“You are entrusted with everything and entitled to nothing”
— Sufi proverb
Quotes
She Decided
“Her nervous system had been through so much. She decided to spend the rest of her life calming the inflammation. Thoughts, feelings, memories, behavior, relations. She soothed it all with deep, Loving breaths and gentle practices. The softer she became with herself, the softer she became with the world, which became softer with her. She birthed a new generational cycle: Peace.”
— Dr. Jaiya John, Fragrance After Rain
To Take the Measure
“To take the measure of something does not guarantee that we will understand its meaning, in fact, it may very well prevent us from doing so.”
— L.M. Sacasas, ”Whose Time? Which Temporality?”
Work for Pay
“It followed my original idea about what making a living was about—which is that I don’t want to work for pay, but I want to be paid for my work.”
— Leonard Cohen
The Mask
“Sometimes it’s not the people who change, it’s the mask that falls off.”
— Haruki Murakami
Opportunities for Self-Deception
“I’m interested in memory because it’s a filter through which we see our lives, and because it’s foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.”
— Kauzo Ishiguro
Nothing Happens
“What happens when you die? Well, we’re not completely sure. But the evidence seems to suggest that nothing happens. You’re just dead, your brain stops working, and then you’re not around to ask annoying questions anymore.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Uncomfortable, but Not Dangerous
“These thoughts are uncomfortable, but not dangerous,”
— Debra Kissen, How to Stop Feeling Anxious Right Now
Stay with the Difficult Problem
“The system doesn’t stay with the difficult problem that produces unpleasant feelings. It’s conditioned somehow to move as fast as it can toward more pleasant feelings, without actually facing the things that’s making the unpleasant feeling.”
— David Bohm
A Stranger to Oneself
“The truth, forever, for everybody, is that one is a stranger to oneself, and that one must deal with this stranger day in and day out—that one, in fact, is forced to create, as distinct from invent, oneself.”
— James Baldwin
Lisa Marie Blair 