Instead, he took up his brush and composed a haiku. The lord read it, bowed in understanding, and quietly returned to his castle.
The wind gives me
Enough fallen leaves
To make a fire.
Ryōkan Taigu, 1758–1831
When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.
I’m indebted to the Jungian therapist James Hollis for the insight that major personal decisions should be made not by asking, “Will this make me happy?”, but “Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?”
Oliver Burkeman
Mindfulbalance 