Skip to content

    “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, MeditationsThe 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)

                    “How you handle even minor adversity might seem like nothing, but, in fact, it reveals everything.”

                    Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 193)