Quotes About Presence

I wondered if I were glad or sorry to see it—if I were more pleased with his loyalty to his absent employer, or disappointed that my presence had not made everybody else forgotten.

Sometimes I live so much in my mind that I forget what is right before my eyes.

My mother spoke, alive again inside my brain...She spoke and I listened to her, because I was afraid if I didn't her voice would gradually fade away, an evanescent wraith of a thing that would narrow to a pinpoint of light and then go out, lost forever, like the Tinker Bell if no one clapped for her.

The being happy. It's so much easier, to learn to love what you have instead of yearning always for what you're missing, or what you imagine you're missing. It's so much more peaceful.

Writing is the gift of your presence forever.

When she got older, my mother, who was not a sentimental type at all, started to play around with poems. They weren't very good poems, but at every occasion she would write a poem and give it to us. And those are completely and utterly treasured." Her voice soft and warm and a little plaintive, she added, "Writing is the gift of your presence forever.

I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.

Strano l'amore, è catalogato tra i sentimenti, eppure per l'esistenza della vita è necessario quanto l'aria e l'acqua e ce ne accorgiamo solo quando manca, perché per fortuna, proprio come l'aria e l'acqua c'è bene o male sempre. Al massimo ce n'è poco, ma è quando manca davvero che la vita si spegne.

I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation.

I liked walking better, but a sense of reluctance to obtrude my presence on anyone who did not desire it, always kept me passive on these and similar occasions.

I liked walking better, but a sense of reluctance to obtrude my presence on anyone who did not desire it, always kept me passive on these and similar occasions; and I never inquired into the causes of their varying whims.

Chipul lui mi-a revenit aÈ™a de limpede în memorie, încât acum È™tiu c? nimeni altcineva nu va putea r?mâne atât de prezent în mine.

most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you.

I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over.

Gorgeous, amazing things come into our lives when we are paying attention: mangoes, grandnieces, Bach, ponds. This happens more often when we have as little expectation as possible. If you say, Well, that's pretty much what I thought I'd see, you are in trouble. At that point you have to ask yourself why you are even here. [...] Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.

To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass.

There is ecstasy in paying attention.

I realized I was going to get through this disappointing service, and anyway, you have to be somewhere: better here, where I have heard truth spoken so often, than, say, at the DMV, or home alone, orbiting my own mind. And it's good to be out where others can see you, so you can't be your ghastly spoiled self. It forces you to act slightly more elegantly, and this improves your thoughts, and thereby the world.

Nothing can be delicious when you are holding your breath.

Everything slows down when we listen and stop trying to fix the unfixable.

one of the immutable laws of being human is that the people who show up are the right people. [p. 65]

Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.

What can we say beyond Wow, in the presence of glorious art, in music so magnificent that it can't have originated solely on this side of things? Wonder takes our breath away, and makes room for new breath.

I am learning slowly to bring my crazy pinball-machine mind back to this place...