writing : blog
“All good people agree,And all good people say,All nice people, like Us, are WeAnd every one else is They.” -Rudyard Kipling, “A Friend of the Family” In the Big Human Equation—that primary equation by which we live (although we most likely refuse to acknowledge its simplicity) —there are only two integers: Us and Them. Or, as Kipling says, We and…
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“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were…
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It has been two years since Hurricane Katrina. Let’s replace "they" with "we" with "I"as we remember what happened there, and as we look for ways to help in the continuing recovery. As I looked back on what I was writing when the hurricane struck, here is what I found: "While there are many material victims of this disaster, losing…
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"Grasping at things can only yield one of two results: Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear. It is only a matter of which occurs first." -Goenka Sometimes, people irritate me. This week has been one of those weeks. Actually, I’ve been irritated for the past month and not just because of the incessant and…
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“For a long time I couldn’t make out what Aquinas meant. He uses a figurative word (a very unusual thing for him) but I have solved it. Claritas is quidditas… This is the moment which I call epiphany. First we recognise that the object is one integral thing, then we recognise that it is an organised composite structure, a thing…
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“Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman’s dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter ‘repented,’ changed his…
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“To receive everything, one must open one’s hands and give.” -Taisen Deshimaru
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for–in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." –Ellen DeGeneres Sometimes, always,…
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No matter how complicated our relationships with our mothers turn out to be–and they are always complicated in some way at some time in our history together, aren’t they, even if we don’t know who our mothers were and are and particularly when we get too invested in our own "rightness"–no matter those complications, without those linkages and lineages and…
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“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” -e.e. cummings Act I The CEO took charge of the retreat after lunch, pushing his staff into action teams to create a brochure, a potluck, and a video. I watched my business partner, David, from across the room, wondering what he kept making notes of as the CEO…
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Patti Digh is the author of six books, including bestsellers Life is a Verb and Creative is a Verb. She travels the world teaching others about mindfulness: to live fully, love well, let go deeply, and make a difference. Patti's comments have appeared on PBS and in The New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Financial Times, and many other international publications. She writes a thank you note every morning.
