More quotes worth quoting

I've been catching up with we can be (the difference we want to see in the world) and came across two great quotes:

On the Journey Towards Living Nonviolently

When I sprained my ankle last year, the doctors’ advice on gauging how quickly I could return to normal activities was “Let the pain be your guide.” Well, thanks be to God, I was never in such pain that I couldn’t walk (with an Aircast), drive, and concentrate on my work. Still, I was, for much longer than I’d expected, far from engaging normally in normal activities. I learned that pain isn’t just the intense end of the spectrum. In fact, I had discomfort, and that is part of the pain continuum too. It had significance, and it had an impact on my life.

My conception of violence is similar. It’s easy for me to define violence in the big way, at the intense end of the spectrum: fortunately distant from my direct experience and almost too frightening to contemplate. But as the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and many others have pointed out, violence is also present in small acts: tugging too hard on a sticky door, muttering an expletive in an instant of frustration, being in such a rush that I cut off or discourage someone who wants a bit of my undivided attention.

It’s sobering to acknowledge how many moments of my day are, albeit mildly, part of the violence continuum. But only by recognizing my violence can I hope to transform it, for my own good and the good of all those whose lives I-knowingly or unknowingly-touch.

- SUSAN M. S. BROWN is an Episcopalian laywoman and freelance editor who lives near Boston, Massachusetts

http://www.henrinouwen.org/



Deeply Rooted in God

Trees that grow tall have deep roots. Great height without great depth is dangerous. The great leaders of this world - like St. Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., - were all people who could live with public notoriety, influence, and power in a humble way because of their deep spiritual rootedness. Without deep roots we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it.

http://www.henrinouwen.org