"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone... . The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials." - Lin Yutang

"I am learning something about the single moment, how rife with potential it is, how truly loud its tick." - Lauren Slater in her essay "Black Swans"

"When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started to mean not just something but everything." - Markus Zusak, The Book Theif, 30

"It's not that I need easy right now, I just can't have so hard." - Eat Pray Love

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other wings." - Hodding Carter

"Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision - the only decision that matters." From Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton

Also,

"Hence the things that we love tell us what we are." (22)

"But the truth is that grammar is always interesting, always useful." - Francine Prose, from Reading Like a Writer, 43

"Literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none." - Francine Prose, from Reading Like a Writer

"They lived and laughed
and loved and left."- James Joyce

This is a on a card. The inside says "And the world will never be the same."

I collect cards, and lately, I have been buying sympathy cards. I love the simplicity and gravity of this quote. That last word "left" and what it implies is almost a surpise. I got all choked up when I read it. Part of its power is in the format. Two lines slow you down and tells you where to pause so you feel the repetition and rhythm of "and laughed / and loved and left."

"And I began that night, by the light of dozens of candles, to finally put on paper what was in my heart." - SARK, from Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper

I want this experience. SARK has taught me much about writing and not writing. Did she become a writer that night? Or was she born a writer? But a writer, in the words of SARK, is "one who writes," so maybe it is not until you start writing that you can call yourself a writer. I guess that makes sense.

I wonder if I light the candles the writing will come.

"You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write." - Saul Bellow

This quote is in an insomnia journal that I use on nights when I struggle to sleep.

The contents of dreams and the ideas and words that arise during rest and relaxation are things meant to written. They come from the subconsious. They are real. They are true. They are magical. I have had those moments where I sit up in bed and absolutely need to grab a pen and paper and write the thought down. Since the experience happens without intentionally thinking or writing, the thoughts are generally simple and precise. Little bits of truth. Flawless statments. There is no struggle or deciding which word works best. There is no editing or revising. A moment of clarity.

"The murderous din of our materialism cannot be allowed to silence the independent voices which will never cease to speak: whether they be the voices of Christian Saints, or the voices of Oriental sages like Lao-Tse or the Zen masters, or the voices of men like Thoreau or Martin Buber, or Max Picard." - Thomas Mertin, Thoughts in Solitude, 12

"There seems no plan because it is all plan; there seems no center because it is all center." - C. S. Lewis

The first part of this quote strikes particularly well with me right now. I graduated college almost four months ago, and for the first time in my life, I have no plan. These weeks have been a constant struggle. What do I want? What career should I head towards? I feel I have no time. I dislike my job. I am stressed.

"There seems no plan because it is all plan." I must remind myself that not having a plan right now is all part of the process that will lead me toward reaching my dreams. Everything I experience now is part of a much larger plan, whether I can see the upcoming steps or not. I am meant to be here, now. Instead of worrying about where I will be, I should slow down, explore myself, take advantage of this opportunity to choose my path of happiness. I may never again have the time or independence I have now.

"It is fine to want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, doing well is simply not enough." - Anna Quindlen, Loud and Clear, 215

Listen to your heart-whispers. - Sri Chinmoy. This was on a sugar-packet I picked up from a local restaurant in Roscoe Village

"She used to tell me it wasn't up to us to question the circumstances of our lives. It was our job, instead, to live them as best we could, to trust that God had a plan for each of us, to know that something that looked like a curse could just as easily be a blessing." - Lee Martin, in Molly McQuade's One Word, 41.

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship." - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 48.

"Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between 'That doesn't make sense' and 'I don't understand." - Mary Doria Russell, Children of God

We must never seek to establish a rule so rigid as to leave no room for exception. - Children of God, Mary Doria Russell. Quote by St. Ignatius

Simple Advice

I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. - Anna Quindlen

"Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work." - Anna Quindlen

Change can be for the better or for the worse, but not changing, when it contradicts a person's beliefs, is always bad. - I wrote this in a paper once. It sticks with me. 

"The beginning of change is the moment of doubt." - Doubt, Shanley

Uniting Through Grief

"The closest bonds we will ever know are the bonds of grief." - McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

I think of September 11th. I think of the way communities, large and small, unite and come together in times of difficulty and tragedy.

"Poetry is what's left after the ball is over."

"The slow hard toil of getting all the lovely words just right." - James Branch Cabell

"Let us show them the meaning of haste." - Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring

"Yesterday's 'fact' might become today's misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or downrigth mistake." - Science by Seven French, page 2

"The quality that distinguishes poetry from prose, is music." - Bedford Companion to Shakespeare

"The afternoon of life is just as full of meaning as the morning; only its meaning and purpose are different." - Carl Jung

On a bench along the river in london, "Everybody needs a place to think."

"But his misfortune was that he loved youth - he was weak to it, it kindled him. If there was one eager eye, one doubting, critical mind, one lively curiosity in a whole lecture-room full of common place boys and girls, he was its servant." - Willa Cather, The Professor's House

This helps solidify my desire to be a teacher.

"Pity the narrow margin." - Patti Digh, Life is a Verb, ix

I hate small margins in books...where am I supposed to write? How can I annotate and engage with a text if I can't mark my presence?

A few quotes to consider from Willa Cather's The Professor's House.

"But the fact is, the human mind, the individual mind, has always been made more interesting by dwelling on the old riddles, even if it makes nothing of them."

"It struck him that the seasons sometimes gain by being brought into the house, just as they gain by being brought into painting, and into poetry."

"She wouldn't have made herself look quite so well if Louie hadn't been coming, he reflected. Or was it that he wouldn't have noticed it if Louie hadn't been there?"

"In great misfortunes...people want to be alone. They have a right to be. And the misfortunes that occur within one are the greatest. Surely the saddest thing in the world is falling out of love - if once one has ever fallen in."

"It's not that I need easy right now, I just can't have so hard."
-Eat, Pray, Love

From Eat, Pray, Love, a dialogue between Richard from Texas and "Groceries," as he calls her.


"I know you feel awful. But your life's changing. That's not a bad thing. And you're in a perfect place for it. Surrounded by grace."
"I thought I was over him but .... I love him."
"Big deal. So you fell in-love with someone."
"But I really miss him."
"So miss him. Send him some light and love everytime you think of him, and drop it.... If you could ugh... clear up all that space in your mind that you're using to obsess over this guy and your failed marriage, you'd have a vaccum with a doorway. And do you know what the universe will do with that doorway?... Rush in! God. Rush in! Fill you with more love than you've ever dreamed of..... Groceries, I think you have the capacity some day to love the whole world."

Soul Mate

I have been considering the idea of "soul mate," and I have decided, for now, that a soul mate may not be the person you see every day or the person you spend your life with or marry. And a person can have more than one soul mate in a lifetime. They come and go but remain always a part of you. The idea of a soul mate does not seem to be about compatability or who you get along with or with whom you can spend your days. Instead, it seems to be more about who understands you better than anyone else. And you understand them in return and accept them for the person they are. A soul mate is a person who sees right through you, gets you, sees you and recognizes your value more than you are able to recognize it yourself. Just to have met them and know they exist is enough.

Just Haven't Met You Yet

I might have to wait, I'll never give up, I guess it's half timing, and the other half's luck, wherever you are, whenever its right, you'll come out of nowhere and into my life, And I know that we can be so amazing, And baby your love is gonna change me. My favorite part of Michael Buble's "Haven't met you yet" The song brings me hope and makes me smile.

Charlotte Bronte writes, referring to her sisters, "Neither Emily nor Anne was learned; they had no thought of filling their pitchers at the well-spring of other minds."

In "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" (1850) by Charlotte Bronte. Back of the Norton edition of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Although the quote is sort of sad, I enjoy the image of the mind as a pitcher to be filled with the knowledge of other minds. That is what learning is, right?

"And yet it is a chapter and a very important one too. Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing and yet affect all the rest of the history." -Thackeray, Vanity Fair

I can think of examples in my own life, whether people or events or words. Can you? What small chapters do you know will effect the rest of your life?

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." - Lao-Tzu

Romantics

• From the movie The Romantics.
• "Romanticism/Romantics" refers to the literary, artistic, and intellectual movement of the late 18th century. The dialogue below refers specifically to English Romantic poets like John Keats and Lord Byron.
  
• Dialogue between a guy and girl who are in-love with each other. Yet it is the night before his wedding to another woman. The group of friends in the movie call themselves the "Romantics" and their purpose of being together is to inspire each other.
  
• A descent film, though I really dislike Katie Holmes
  

Guy: "The Romantics weren't writing about love, they were writing about religion."

Girl: "Then I don't know the difference."

Do we not talk about love in the same way we talk about religion? With the same emotion and even the same language? Does it not require the same dedication, faith, etc. Are love and religion, in a sense, the same? The girl in the dialogue implies that she interprets the Romantic poetry she has read as being about love. She applies it to her own life. She feels and is effected by the poetry. It inspires her.

"Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?" - Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Makes me wonder... do we really know what we want? What we need? Is happiness not about having the object of your desire? What is happiness then? Are those who want the least the most happy? Are those who are content with the life they have the most happy? Will we every truly be satisfied?

How to Live & How to Die

"Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game?" - W.M. Thackeray in Vanity Fair

The latter seems the more humble path.

"Now today, moment by moment, realize that each person and event that happens is life for you. Life is not somewhere else. See how fully you can accept the life that presents itself to you now."

-Brenda Shoshanna

"Truth is in things, and not in words." - Herman Melville

At first, I was offended when I read this quote. Who would dare to insult words this way? Words. My passion. My thoughts were "but...but....nuh uh....there is too truth in words, isn't there?" "Herman Melville, how could you!!" I actually took a moment to think about it, to question if everything I had ever thought about words was true or if I had been mistaken. Is it "things" which hold truth and not words?

But then I realized that Melville was utilizing words (not things) to make a claim. To claim a truth. He claims that the idea that "truth is in things, and not in words" is a truth - But he utilizes words to make this claim.

So... truth is in words (as I thought). Not in things. If truth was not in words, then Melville statement could not be true.

Contradictions!