Valentine's Day is over, but can't we all still use some love? I think we can, so I'm offering quotes about love in this installment of Last Wednesday Wisdom. And because HeartWood and I both celebrated birthdays this month (guess who's older), I'm throwing in some about age and experience, as well. In the spirit of love and celebration, I'll even give you a treat at the end: photos from a recent concert and exhibit by local luthiers (stringed-instrument makers). There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. -- John Lennon Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman's Odyssey The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. -- Madeleine L'Engle How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em. ― Shel Silverstein Tell myself: Trust in Experience. And in the rhythms. The deep rhythms of your experience. -- Muriel Rukeyser No matter what you're feeling, the only way to get a difficult feeling to go away is simply to love yourself for it. If you think you're stupid, then love yourself for feeling that way. It's a paradox, but it works. To heal, you must be the first one to shine the light of compassion on any areas within you that you feel are unacceptable. -- Christiane Northrup Imagination has no expiration date. -- Paula Whyman, author, in article on debut authors over age fifty, Poets & Writers magazine, November-December 2016 Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. -- Voltaire We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless. -- Paul Bowles If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. -- Maya Angelou If I had known when I was twenty-one that I should be as happy as I am now, I should have been sincerely shocked. They promised me wormwood and the funeral raven. -- Christopher Isherwood
5 Comments
Emily Everett
2/22/2017 10:30:43 am
Lots of love here! And I love them all but of course I most relate to, "If you think you're stupid, then love yourself for feeling that way." Good advice :) The instruments are gorgeous. Glad you included them.
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Nan
2/22/2017 01:40:02 pm
I liked that one, too, Em. It aligns with something we were talking about at yoga a couple of weeks ago -- how the yoga guideline of Ahimsa (non-harming) also means treating yourself with love and compassion.
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Kitty
2/22/2017 11:32:15 am
The heart quotes are so true and meaning filled ❤😺
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Nan
2/22/2017 01:42:51 pm
<3 <3 Indeed!
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Nan
2/22/2017 01:44:20 pm
Indeed! ❤ ❤ ❤
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Written from the heart,
from the heart of the woods Read the introduction to HeartWood here.
Available now!Author
Nan Sanders Pokerwinski, a former journalist, writes memoir and personal essays, makes collages and likes to play outside. She lives in West Michigan with her husband, Ray. Archives
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