“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
A Course In Miracles, Sunbeams (Page 7)
Archives
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Sunbeams (Page 7)
“Serenity and stability are the results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. If you seek to avoid all disruptions to tranquility—other people, external events, stress—you will never be successful. Your problems will follow you wherever you run and hide. But if you seek to avoid the harmful and disruptive judgments that cause those problems, then you will be stable and steady wherever you happen to be.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 19)
Would You Rip The Wings Off A Butterfly For An All-Expenses-Paid Vacation?
“For an all-expenses-paid, one-week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to tear the wings off a beautiful butterfly? If so, would you be troubled enough to enjoy your trip any less? What about stepping on a cockroach? …Does a beautiful creature merit more compassion than an ugly one? If so, why? Do you injure yourself psychologically by destroying something you find beautiful? Is there a meaningful difference between pulling the wings off an insect and stepping on it? How much would it take to induce you to rip the wings off a hummingbird or dove?”
Gregory Stock, The Book of Questions
Beyond the Quote (Day 375)
I finished reading The Book of Questions in February of 2015 and for some reason, the above question is one that left a deep imprint on my mind. I noticed, especially as of late, that since I read it, for no obvious or connected reason, it has been randomly popping into my head—would I tear the wings off a butterfly for an all-expenses-paid vacation anywhere in the world? And every time, I work through the same answer I always do. But what strikes me is that, if I answer the same way every time, why then does it keep recurring?
Read More »Would You Rip The Wings Off A Butterfly For An All-Expenses-Paid Vacation?
“For me, the utter elation of this whole period came from the world’s embrace of my creation, my music. No feeling compares to having others love what you love, and then enthusiastically sharing it with others. Fame for the sake of fame had never been the dream. But spreading light is a pleasure I’ll always live for.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 78)
“Nothing but uncertainty is certain. Circumstances come together, only to fall apart moments or months later. And then, in a flash, we must rise up and regain our footing. In the rearview mirror, I now see so clearly what escaped me then: It’s not that the ground underneath me was suddenly shifting; it’s that it is never still. That’s part of the work of my journey—getting comfortable with life’s groundlessness.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 66)
“I’m often asked where my melodies and lyrics come from. I may never fully comprehend how a song sprouts from nothingness into existence, and truthfully, I’m not tempted to decode the mystery. I hope to be constantly surprised, in amazement of how the tiny seed of a possible chord or lyric miraculously springs to life. That unexplainable process, that alchemy, is part of what separates art from logic and reason. I don’t create from a set of rules or formulas. I tap into my true feelings and experiences and allow them to guide me.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 60)
“We adjust ourselves to fit, to adapt to others’ ideas of who we should be. We shift ourselves not in sweeping pivots, but in movements so tiny that they are hardly perceptible, even in our view. Years can pass before we finally discover that, after handing over our power piece by small piece, we no longer even look like ourselves.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 56)
“Growth requires movement. And often, the only way forward is through an exit door.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 41)
“The magic in any art is not only in its technique but in its authenticity. Truth in its rawest form is what resonates most powerfully.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 39)
“Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground.”
William James, Sunbeams (Page 5)
“One day while studying a Yeats poem I decided to write poetry the rest of my life. I recognized that a single short poem has room for history, music, psychology, religious thought, mood, occult speculation, character, and events of one’s own life. I still feel surprised that such various substances can find shelter and nourishment in a poem. A poem in fact may be a sort of nourishing liquid, such as one uses to keep an amoeba alive. If prepared right, a poem can keep an image or a thought or insights on history or the psyche alive for years, as well as our desires and airy impulses.”
Robert Bly, Sunbeams (Page 5)
Seneca Quote on Philosophy and How Only Those Who Prioritize It, Truly Live.
“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. Only an ingrate would fail to see that these great architects of venerable thoughts were born for us and have designed a way of life for us.”
Seneca, via The Daily Stoic
Beyond the Quote (Day 373)
“Philosophia” is the Ancient Greek word for the “love of wisdom.” Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment. It can be thought then, that those who make time for Philosophy are those who make time for better living. For, what is better living composed of but better experience, better knowledge, and better judgement?
Read More »Seneca Quote on Philosophy and How Only Those Who Prioritize It, Truly Live.“I now understand that trying to be the ‘next’ anyone is as foolish as it sounds. The shoes you dream of filling have already been worn ragged through their soles. You’ve gotta step into your own kicks and just do you.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 38)
“The less others really knew about me, I reasoned, the less ammunition they’d have to make me look foolish. Only if I revealed my tender spots could they wound me. My true self, the one I kept so deeply concealed, only emerged in my diaries. There, I could unveil. On cotton pages scrawled with purple ink, I didn’t have to be tough or brave or capable or strong. I could just be me.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 30)