“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Essential
Your Heart. Growing.
that feeling. that you can not name.
that. is your heart. growing.
– Nayyirah Waheed
Renewal
“The story of renewal is about letting the light in and also being willing to sit in the dark.”
– Keith Yamashita
A Humanistic Enterprise
“I believe in a humanistic enterprise: business should comply in the noblest manner with all the rules of ethics that man has devised over the centuries. I dream about a form of humanistic modern capitalism with strong ancient roots, where profit is made without harm or offence to anyone, and part of it is set aside for any initiative that can really improve the condition of human life: services, schools, places of worship and cultural heritage.”
(via Jason)
Purpose of Capitalism
“The purpose of capitalism is to allow our society to become better. A culture that opens doors for and nurtures the people we care about.
The issues of our time are education, corruption, access, infrastructure, civility and the downstream effects of the work we do.”
Kindness
“Err in the direction of kindness.”
— George Saunders
A Feeling of Discomfort
“Anytime one ventures into new territory there is a feeling of discomfort/uneasiness. That is how you will know that you are evolving. If you were comfortable you would be in a rut and that is no place for enlightened being.”
— Debbra Lupen
From the book Akasha Unleashed
Grief
“I have learned that Grief is a force of energy that cannot be controlled or predicted. It comes and goes on its own schedule. Grief does not obey your plans, or your wishes. Grief will do whatever it wants to you, whenever it wants to. In that regard, Grief has a lot in common with Love.
The only way that I can “handle” Grief, then, is the same way that I “handle” Love — by not “handling” it. By bowing down before its power, in complete humility.
When Grief comes to visit me, it’s like being visited by a tsunami. I am given just enough warning to say, “Oh my god, this is happening RIGHT NOW,” and then I drop to the floor on my knees and let it rock me. How do you survive the tsunami of Grief? By being willing to experience it, without resistance.”
Elizabeth Gilbert on Love, Loss, and How to Move Through Grief as Grief Moves Through You
The Way You Live
“Attract them by the way you live.”
– Saint Augustine
Chiune Sugihara and Moral Heroism
“Day and night he wrote visas. He issued as many visas in a day as would normally be issued in a month. His wife, Yukiko, massaged his hands at night, aching from the constant effort. When Japan finally closed down the embassy in September 1940, he took the stationery with him and continued to write visas that had no legal standing but worked because of the seal of the government and his name. At least 6,000 visas were issued for people to travel through Japan to other destinations, and in many cases entire families traveled on a single visa. It has been estimated that over 40,000 people are alive today because of this one man.”
Nobody-But-Yourself
“A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
Enormous Smallness: The Sweet Illustrated Story of E. E. Cummings and His Creative Bravery
Just Help
“Don’t be fancy, just help people.”
– Glennon Doyle
Surfing Life Force
“Going with the flow is responding to cues from the universe. When you go with the flow, you’re surfing life force. It’s about wakeful trust and total collaboration with what’s showing up for you.”
– Danielle LaPorte
Your Relationship
“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.”
This hit home.
Power
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
– Fredrick Douglass
People Who Are Good For You
“When you connect with people who are good for you, you feel it.This is a big deal. Don’t forget to acknowledge how great it is to be around someone who lights you up. Tell them, even if you feel a little weird. Your people love your weirdness.”
From here.
“Everything is Waiting for You”
“Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.”
– David Whyte
(via Bailey)
The Life You Want
“There’s only one very good life and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself.”
– Diana Vreeland
The Truth
“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?
The world would split open.”
—Muriel Rukeyser
Loyalty
“The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it.”
– Coach Pat Summit
Contemporary Loneliness
“I feel like so much of contemporary loneliness in motion is this compulsion to share my web browser. It’s like there’s a way of aesthetically stating your browser, which is kind of where you move and how you look and what you see. Even just breaking it up into close shots and long shots, and like what’s at the center. It’s not about a golden mean, but it’s a signature as poetry—which is how I see and how I move and what stops me—and putting them together.”
Eileen Myles on writing and social media
Invisible To The Eyes
From Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“Love after Love”
“The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.”