Quotes from Elizabeth Lesser

My dad was a man of his generation—the Greatest Generation, as it is called, because theirs was the one that grew up in the Depression and fought the Nazis in World War II. But theirs was also the generation of men who never talked about the war, never processed the trauma, kept that stiff upper lip that men were supposed to keep. Which my father did. He also kept his emotional distance from his four daughters.

We can try to quiet the noise in our minds, listen for deeper instructions, and leap without fear beyond what we think is so. In

Tale as old as time, Tune as old as song. Bittersweet and strange, Finding you can change, Learning you were wrong. —HOWARD ASHMAN AND ALAN

Is this all there is to life? Will I always feel the same? Do I not have some purpose to fulfill, some greater kindness to give, some inner freedom to taste?

A Twice-Born person pays attention when the soul pokes its head through the clouds of a half-lived life. Whether through choice or calamity, the Twice-Born person goes into the woods, loses the straight way, makes mistakes, suffers loss, and confronts that which needs to change within himself in order to live a more genuine and radiant life. But

Twice-Born people use the difficult changes in their outer lives to make the harder changes within.

While Once-Born people avoid or deny or bitterly accept the unpredictable changes of real life, Twice-Born people use adversity for awakening.

it is the internal transformation that matters most. If there is one thing that has made a difference in my life, it is the courage to turn and face what wants to change within me.

I accept now that the point of life is not to reach perfection but to befriend the fact that human beings are works in progress.

from the moment we are born we are dying every day in all sorts of physical, emotional, and spiritual ways.

And the last thing to know about death is that the death of the body is the start of an adventure.

There is meaning hidden in the small changes of everyday life, and wisdom to be found in the shards of your most broken moments.

Let the young rain of tears come, Let the calm hands of grief come. It's not all as evil as you think. —ROLF JACOBSEN

He is disgusted not only by the whores of his city but also by the "wicked" sexuality of women in general.

Rumi speaks of the Open Secret. He says that each one of us is trying to hide a secret—not a big bad secret, but a more subtle and pervasive one.

If I can approach change with an understanding of the process and an openness to the pain, then my daily labors will be swift and fruitful.

How can it be when we're all safeguarding the very same story? That's why Rumi calls it an Open Secret.

To be human is to be lost in the woods.

In their most broken moments they were brought to their knees; they were humbled; they were opened.

The Persian poet Rumi says, The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. I

mythical phoenix bird who remains awake through the fires of change, rises from the ashes of death, and is reborn into his most vibrant and enlightened self.

For the warrior," says Trungpa, "the experience of sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness.

It's easy to remain blind about ourselves when we stay within the safety zone—among people who are just like us, in a place that looks like home. We can trick ourselves into thinking that we are far more open-minded and bighearted than we really are. It's when we must walk our talk in the complex landscape of a messy life that self-righteous ideals are whittled down into the honest truth.

How can I stay awake even when it hurts? What might those secrets at dawn be? Why am I so afraid to slow down and listen? What will it take for my longing for wakefulness to become stronger than my fear of change?