WHEN I WAS 15, I SPENT A month working on an archaeological dig. I was talking to one of the archaeologists one day during our lunch break, and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favourite subject? And I told him, “No, I don’t play any sports. I do theatre, I’m in a choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.”
And he went “WOW! That’s amazing!”
And I replied, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”
And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind, because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”
And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘win’ at them.”
KURT VONNEGUT – ‘HONOUR THE WAYS YOU SUCK‘
LISTEN:
Listen to the MUSTN’Ts, child,
Listen to the DON’Ts.
Listen to the SHOULDN’Ts,
The IMPOSSIBLEs, the WON’Ts.
Listen to the NEVER HAVEs,
Then listen close to me:
ANYTHING can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be!
SHEL SILVERSTEIN – ‘WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS’
THE CHOICE:
I
have
decided
to
stick
with
love.
Hate
is
too
great
a
burden
to
bear.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
WALKING EACH OTHER HOME
My best friends are the reason I am filled with hope, and with faith in God and in all of life. I cannot believe such profound, funny, loyal people exist who adore me – mixed up, self-centred me.
And nature fills me with hope: her beauty and cycles … her wild miraculous process of feeding us all, of getting our attention against all odds, then blowing our minds … and her constant resurrecting, in the spring, in the green shoots breaking through concrete.
Almost everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, scared, and yet designed for joy. Even (or especially) people who seem to have it more or less together are more like the rest of us than you would believe. I try not to compare my insides to their outsides, because this makes me much worse than I already am.
When all is said and done, we are all just walking each other home …
ANNE LAMOTT – ‘ALMOST EVERYTHING: NOTES ON HOPE
LIFE-CHANGING
When you’re KIND,
it not only
changes
YOU –
it changes
the
WORLD!
HAROLD KUSHNER
TURN YOUR TELESCOPE AROUND
I like nonsense.
It wakes up the brain cells.
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.
It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope.
Which is what I do.
And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
DR SEUSS
THIS IS IT!
This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come.
And all of it … all of it … is completely worth it.
NADIA BOLZ-WEBER – ‘PASTRIX’
I AM EVERY AGE
The truth is, part of me is every age. I’m a three-year-old, I’m a five-year-old, I’m a 37-year-old, I’m a 50-year-old. I’ve been through all of them, and I know what it’s like. I delight in being a child when it’s appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it’s appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own …”
‘TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE’ – MITCH ALBOM
GONE FISHING!
In Jesus, God has put up a “Gone Fishing” sign on the religion shop. He has done the whole job in Jesus once and for all, and simply invites us to believe it – to trust the bizarre, unprovable proposition that in him, every last person on earth is already home free without a single religious exertion: no fasting till your knees fold, no prayers you have to get right or else, no standing on your head with your right thumb in your left ear and reciting the correct creed – no nothing!
The entire show has been set to rights … even though nobody can see a single improvement. Yes, it’s crazy. And yes, it’s wild, and outrageous, and vulgar. And any God who would do such a thing is a God who has no taste. And worst of all, it doesn’t sell well. But it is good news – the only permanently good news there is – and therefore I find it absolutely captivating.
ROBERT FARRAR CAPON – ‘ONE MAN’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THEOLOGY’
THE BROKEN WORLD WAITS
Do not be dismayed by the
brokenness in the world.
All things break.
And all things can be mended.
Not with time, as they say, but with
intention.
So go.
Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
The broken world waits in darkness
For the light
That is you.
J R KNOST
LIFE IS A JOURNEY …
For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
ALFRED A SOUZA
NOTE TO SELF:
Coffee
is
self-care.
It’s
a
way
to
say
to
yourself,
“I love you.
I want you to be happy.
Here’s a little something to
make your day better.
Please don’t get arrested.”
NANEA HOFFMAN – SWEATPANTS & COFFEE.COM
