wind blows deeply

No day should ever be so hectic that there is not time in it for solitude and reflection.

“When people show you who they are, believe them.” -Maya Angelou

SB recently discussed this quote; one that has held meaning to her over the years. One of her comments was: "I tend to be optimistic about people... So when a person shows me, through word or action, that they are self-centered, or unreliable, or unkind, I often choose to ignore it without even realizing it."

In a similar vein, I had a realization recently about my interaction with others. If I believe you have good intentions but things repeatedly show themselves differently, rather than doubt you or your intentions I begin to doubt me. After a while, it develops into a reflex response to other people or other situations -- despite knowing the truth of the matter, I choose to doubt myself. The thing is to learn how not to panic.

Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want.
Clive Barnes

After my last quote of Dr. Remen's, Atticus implored me to read her books. In looking into things further, I came across another quotable. Perhaps this is the truth behind meeting you for coffee: I value you with my time. I treasure your stories and offer you mine in return.

Everybody is a story... When I was a child, people sat around the kitchen tables and told their stories. We don't do that so much anymore. Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way wisdom gets passed along. Despite the awesome powers of technology many of us still do not live very well. We may need to listen to one another's stories again.
Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

The one you need to meet is looking for you.

There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good.
Storypeople

After all these years I have begun to wonder if the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.

Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

"The cautious faith that never saws off the limb on which it is sitting never learns that unattached limbs may find strange, unaccountable ways of not falling."
Dallas Willard

disturb us Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
disturb us Lord,
to dare more boldly.
venturing on winter seas
where storms will show your mastery,
where losing sight of land we shall find the stars.

If midnight suddenly transformed into midday, the brightness would be unbearable. So too must our joys and sorrows have their dawns and evenings. The slow blossoming into sweet, sweet fragrance, and the knowledge that dawn follows the darkest.