Lean forward into your life…
catch the best bits and the finest wind.
Just tip your feathers in flight a wee bit
and see how dramatically that small lean
can change your life.
— Mary Anne Radmacher, Lean Forward Into Your Life: Begin Each Day as If It Were on Purpose
Oh, the best dancers know what grace every stumble contains.
― Silent, Sacred, Holy, Deepening Heart
“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.
―A. A. Milne, The House on Pooh Corner
Your true self is enough. There is no need to be better than everyone else around you to be happy. True happiness comes when you are in harmony with yourself and no longer feel the need to one-up other people.
―
To think better, to think like the best humans, we are probably going to have to learn again to judge a person’s intelligence, not by the ability to recite facts, but by the good order or harmoniousness of his or her surroundings. We must suspect that any statistical justification of ugliness and violence is a revelation of stupidity.
―Wendell Berry, “People, Land, and Community”, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
Why would one ever be so insane as to ditch a perfectly beautiful metaphor? Cut back, of course, prune if you like, so that the best metaphors are clear and sparkling. But I will throw out unread the book that promises me no metaphors inside.
Everyone, at some point in their life, is going to make a mistake, in fact, many of you probably already have. Unfortunately, there is no fix for mistakes, no going back, no changing the past. There is only moving on and forgiving yourself. Take with you the lessons from your mistakes and live well knowing that you have made the best of the situation, you have learned, you have grown. If you grow after a mistake, it is no longer a mistake but rather a helpful pointer telling you to try again a different way. Forgive yourself, you are trying your best.
For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
―Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.