Relevant Quotes? My fave starts with "The moving finger writes..."

[ShakeSenora]

One of the quotes that speaks to me re: having a NM is from the multi-talented Omar Khayyam. I've struggled a lot with the revisionist history of having parents who basically deny the validity of my feelings. So I also still struggle with what it means to forgive vs. forget. That's why I really love this poem fragment:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
  Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
  Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

Whole poem is at bottom of this Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam

[ShakeSenora]

Here's another funny one:

May those that love us, love us.
For those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

- Irish toast

[ShakeSenora]

I can def see my NM limping towards me

[Hopalong]

From a 95 y/o friend, a retired Classics prof:

Be not angry with the world, it cares nothing about you. It is neither your enemy nor your friend. Make your peace with the small part of the world that you are in, and you will be happy.

--Plutarch

(Loose translation, apparently, can't find it on the Net, but it's from the Moralia essays). It stays with me and I've made him keep reciting it so I called him and finally wrote it down and now I can't lose it again, it's here!)

xo
Hops

[Sealynx]

Mine is Poem by American Poet Stephen Dunn...

Welcome
if you believe nothing is always what's left
after a while, as I did,
If you believe you have this collection
of ungiven gifts, as I do (right here
behind the silence and the averted eyes)
If you believe an afternoon can collapse
into strange privacies-
how in your backyard, for example,
the shyness of flowers can be suddenly
overwhelming, and in the distance
the clear goddamn of thunder
personal, like a voice,
If you believe there's no correct response
to death, as I do; that even in grief
(where I've sat making plans)
there are small corners of joy
If your body sometimes is a light switch
in a house of insomniacs
If you can feel yourself straining
to be yourself every waking minute
If, as I am, you are almost smiling . . .

[CB123]

Sealynx--your Welcome poem:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Thanks for sharing.  Its just what I needed.

CB

[Ami]

My favorite is "If I am not for myself, who am I? If I am only for myself ,what am I?                                     Ami

[ShakeSenora]

What great quotes from Ami, Sealynx, and Hopalong... food for thought for me. Here's another apropo quote in Spanish. My Abuelita used to say this a lot, and I've captured this "Dicho" in embroidery, stained glass, watercolor, and even carved into a coffee table:

"Dios Tarda, per no olvida"

which means

"God might be late, but he doesn't forget"

[HeartofPilgrimage]

I like this, ShakeSenora! The version I've heard goes, "God may never be late, but He's seldom early ..."

[Ami]

What great quotes from Ami, Sealynx, and Hopalong... food for thought for me. Here's another apropo quote in Spanish. My Abuelita used to say this a lot, and I've captured this "Dicho" in embroidery, stained glass, watercolor, and even carved into a coffee table:

"Dios Tarda, per no olvida"

which means

"God might be late, but he doesn't forget"

Me gusto, mucho.                                                Ami

[ShakeSenora]

Ami - your signature line is funny too.

Here's another kind of obscure one - speaks to the value of an online group like this one I think:

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief or bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

                  Henri Nouwen from "Out of Solitude"

[mudpuppy]

One of my faves is from PG Wodehouse and I think perfectly describes the ordinary resting state of an N:

"If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled".

[ShakeSenora]

Mudpuppy, yours was true & witty. Spot on! Here's another pithy one:


It doesn't hurt to be optimistic.  You can always cry later.  ~Lucimar Santos de Lima

[lighter]

I really love this one, Hops: )

Mo2

Be not angry with the world, it cares nothing about you. It is neither your enemy nor your friend. Make your peace with the small part of the world that you are in, and you will be happy.

--Plutarch

[Hopalong]

Glad, M02...

It really keep coming back to me.

So I wound up reading some more Plutarch.

I need readings like that, and Plutarch said some remarkable things.

Makes me realize how trivial so much of our current literature is.

xo
Hops