“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn
To Be Hopeful
Creativity
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
– Albert Einstein
Assume Lack of Context
“The person you’re working with might not know what you know, might not see what you see.
It’s tempting to begin where we are.
But it’s more useful to begin where they are.”
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
The Elephant in the Room
The room is
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.
– Kay Ryan
Trader Joe’s Wisdom
“The faster you’re moving the more you’re in fear. The more you’re in fear, the more you’re thinking about yourself. The more you’re thinking about yourself, the less compassion and kindness you have for others.”
From this Reel.
Very Well Then
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
-Walt Whitman
Less Afraid
“It’s hard not to be afraid. Be less afraid.”
– Susan Sontag
(via)
Moving through that fear
“Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.”
– bell hooks
40 by Frank Chimero
I absolutely love these learnings by Frank Chimero.
For My Wife, Reading in Bed
I know we’re living through all the dark we can afford.
I’ll match your inward quiet, breath for breath.
Thank goodness, then, for this moment’s light
What else do we have but words and their absences
and you, holding the night at bay
– a hint of frown,
those focussed hands, that open book.
to bind and unfasten the knotwork of the heart;
to remind us how mutual and alone we are, how tiny
and significant? Whatever it is you are reading now
my love, read on. Our lives depend on it.
– John Glenday
Fluent
“I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.”
– John O’Donohue
Begin
“Doubt increases with inaction.
Clarity reveals itself in momentum.
Growth comes from progress.
For all these reasons, BEGIN!”
– Brendon Burchard
Inner Change
“Without inner change there can be no outer change, without collective change, no change matters.”
– Angel Kyodo Williams
Task of Genius
“The task of geniusis to keep the miracle alive,to live always in the miracle, to make the miracle more and more miraculous, to swear allegiance to nothing, but live only miraculously, think only miraculously.”
― Henry Miller
As They Are
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
– Anaïs Nin
The quote that is normally attributed to the writer ANAÏS NIN, but it is also a Talmudic idea about dream analysis: People can only dream about things they have encountered or thought about, and so their dreams consist not of reality — whatever that is — but is instead a version filtered through the lens of the dreamer’s experiences.
Light the Torches of Others
“At my age, in this still hierarchical time, people often ask me if I’m ‘passing the torch.’ I explain that I’m keeping my torch, thank you very much – and I’m using it to light the torches of others. Because only if each of us has a torch will there be enough light.”
– Gloria Steinem
We Don’t Need More Sleep
“No, we don’t need more sleep. It’s our souls that are tired, not our bodies. We need nature. We need magic. We need adventure. We need freedom. We need truth. We need stillness. We don’t need more sleep, we need to wake up and live.”
– Brooke Hampton
Not Want it Back
“You can miss something,
but not want it back.”
– Paulo Coelho
Be Like A Choir
“My mother always says to me, that there is a reason that we have a choir. It’s because sometimes you have to take a breath, and the tune continues. So right now, I keep singing, but there might be a time where I can’t, and I ask you to keep the tune going while I take a breath.”
– Diana Buttu
Fear
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
– Jim Morrison
Your heart
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
– Von Goethe
The Opposite of Addiction
“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection.”
Heard here. And here’s the full TED talk by Johann Hari. (Thanks for the comment, Pablo)