Quote of the Day

If Christians have learned anything from our rocky two-thousand-year theological history, it's that we make the most beautiful things ugly when we try to systematize mystery.

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 114

Quote of the Day

Men and women alike, old and new at teaching, were like aunties or grandparents in their firm patience with me, in their conviction of my worth.  They had a divine curiosity about me -- "Hey, who's in there?  Are you willing to talk straight and find who you actually are, if I keep you company?  Do you want to make friends with your heart?  Here -- start with this poem."  This is who I want to be in the world.  This is who I think we are supposed to be, people who help call forth human beings from deep inside hopelessness.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 79

Quote of the Day

As I became more aware of the preciousness of ordinary life, I was overwhelmed by the desire to capture the floods of moments that passed practically unnoticed.

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 198

Quote of the Day

Do not blindly believe what others say, even the Buddha.  See for yourself what brings contentment, clarity, and peace.  That is the path for you to follow.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 13

Quote of the Day

All those I think who have lived as literary men, -- working daily as literary labourers, -- will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

-- Anthony Trollope, An Autobiography

Quote of the Day

You don't really find an audience for your work; they find you.  But it's not enough to be good.  In order to be found, you have to be findable.

-- Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!, p. 1-2

Quote of the Day

Within all of us, there are numerous things we really, deeply wish we could do -- travel the world, start a business, become a singer, etc.  And guess what?  The vast majority of us don't do these things because we're worried about what others will say or think.  We end up sacrificing our selves and our dreams to try to appease those around us.  What a shame.

-- Jordan Bates, "The Gorgeous Reality of Not Being Liked by Everyone"

Quote of the Day

Both husbands and wives bear the sweet responsibility of seeking beauty in one another at all stages of life.  No one gets off the hook because the other is wearing sweatpants or going bald or carrying a child or battling cancer.  Any pastor who claims the Bible says otherwise is lying.  End of story.

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 106

Quote of the Day

When we try to see a damaged person as one of God's regular old customers, instead of a lost cause, it takes the pressure off everybody.  We can then loosen our death grip on the person, which usually results in progress for everyone, also known in certain circles as grace.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 67-68

Quote of the Day

I have built my entire life around loving music, and I surround myself with it.  I'm always racing to catch up on my next favorite song.  But I never stop playing my mixes.  Every fan makes them.  The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with -- nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape.  It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do.  Every mix tape tells a story.  Put them together, and they add up to the story of a life. 

-- Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape, p. 26

Quote of the Day

The heart is like a garden.  It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love.  What seeds will you plant there?

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 11

Quote of the Day

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.

-- W. H. Auden

Quote of the Day

Be so good they can't ignore you.

-- Steve Martin

Quote of the Day

When we act in such a way that eliminates criticism, we also eliminate many, many possible lifestyles, actions, and directions from our realm of possibility.  We become slaves to that which we believe others will approve.

-- Jordan Bates, "The Gorgeous Reality of Not Being Liked by Everyone"

Quote of the Day

So for all of its complexity and incongruity, its mysteries and its dark stories, the Bible consistently presents us with a realistic and affirming view of female beauty.  The writers of ancient Scripture seemed to acknowledge what all women instinctively know -- that our bodies change as we get older, as we bear children, when we get sick, as as we experience joy, pain, life, death, victory, heartache, and time.  And frankly, the suggestion that men are too weak to handle these realities is as emasculating as it is unbiblical.

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 105

Quote of the Day

It is most comfortable to be invisible, to observe life from a distance, at one with our own intoxicating superior thoughts.  But comfort and isolation are not where the surprises are.  They are not where hope is.  Hope tends to appear when we see that all sorts of disparate personalities can come together, no matter how different and jarring they may seem at first.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 55-56

Quote of the Day

A sense of growth is so important to happiness that it's often preferable to be progressing to the summit rather than to be at the summit.

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 178

Quote of the Day

Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts.  No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 7

Quote of the Day

Who can unravel the essence, the stamp of the artistic temperament!  Who can grasp the deep, instinctual fusion of discipline and dissipation on which it rests! 

-- Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Quote of the Day

Creativity is not a talent.  It is a way of operating.

-- John Cleese

Quote of the Day

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.  I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace -- not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.

-- James Baldwin

Quote of the Day

While young love is certainly celebrated in the Bible, particularly in Song of Songs, there is nothing in Scripture to suggest that a woman is expected to maintain a youthful appearance throughout all phases of life.  Nowhere does the Bible teach that a woman shares responsibility for her husband's infidelity because she "let herself go."  And nowhere does it teach that outer beauty reflects inner beauty.

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 105

Quote of the Day

I also learned that you didn't come into this earth as a perfectionist or control freak.  You weren't born a person of cringe and contraction.  You were born as energy, as life, made of the same stuff as stars, blossoms, breezes.  You learned contraction to survive, but that was then.  You have paid through the nose -- paid but good.  It is now your turn to reap.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 34

Quote of the Day

Fun is energizing.  But I have to admit it -- being Gretchen and accepting my true likes and dislikes bring me a kind of sadness ... It makes me sad for two reasons.  First, it makes me sad to realize my limitations.  The world offers so much! -- so much beauty, so much fun, and I am unable to appreciate most of it.  But it also makes me sad because, in many ways, I wish I were different.  One of my Secrets of Adulthood is "You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you like to do."  I have a lot of notions about what I wish I liked to do, about the subjects and occupations that I wish interested me.  But it doesn't matter what I wish I were like.  I am Gretchen.

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 122

Quote of the Day

Every wakeful step, every mindful act is the direct path to awakening.  Wherever you go, there you are.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 6

Quote of the Day

A lot of straight people move through life following a script that others wrote for them.  And many straight people only realize that they didn't want to settle down or have kids or marry the kind of person they married until it's too late (i.e., until after they've married and had kids with someone their parents like a lot more than they do).

-- Dan Savage, American Savage, p. 126

Quote of the Day

When you share your taste and your influences, have the guts to own all of it. Don’t give in to the pressure to self-edit too much. Don’t be the lame guys at the record store arguing over who’s the more “authentic” punk rock band. Don’t try to be hip or cool. Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with people who like those things, too.

-- Austin Kleon, "No More Guilty Pleasures"

Quote of the Day

Some pastors and churches resent the fact that the world is becoming more sensitive to abuse, rape, sexism, victims and control.  A church can flourish in so many ways under the domination of a controlling pastor.  I've seen it.  But when all of a sudden we need to be careful about how we treat others... with mutual respect, dignity and compassion... and that we must allow others their freedoms and rights... and that we cannot use people for our own ends or even the ends of a noble cause... and that there are real victims out there... and that sexism is alive and well throughout our cultures and churches... and... well... you get my point.  For many people it's becoming annoying and complicated, kind of like peanut allergies.

-- David Hayward, "how some churches manage the accusation of abuse"

Quote of the Day

Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.

-- Judy Garland

Quote of the Day

What saved me was that I found gentle, loyal and hilarious companions, which is at the heart of meaning: maybe we don't find a lot of answers to life's tougher questions, but if we find a few true friends, that's even better.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 33-34

Quote of the Day

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

-- C. S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"