Quotes About Reflection

Humans need each other for equilibrium and support. But writers must pull aside to take a quiet walk alone, not just for the sake of serenity but to hear the Voice inside. That is how the storyteller connects with with others--listen, write, share.

While writing the first draft is an exercise in shutting down all of the things we think we know so that the story features come tumbling out, the revision is the end of the joy ride. We pull on the gloves and sort of poke around inside the body. Is that a tumor? Will that limb need amputation? I nearly second-guessed myself into heart failure while learning to self-edit.

The confessional writer will treat her story like a wailing wall. She kneels, and her story spills out, messy, improper. It isn't a protest or even graffiti, but her story is an offering of things that she overlooked or notices that others have overlooked. She is in danger of exposure but she remembers when she lived in hiding and that was worse. She cannot turn back now because this is how life has spun out of her, part vexing passage and part prayer.

The hardest part about changing the new year is changing ourselves. We have to write each day differently than last year's days. If we do, we increase the chances we won't meet with last year's disappointments. Patricia Hickman

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

I only know it takes weeks to recover, as if one had been in a car accident.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

In a widely cited piece titled "The Middle-Class Black's burden," Ms. McClain laments, "I am not comfortably middle class; I am uncomfortably middle class. I have made it, but where?

Freedom is the pause between stimulus and action. In the moment after something occurs and before we react, we are free to choose how we will show up. What will you choose?

You can't read all the time.

head, and then

A woman discovers the way home to herself in a quiet descent into the richness of her own life. In the descent, she reunites with her essential self and natural resources.

If we don't manage our feelings, thoughts, actions, and patterns, they operate on automatic and can sabotage our dreams, place stress on our personal and professional relationships, and distract us from our goals. Just as we need lots of practice to learn to ride a bike and to speak a second language, we need practice to become skillful at managing our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and patterns.

Our search for a God who looks like us begins in our own lives. She will be found there.

You have a story in there, Lucy," she said, touching my head. "Or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word," she whispered.

Life is not a straight line, she said. And sometimes we circle back to a past time. But we are not the same. We are changed forever.

Some words may make you happy, some may make you sad. Maybe some will make you angry. What I hope. . . what I hope is that something will whisper in your ear.

There is always something to miss, no matter where you are.

You will have a story in there. . . or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word.

Sometimes, what people choose to write down on paper is more important than what they say." Caleb didn't know what Sarah meant. But I knew. I wrote in my journal every night. And when I read what I had written, I could see myself there, clearer than when I looked in the mirror. I could see all of us: Papa, who couldn't always say the things he felt; Caleb, who said everything; and Sarah, who didn't know that she had changed us all.

I, myself, write to change my life, to make it come out the way I want it to. But other people write for other reasons: to see more closely what it is they are thinking about, what they may be afraid of. Sometimes writers write to solve a problem, to answer their own question. All these reasons are good reasons. And that is the most important thing I'll ever tell you. Maybe it is the most important thing you'll ever hear. Ever.

Sometimes poetry--words--give us a small, lovely look at ourselves. And sometimes that is enough.

Some words may make you happy, some may make you said. Maybe some will make you angry. What I hope. . . what I hope is that something will whisper in your ear.

There are always things to miss," said Maggie. "No matter where you are.