Quotes About Reflection

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

Imagination is conjunctive and unifying; the sour, habitual wars of the self are disjunctive and separating. When I begin a story at my desk, the window to my back, the path is not there. As I start to walk, I make the path.

When he had first known her, the violent decisiveness with which she judged people had charmed him. For Emma, people were enemies or protectors. Even though the charm had worn off, he sometimes envied her–her sense of others devoid of the kind of complex and enervating reflections he was given to–for within her limits she was clear while he, he thought, moved in a permanent blur.

She was thinking of the advantages she would have if only she were someone else.

Today, spend a little time reading more about the practice of lectio divina. When you feel as though it makes sense to you, look up the key passages for the day in the daily missal, or online. Choose one of these to use for lectio, and then take it to your place of prayer. Because it is a form of meditation, it's important that you give it plenty of quiet, uninterrupted time. Sit here while I go over there and pray. (Mt 26:36)

the development of a humble heart. In Lent, we are invited to look deeply inside, identify what is impeding our ability to follow Christ along the path of humility, and begin applying antidotes. Early church tradition is rich in the

Each time we peer into the mirror, our minds are set to wondering: Am I looking older these days? Am I as attractive as I used to be? Should I get surgery? Maybe I should get contacts, buy wrinkle cream, or color my hair. Mirrors, by their very nature, focus us on our physical appearance in the most superficial of ways. And by constantly rerouting our thoughts back to how we look, they make us sitting ducks for advertising ploys that promise to make us more attractive.

Monday: Cover Your Mirrors for a Whole Morning

What we find to love or to hate comes to us as a substitute for something else.

Much better he should read for the first half of his life and then live for the next half. That's the proper sequence to know what you're doing. Nowadays, they start off by living and never get around to reading – it explains the mess we're all in.

You are everything good and straight and fine and true—and I see that so clearly now, in the way you've carried yourself and listened to your own heart. You've changed me more than you know, and will always be a part of everything I am. That's one thing I've learned from this. No one you love is ever truly lost.

More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.

I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.

This was my one brush with love. Was it love? It felt awful enough. I spent another two years crawling around in the skin of it, smoking too much and growing too thin and having stray thoughts of jumping from my balcony like a tortured heroine in a Russian novel.

There are things I didn't see before, like how nice it is to have someone around. Not the white knight whisking you away, but the fellow who sits at your table every night and tells you what he is thinking.

He and I had already had our time, and though it was still very close and real to me, as beautiful and poignant as any place on a map, it was, in truth, another time—another country.

Are you always this wise, Ruth?" "Only when it comes to other people's lives.

Sometimes our dreams can be the most revealing things about us. Who we are when no one's looking, who we believe we're truly supposed to be, if we can get there.

Dreams can tell us a lot of things," I go on. "They're a kind of map of the inner life. Sometimes thinking of who we might someday be is the only way we can get through the reality of who we actually are.

What's wrong with all of us, Bill? Can you tell me that?' 'Hell if I know', he said. 'We drink too much for starters. And we want too much, don't we?

He talks about the gift of being lost in the woods. I've always found that comforting, somehow. That maybe you have to be truly lost before you can find yourself again.

Oh." It seemed I'd surprised him. "There isn't a lot of that kind of thinking around here." "Of course there is," I told him, trying to draw a smile. "It's just usually a man who's doing it.

At twenty-eight I'd had a handful of beaux, but had only been in love once, and that had been awful enough to make me doubt men and myself for a good long while.

Sorry was maybe the loneliest feeling of all, I understood, because it only brought you back to yourself.