Quotes About Transformation

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beuty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

A world without change," he said, "is a world without hope

HOW STRANGE THAT THE NATURE OF LIFE is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be. This

Ch-ch-Changes, turn and face the strain, because I am trying to do just that.

the man was right: It was time for me to find out what I really wanted—not what my husband wanted, not what I thought my children needed, not what my parents expected, not what society said was good or bad. It was time for me to step boldly into the fullness of life, with all of its dangers and all of its promises. Remaining tight in a bud had become a kind of death. The time had come to blossom.

I have gone back to sleep in order to resist the forces of change. And I have stayed awake and been broken open. Both ways are difficult, but one way brings with it the gift of a lifetime. If we can stay awake when our lives are changing, secrets will be revealed to us—secrets about ourselves, about the nature of life, and about the eternal source of happiness and peace that is always available, always renewable, already within us.

I do not wish upon anyone a descent into hell. But if your life has to be turned inside out in order for you to know yourself—if the shadow of a shaman crosses your path and you turn and follow it down—I pray that you use its force wisely. I hope that you take the ultimate responsibility for your actions and that you consecrate any destruction to the rebuilding of your higher self and a more radiant life.

too—I realized that my only hope was to give up the life that had been, in order to make room for the life that is. I call it my "choiceless choice.

In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods Where the straight way was lost. —DANTE ALIGHIERI

Elizabeth Lesser

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

There are three major hurdles to overcome in crisis: dealing with pain; working with your attitude; and using the crisis as a wake-up and a cleanup call.

Joseph Campbell calls the "hero's path." Some of us need a cataclysmic event to find our way toward "the center of our own existence.

Some of us don't. Some of us add up all of the smaller changes into one big lesson, and find our way home as well. A

When we practice dying, we are learning to identify less with Ego and more with Soul. —RAM DASS