just what i needed.

Each of my sisters keeps a quote book: a journal in which she records quotes and sayings which challenge or inspire her. I don't have one of my own, though if I ever give you leave to riffle through the pages of my numerous journals, you will find a plethora of quotes, both short and longer. Today, my darling middle sister loaned me her quote book to read, pointing out that the first passage is from a letter I wrote to her last year (can I put that - "I'm quotable" - on my resume?). As is inevitably the case when reading a volume of quotes (or poetry), some of the lines jumped out at me, seeming to be just what my heart needed to hear today, even though I had heard/read many of them before. Here, I share with you a few of these.

"Be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars.

In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul."

- Max Ehrmann

"I beg you... to have patience

with everything unresolved in your heart

and try to love the questions themselves

as if they were locked rooms or

books written in a very foreign language.

Don't search for the answers,

which could not be given to you now,

because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps then, someday far in the future,

you will gradually, without even noticing it,

live your way into the

answer."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Walk in the rain,

smell flowers,

stop along the way,

build sandcastles,

go on field trips,

find out how things work,

tell stories,

say the magic words,

trust the universe."

- Bruce Williamson

"Be who you are and say what you feel,

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind."

- Dr. Seuss

"Courage does not always roar.

Sometimes

courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day

saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Life is about not knowing, having to change,

taking the moment and making the best of it,

without knowing what's going to happen next.

Delicious ambiguity."

- Gilda Radner