“This really is my life’s work, to go where there is suffering. I suppose, like us all, I’m learning how to deal with the suffering of the world inside myself… to deal with my own pain and most importantly to still have the ability to be proactive.”
Kayla Mueller, via Becoming Wise (Page 263)
“I’ve always felt that one of the things that we do badly in our educational process, especially working with so-called marginalized young people, is that we educate them to figure out how quickly they can get out of the darkness and get into some much more pleasant situation. When what is needed, again and again, are more and more people who will stand in that darkness, who will not run away from those deeply hurt communities, and will open up possibilities that other people can’t see in any other way except through human beings who care about them.”
Vincent Harding, via Becoming Wise (Page 235)
“The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, via Becoming Wise (Page 224)
“Spirituality doesn’t look like sitting down and meditating. Spirituality looks like folding the towels in a sweet way and talking kindly to the people in the family even though you’ve had a long day. People often say to me, ‘I have so many things that take up my day. I don’t have time to take up a spiritual practice.’ And the thing is, being a wise parent or a spiritual parent doesn’t take extra time. It’s enfolded into the act of parenting.”
Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 223)
“It’s hard to make good news sexy. It is. I think about this a lot as a journalist. But maybe it’s like kindness. Kindness is the stuff of moments, but it can be absolutely transformative in moments. Beautiful lives are transformative in moments. But we have to train ourselves to look for them.”
Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 222)
“I’d say, ‘But I’m not happy.’ And [my grandmother] would say, ‘Where is it written that you’re supposed to be happy all the time?’ And I actually think it was the beginning of my spiritual practice—that life is difficult. Then 40 years later, I learned that the buddhists said the same thing, that life is inevitably challenging and how are we going to do it in a way that’s wise and doesn’t complicate it more than it is just by itself?”
Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 218)
“While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it. That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action. The obstacle on the path becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 195)
“‘I was just born this way.’ ‘I never learned anything different.’ ‘My parents set a terrible example.’ ‘Everybody else does it.’ What are these? Excuses that people use to justify staying as they are instead of striving to become better. Of course it’s possible to curb our arrogance, control our anger, and be a caring person. How do you think others do it? Certainly their parents weren’t perfect; they didn’t come out of the womb incapable of ego or immune to temptation. They worked on it.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 195)
“You don’t need a better computer to become a writer. You don’t need a better guitar to become a musician. You don’t need a better camera to become a photographer. What you need is to get to work.”
James Clear, Blog
“I’ve been really lucky to see many, many places. Now, the great adventure is the inner world, now that I’ve spent a lot of time gathering emotions, impressions, and experiences. Now, I just want to sit still for years on end, really, charting that inner landscape because I think anybody who travels knows that you’re not really doing so in order to move around—you’re traveling in order to be moved. And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see when you’re sleepwalking through your daily life.”
Pico Iyer, via Becoming Wise (Page 196)
“We now know that doing good to others, having a network of strong and supportive relationships, and having a sense that one’s life is worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, via Becoming Wise (Page 192)
