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HeartWood
A blog about cultivating
creativity, connection and contentment
wherever you are

Last Wednesday Wisdom for March 2018

3/28/2018

17 Comments

 
Once again, it's time for our end-of-month roundup of wise words. No particular theme this month--or so I thought until I assembled all the tidbits I'd been collecting. Then I realized there were several on communication, freedom, and hope. Hmmmmm. Interesting.
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Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
​-- Rabindranath Tagore
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The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.
​-- Peter F. Drucker
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We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us, and we do it with political systems . . . It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better . . . Blaming is a way to protect our hearts, to try to protect what is soft and open and tender in ourselves. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.
-- Pema Chödrön
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Grace is beauty of form under the influence of freedom
-- Friedrich Schiller
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To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
​-- Lewis B. Smedes
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To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
​-- Howard Zinn
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It's easy to see the good in others if that's what you decide to do.
​-- Ann Patchett
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Everybody on TV exercises his or her right to express dogmatic beliefs at top volume, but we almost never see a model for deep, attentive listening. The value of genuinely being in each other's presence, regardless of whether we happen to agree, seems to be almost completely lost in our social discourse. That's why we get so little meaning from all our public arguments. It seems that we don't even know how to facilitate genuine presence, the kind of authentic being with each-other that may actually bring about real, positive change.
--  Jacob Needleman, "Beyond Belief," The Sun, ​December 2011
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We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion, The great task in life is to find reality.
​-- Iris Murdoch
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What we want hasn't changed for thousands of years because as far as we can tell the human template hasn't changed either. We still want the purse that will always be filled with gold, and the Fountain of Youth. We want the table that will cover itself with delicious food whenever we say the word, and that will be cleaned up afterwards by invisible servants . . . We want cute, smart children who will treat us with the respect we deserve. We want to be surrounded by music, and by ravishing scents and attractive visual objects. We don't want to be too hot or too cold. We want to dance. We want to speak with the animals. We want to be envied. We want to be immortal. We want to be as gods.

But in addition, we want wisdom and justice. We want hope. We want to be good.
-- Margaret Atwood
17 Comments
Rachel
3/28/2018 07:19:06 am

lovely way to start the day-- tears and chills :)

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Laura Drake link
3/29/2018 02:39:20 am

Lovely! Thank you.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:12:23 am

Thanks for reading!

Kathy Misak link
3/28/2018 07:21:15 am

Pema's quote reminded me of the book On being wrong, adventures in the margin of error by Kathryn Schultz. I enjoyed the read this morning. Thanks

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:14:01 am

That book sounds fascinating. Thanks for mentioning it. I'm adding it to my to-read list.

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Laura Bailey
3/28/2018 11:22:15 am

It's easy to see the good in others if that's what you decide to do.
​-- Ann Patchett

I love this simplicity. Mindset/attitude is a choice but that's easy for me to forget! Do we focus on things that bother us, or things that delight us?

Thank you for this post Nancy; so many good, thoughtful words and reminders.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:17:54 am

Yes, it's so easy to focus on what's wrong instead of what's right. It's good to have reminders to look for the good.

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Janet Glaser link
3/28/2018 11:34:39 am

Wow--so many quotes that resonated with me today. I shared Needleman's quote on my FB page. So true. The forgiveness quote sums up forgiveness so well. I wish I'd had this quote while writing Dangerous Sanctuary as it is about forgiveness. If people could only understand what freedom it gives when you forgive someone and allow someone to forgive you.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:18:50 am

That one is definitely worth sharing. Thanks for passing it along. And I agree -- forgiveness is freeing.

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Debra
3/28/2018 01:58:40 pm

Really enjoy reading the quotations you’ve selected.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:19:14 am

Glad to hear that, Debra. Thanks!

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Sue Schneider
3/28/2018 04:29:46 pm

Thanks for sharing so much inspiration!

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:19:45 am

Glad you found them inspiring, Sue.

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Sally C. Kane
3/28/2018 05:07:13 pm

Each one called for a pause. I then read them again. The one by Pema Chodrin really spoke to me as did the one on forgiveness.
Surely more than collected tidbits, these quotes. More like polished gems.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:20:18 am

You're right, they are gems!

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Valerie Deur
3/28/2018 05:43:16 pm

Thank you again Nan, for sharing such thought filled words. So many apply in today's world. I will share some.

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Nan
3/29/2018 08:22:00 am

True. Many of these are not recent quotes, yet they seem more relevant than ever today.

Reply



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    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.

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