Quotes About Acceptance

Lo malo de envejecer, Bar —me dijo Toot—, es que sigues siendo la misma persona en el interior. —Recuerdo sus ojos estudiándome tras las gruesas lentes bifocales, como si quisiera asegurarse de que la estaba oyendo—. Estás atrapada en este maldito cacharro que empieza a desplomarse, pero sigues siendo tú. ¿Entiendes?»

there is a certain liberation that comes from realizing that no matter what you do, someone will be angry at you

I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Sometimes it didn't matter how good your process was. Sometimes you were just screwed, and the best you could do was have a stiff drink—and light up a cigarette.

That's like hating a copperhead, Rafe said. She is what she is. Don't waste your time on it.

Nobody ever tells you the truth about loss. You don't only lose someone you love, you lose a part of yourself as well. Your heart. Your humanity.

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.

The effort to untangle the human words from the divine seems not only futile to me but also unnecessary, since God works with what is. God uses whatever is usable in a life, both to speak and to act, and those who insist on fireworks in the sky may miss the electricity that sparks the human heart.

The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you,' he said, 'by the grace of God.' (Walter Brueggemann)

There was certainly plenty in her own past that she was reluctant to look at. Because looking made it real.

People like to dig up the bodies, anguish over mistakes. What's the point? The water's poisoned. There's no cleaning it up after it's done. The only thing you can do is walk away—and set fire to your bridges.

I've never been good at letting people in, but somehow you're here, and I'm glad.

I'm not cut out for happy. Busy is going to have to do.

Sometimes it just is what it is, Wade. There are things we can change and things we can't. The key is knowing the difference.

You still don't like the idea of gay marriage? Then, as my friend the economist Julianne Malveaux says: Don't marry a gay person. Case closed, problem solved.

What would it mean in practice to eliminate all the 'negative people' from one's life [as demanded by motivational speaker J.P. Maroney]? It might be a good idea to separate from a chronically carping spouse, but it is not so easy to abandon the whiny toddler, the colicky infant, or the sullen teenager.

In fact, if you're not prepared to die when you're almost sixty, then I would say you've been falling down on your philosophical responsibilities as a grown-up human being.

Once I realized I was old enough to die, I decided that I was also old enough not to incur any more suffering, annoyance, or boredom in the pursuit of a longer life.

The real issue was control: male upper-class healing under the auspices of the Church was acceptable, female healing as part of a peasant subculture was not.

I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations. And you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful If not, it can't be helped.

My religious friends - and my friends were almost all Catholics or Protestants or occasionally something more exotic like Jewish or Greek Orthodox - were convinced that God had a plan for us, and since God was good, it was a good plan, which we were required to endorse even without having any idea what it was. Just sign the paperwork; in other words, don't overintellectualize.

La gran mayoría de los oficinistas despedidos se tragaron el sapo, como se suele decir, y aceptaron que les dieran pensamiento positivo en vez de la nómina mensual y la seguridad de antes. No tomaron las calles, no forzaron ningún cambio en la política, no se presentaron en su ex oficina con una pistola.

Well, Sage knows what it is to be mistreated and scared. She seems to relax with the horse. She eats her dinner at the stable now. Soon she'll want to sleep here. (pg. 91)

Pain cannot be avoided, and experience with pain is the greatest source of self-knowledge we have.