*This post was written 4/17. It’s still raining…
Today’s rain in the Catskills is very much welcome, not only because we collectively need it – our hay and corn fields and every other living thing – but because I personally need a slow day wherein my compulsivity doesn’t kick in, putting me out there (over)doing thangs when my muscles are already complaining, and rightly so.
And so, while I allow for a little recovery, a few choice quotes shared below to start a day of rest, plenty of deep breaths, no noticing of what all needs a good clean hereabouts (a lot) as that can wait for another day this week, or next! A rainy day in spring is a gift, a gift allowing time for focusing on writing, writing, and more writing.
Gloria Steinem, 1970, testifying before congress re: the ERA, which we still ain’t got, daggnabbit, “The truth is that all our problems stem from the same sex-based myths. We may appear before you as white radicals or the middle-aged middle class or black soul sisters, but we are all sisters in fighting against these outdated myths. Like racial myths, they have been reflected in our laws.”
Carl Jung: “Life really does begin at forty, until then you are just doing research. And if an attractive woman is single, it’s because she’s smarter than everyone else thought.” (no comment other than LOLOLOL)
Tennessee Williams: “All the qualities of magic reside in women. This is why the fearful suppress them. This is why the wise follow them.”
Annie Ernaux: “The general belief is that one cannot go anywhere that is not familiar; people feel genuine admiration for those who aren’t afraid of going places.”
Vaclav Havel: “I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure everything ends badly. Instead, I am a realist who carries hope, and hope is the belief that freedom and justice have meaning—and that liberty is worth the trouble.”
M. Scott Peck: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”
Herman Hesse: “We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome… We are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for in our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”
Charlotte Brontë: “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”
Jim Ralston: “The highest meaning of the social group is to foster the development of individual potential, for the community’s own well-being depends on it. When the goal of the group ceases to be the individual, that group goes into decline. The very best citizens have also been the most evolved individuals. Groups, nations, classes, clans, and families tend toward narrowness, meanness toward other groups, nations, etc. It has always been the individual who calls the group to a larger vision, who insists on compassion and fair play. It is always the community that is ready to stone the witch.”
Sylvia Ashton-Warner: “You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are.”
Agnes Hobbs: “You can close the windows and darken your room, and you can open the windows and let light in . . .It is a matter of choice. Your mind is your room. Do you darken it or do you fill it with light?”
Thich Nhat Hanh: “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
T.S. Eliot: “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: so the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
Roman Payne: The day came when she discovered sex, sensuality, and literature; she said, ‘I submit! Let my life be henceforth ruled by poetry. Let me reign as the queen of my dreams until I become nothing less than the heroine of God.’”
Sandra Cisneros: “I do want to create art beyond rage. Rage is a place to begin, but not end. I do want to devour my demons—despair, grief, shame, fear—and use them to nourish my art. Otherwise they’ll devour me.”
Have a great day, y’all. I hope you found inspiration, as I have, in the above quotes from all sorts of peeps, and thanks for visiting.