I see now that the path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
Image © Raniel Diaz with CCLicense
We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.
―Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund
Trust me. If you do not decide where you are heading, and refuse to take the appropriate action, you will end up being shaped into what others would have you become. Then any change will not be made for your benefit but for theirs.
―Chris Murray, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
Jump from the hill
© Dobrean-Dragos with CCLicense
Public Domain Image by Arthur Rothstein of the US Farm Security Administration, 1936
“If you want to go straight against the wind, find a path in its folds and pass through it,” he had said, although he’d never actually taught his grandson how to find it. Still, Masakichi had begged him.
“Even if I teach you where the path is, you won’t be able to see it because the wind is always changing. If I show you the path in the wind one minute, the wind will shift and the path will disappear the next.”
“Then how do I find it?” Masakichi had asked, worried he’d never be able to do it.
“You must find it anew each time,” his grandfather smiled. “The only way to see the path in the wind is to become the wind itself.”
―Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani, Jet Black and the Ninja Wind
Illustration to H.C. Andersen’s Ugly Duckling, Theo van Hoytema, 1893
The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It’s not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it’s about self-revelation, becoming who you are.