Courage

Children, Growth, Life 0

“When you are born,” the golem said softly, “your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off of staircases, saying your first words without fearing that someone will think you are foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you’re half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it’s so grunged up with living. So every once in a while, you have to scrub it up and get the works going or else you’ll never be brave again. Unfortunately, there are not so many facilities in your world that provide the kind of services we do. So most people go around with grimy machinery, when all it would take is a bit of spit and polish to make them paladins once more, bold knights and true.”

— Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, p. 60

Remembrance

Healing, Reading, Story 0

Only now am I grasping the importance of looking backward. Of remembrance. My father finally wrote out his memories for a reason. I took on a year of reading books for a reason. Because words are witness to life: they record what has happened, and they make it all real. Words create the stories that become history and become unforgettable. Even fiction portrays truth: good fiction is truth. Stories about lives remembered bring us backward while allowing us to move forward.

— Nina Sankovitch, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, p. 73

Wisdom

God, Guidance, Prayer 0

Without realizing it, we are operating out of an Enlightenment mind-set that denies the possibility of an infinite God speaking personally into our lives. That’s why I prefer the biblical term wisdom to our more common term guidance. Guidance means I’m driving the car and asking God which way to go. Wisdom is richer, more personal. I don’t just need help with my plans; I need help with my questions and even my own heart.

— Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life, p. 145

A Joyous Snow Day

Joy, Letting Go, Relationships 0

Allowing others to be responsible for themselves is like taking a vacation in the middle of winter or getting a snow day when one least expects it. It’s freeing. It’s joyous. It releases us to explore a new activity, perhaps. And giving up trying to control others, whomever they happen to be, allows them the respect they deserve.

— Karen Casey, Let Go Now, p. 88

Positive Language

Healing, Joy, Uncategorized 0

I have already elaborated on the danger of living in the consciousness of woundology. Although there is no harm in expressing to another the pain and fear that illness brings into your life, you want to avoid falling into the pit of constantly “speaking pain.”

Toward that end, create a new vocabulary for yourself that describes your condition in optimistic, healing, or spiritual terms. . . . One person I met referred to her illness as “a friend who has come to teach me great truths.” . . . Once healed, she actually held a ritual saying farewell to her friend — a fine antidote to lingering woundology that more people should try.

The purpose of creating a positive vocabulary for your situation is to assist you in “outgrowing your illness.” You want to feel that you are larger and more powerful than the disease present in your body. You want to remind yourself constantly that you have numerous healthy resources in your body upon which you can rely to come to your assistance — you have love, you have hope, you have faith. These are powerful allies. . . .

Write of all the wonderful experiences you have had in your life. Don’t look for only the sad moments that could have contributed to your illness or life challenge. The positive times contribute to your health — use them. Write about the loving relationships you have now and have had in the past. Remember the fun times. Fill yourself with memories of times that made you feel in love with your life and grateful to be alive.

— Caroline Myss, PhD, Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can, p. 189-190

Something There

God, Love 0

Say what they say, some may doubt the eexistence of God, but everyone is certain of the existence of love. Something is there, then, beyond our lives, that for lack of a better word I’ll call spirit. Some know it by other names. I know it only as love.

— Sandra Cisneros, Have You Seen Marie?, p. 94

Unfolding

Growth, Joy, Relationships 0

The soul’s joy is in unfolding, in becoming known to the self and being able to live from a deeper and deeper connection with who we really are. While this is an introspective task we have to do for ourselves, there can be no doubt that being seen and known and loved by another offers us the warm light of encouragement that softens our hearts to ourselves when we are discouraged about our human failings.

— Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance, p. 150