“‘History has failed us, but no matter’ serves as my thesis statement. I believe history has failed almost everybody who is ordinary in the world …I am also arguing that the discipline of history has failed. It is not that historians aren’t doing their jobs but rather that the memory of history has been reconstructed by the elite, because the overwhelming majority of ordinary people rarely leave sufficient primary documents; they do not have others recording their lives in real time. The phrase ‘but no matter’ is a statement of defiance. It doesn’t matter that history has failed us because ordinary people have persisted anyway. This idea gives me an enormous amount of strength and hope as a writer because I am an ordinary person. Those of us who may be women of color, immigrants, or working class aren’t often meant to be people who write novels about ideas, but no matter.”
Min Jin Lee, The Guardian
Iain Thomas Quote on What To Do When The World Is Wearing You Down
“The world will always wear you down, so let it wear you down until only the good remains. Hold on to the incredible parts of you that survive.”
Iain Thomas, Every Word You Cannot Say (Page 93)
Beyond the Quote (180/365)
The world will always be this way. Life will continue to be relentless and will certainly try to wear you down. So, let it. If you can’t control the world, why bother trying to control it? Don’t resist what happens. Don’t resist what is. Let life send its blessings your way and let life send its storms, too. If the world is going to wear you down, let it wear down the worst parts of you. Don’t let it break down what’s beautiful. Don’t let it harden you up. Don’t let it steal away your vulnerability. Hold on to the parts of you that make you proud to be you. Hold on to hope and love and beauty and joy and gratitude and individuality. And let the storms wear down and wash away what’s faulty, unnecessary, and not you.
Read More »Iain Thomas Quote on What To Do When The World Is Wearing You Down“When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. So don’t turn away from the pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it—don’t think about it! Express it if necessary, but don’t create a script in your mind around it. Give all your attention to the feeling, not to the person, event, or situation that seems to have caused it. Don’t let the mind use the pain to create a victim identity for yourself out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself and telling others your story will keep you stuck in suffering. Since it is impossible to get away from the feeling, the only possibility of change is to move into it; otherwise, nothing will shift. So give your complete attention to what you feel, and refrain from mentally labeling it. As you go into the feeling, be intensely alert. At first, it may seem like a dark and terrifying place, and when the urge to turn away from it comes, observe it but don’t act on it. Keep putting your attention on the pain, keep feeling the grief, the fear, the dread, the loneliness, whatever it is. Stay alert, stay present—present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. As you do so, you are bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of your consciousness.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 222)
Clay Jensen Quote on Choosing To Live and To Keep Moving, Whatever Happens.
“Whatever happens, keep moving. Get through it. Choose to live. ‘Cause even on the worst day, there are people who love you. There’s new music waiting for you to hear; something you haven’t seen before that will blow your mind in the best way. Even on the worst day, life is a pretty spectacular thing.”
Clay Jensen, Graduation Speech, 13 Reasons Why (Season 4)
Beyond the Quote (173/365)
If you’re going through hell… keep going. I mean, why would you want to stay in hell? Not moving doesn’t seem like an option when hell is where you find yourself—so don’t fool yourself if you’re in some kind of hellish reality. Keep moving. Whatever happens. No matter how hard things get. Keep moving forward in some kind of direction that’s going to take you away from where you are and out of the hell that you might find yourself in. What’s the alternative?
Read More »Clay Jensen Quote on Choosing To Live and To Keep Moving, Whatever Happens.
“if you were born with
the weakness to fall
you were born with
the strength to rise”
Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey (Page 156)
Milk and Honey [Book]
Book Overview: #1 New York Times bestseller Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
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Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“Whatever you’re feeling, be good to yourself. If you feel lost, be patient with yourself while you find your way. If you feel scared, be gentle with yourself while you find the strength to face your fear. If you feel hurt, be kind to yourself while you grieve and slowly heal. You can’t bully yourself into clarity, courage, or peace, and you can’t rush self-discovery or transformation. Some things simply take time, so take the pressure off and give yourself space to grow.”
Lori Deschene
“None of us are perfect. We have biologies and pathologies that will inevitably trip us up. What we need then is a philosophy and a strong moral code—that sense of virtue—to help us resist what we can, and to give us the strength to pick ourselves back up when we fail and try to do and be better.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 117)
Quote about Growth and Not Being So Hard On Yourself
“You’re so hard on yourself. Take a moment. Sit back. Marvel at your life: at the grief that softened you, at the heartache that wisened you, at the suffering that strengthened you. Despite everything, you still grow. Be proud of this.”
Unknown
Beyond the Quote (105/365)
Why are you so hard on yourself? Is it because you think being hard on yourself will make you hard? Is it because that’s the way others have treated you? Is it because you have high expectations of yourself and want to do bigger and better things? Well, what if, by making yourself “hard” you lose your soft touch? What if you lose your malleability and more easily crack and break down? What if you become more “hard headed” and stiff and rigid to the world and in how you think? Maybe we should take a moment and reconsider what it means to be “hard.”
Read More »Quote about Growth and Not Being So Hard On Yourself
“The world doesn’t stop for our tragedies; it keeps moving, and we have to keep moving with it. Stop handling your tragedies like a child, and deal with them like an adult. Adults show up for work, children stay in bed.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 62)
Scilla Elworthy Quote on Controlling Anger (Rather Than Letting It Control You)
“Anger is like gasoline. If you spray it around and somebody lights a match you’ve got an inferno. [But] if we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward.”
Scilla Elworthy
Beyond the Quote (Day 9)
I got really angry tonight. In an effort to save your time (and save myself from getting worked up again) I’ll spare you the details. Long story short I’m experiencing really frustrating car issues and really frustrating customer service.
Read More »Scilla Elworthy Quote on Controlling Anger (Rather Than Letting It Control You)“The wind does not stop being the wind when it stops blowing. A wave does not stop being a wave when it crashes against the shore. A story does not stop being a story when you turn the page.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 25)
Proverb About Small Steps Versus Giant Leaps and Having An ‘All-Or-Something’ Mindset
“It is better to make many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”
Proverb
Beyond the Quote (Day 3)
When it comes to following through with new goals or resolutions, don’t be an all-or-nothing; be an all-or-something. An all-or-nothing is the type of person who is either all-in or all-out. Either everything they planned is unfolding perfectly and is being executed flawlessly, or it’s not and they place blame, come up with excuses, and quit.
Read More »Proverb About Small Steps Versus Giant Leaps and Having An ‘All-Or-Something’ Mindset