Quotes About Reflection

threnody through the postmortem

The delta blues is a low-down, dirty shame blues. It's a sad, big wide sound, something to make you think about people who are dead or the women who left you.

Even now when at the end, with nothing left to lose, I cannot identify what I could never choose.

I welcomed who I was and left behind who I was not.

There are many days I wonder - why me? Why was I born into this family? This body? This time? This land? This space? Did nature play a joke or simply misplace the instructions about who I was meant to be?

Some folks say That he's my son! I guess it's possible, you know. I've had so many one-night stands, So many whams and bams and thank-me-ma'ams, I can't keep track of every mademoiselle. Plus, I'm not the type to kiss and tell.

I'm getting soft! I need the sea! I miss its greens and blues and grays. Its singing whales. Its silent rays. Its shipwrecks resting on the sand. Undiscovered and unmanned Removed now from all history I miss the sea! Its mystery. Its kelp. Its creatures. Crabs and corals Devoid of complicating morals. Its secrets. All its saline riches. I'm going home.

Curiosity helps to create emotional distance in which people are able to "just notice" their internal states, without taking immediate action to try to shift these states.

Tennessee Williams: 'Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.

Sanctification is about living in ways that are consistent with what we already are in Christ.

Can we, then, set aside the impatience that the Internet tends to breed, and the habits of being distracted which our highly compacted modern lives create, in order to focus on what really matters?

Life, I've learned, is not an affair of joy.

Is she dead?" "No." "A pity.

The time that has passed is ours to keep, and nothing is safer than that which was.

What you have actually achieved will only be clear when you take your last breath.

We can now see that the alternative to "preoccupation" and racing around in a flurry of busyness is learning how to live more deeply.

It's pleasant to be with yourself as long as possible—if you've made yourself into someone worth spending time with."22

the first proof of a stable mind is its ability to stay in one place and enjoy its own company

Seneca then suddenly changes the subject to talk about selecting and reading the right books, to discuss how "not wandering" is vital in reading also: "If you wish to take in something that will settle reliably in your mind," he says, "you must dwell with a few chosen thinkers and be nourished by their works. Someone who is everywhere is nowhere. Those who travel constantly end up with many acquaintances, but no real friends."7

Why the constant rereading? Is it not obvious? Firstly, reading and rereading distract him from thinking about himself, from enumerating the reasons behind his self-imposed predicament, from dwelling on his endless plight. Secondly, he rereads to remind himself what truly good writing is, how it formidably contrasts with what he published. Perhaps he'll finally learn something. To apply to what? To apply to nothing.

Los lectores siempre se encuentran a sí mismo, de una forma o de otra, en un libro. Leer es un estímulo completamente egoísta. Buscamos inconscientemente lo que nos dice algo. Por muy estrambóticas o improbables que sean las historias que los escritores crean, siempre habrá lectores que les dirán: «¡Increíble! ¡Ha escrito usted mi vida!»

Elle sortit subitement prendre l'air. Je pense souvent à cette expression "prendre l'air". Cela veut dire que l'on va ailleurs, pour le trouver. Cela veut dire littéralement : où je suis, je m'asphyxie.

Pourquoi sommes-nous autant marqués par un détail, un geste, qui font de ces instants minimes le coeur d'une époque?

as usual, she wasn't able to live in the moment. Maybe that's what grief is: a permanent disconnect from the here and now.