quotations and poetry

“Life gives us what we need when we need it; receiving what it gives us is a whole other thing.”

-Pam Houston, Cowboys Are My Weakness

This has been one of my favorite quotes for 25 years or more.  I still need to hear it.

“It’s being here now that’s important.  There’s no past and there’s no future.  Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.”

-George Harrison

I mean, by such flightiness, something that feels unsatisfied at the center of my life – that makes me shaky, fickle, inquisitive, and hungry.  I could call it a longing for home and not be far wrong.  Or I could call it a longing for whatever supersedes, if it cannot pass through, understanding.  Other words that come to mind: faith, grace, rest.  In my outward appearance and life habits I hardly change … But at the center: I am shaking; I am flashing like tinsel.

– Mary Oliver (Long Life)

We did not ask for this room or this music. We were invited in. Therefore, because the dark surrounds us, let us turn our faces to the light. Let us endure hardship to be grateful for plenty. We have been given pain to be astounded by joy. We have been given life to deny death. We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we are here, let us dance.

~ Stephen King

Yet another beautiful quote I found on First Sip.

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”

-Michelle Obama, Becoming