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Audre Lorde Quote On Fighting, Surviving, and Teaching In Order To Win Battles In Life

    “I have found that battling despair does not mean closing my eyes to the enormity of the tasks of effecting change, nor ignoring the strength and the barbarity of the forces aligned against us. It means teaching, surviving and fighting with the most important resource I have, myself, and taking joy in that battle. It means, for me, recognizing the enemy outside and the enemy within, and knowing that my work is part of our power, and knowing that this work did not begin with my birth nor will it end with my death. And it means knowing that within this continuum, my life and my love and my work has particular power and meaning relative to others.”

    Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

    Beyond the Quote (153/365)

    Even when the tasks set in front of us for affecting change are massive—we mustn’t waver. We mustn’t close our eyes. We mustn’t let the size of the task stop us from taking every possible step we can to keep moving forward as individuals and as a society. For, any big change can only ever happen effectively as a result of a collective series of small efforts. These small efforts collect one by one from each individual person and person by person as a collective group. There is no one person who is “big” enough to handle this task on their own and there is no one person who is “small” enough to contribute to the collective effort that unites us as a whole.

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    Quote on Acting in Situations of Injustice and How Silence Is As Bad As Injustice Itself

      “If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

      Desmond Tutu

      Beyond the Quote (149/365)

      Love is as love does; Hate is as hate does; Indifference doesn’t do. Both hate and love do; care is involved.  In the case of love, we care for ourselves and others and so we express it in the form of positive, constructive, kind, mindful actions.  Love is not something that can be expressed through intention only.

      Read More »Quote on Acting in Situations of Injustice and How Silence Is As Bad As Injustice Itself

        “Any hierarchy creates winners and losers.  The winners are, of course, more likely to justify the hierarchy and the losers to criticize it.  But (1) the collective pursuit of any valued goal produces a hierarchy (as some will be better and some worse at that pursuit no matter what it is) and (2) it is the pursuit of goals that in large part lends life its sustaining meaning.  We experience almost all the emotions that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of moving successfully towards something deeply desired and valued.  The price we pay for that involvement is the inevitable creation of hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome.  Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of value itself—and then there would be nothing worth living for.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 303)

          “Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language make no difference.” ~ Dalai Lama

            “When one of his workers asked for help in decision making, Gandhi told him, “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starved millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away.” ~ Keshavan Nair, A Higher Standard of Leadership