Elizabeth Lesser Quotes
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We can be the one to take the first courageous step toward the other and to do something or to try to do something other than rejection or attack. We can do this with our siblings and our mates and our friends and our colleagues. We can do this with the disconnection and the discord all around us.
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There is no one alive who has not wanted to go back to sleep.
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I think if you asked people "what's the biggest problem in your life?" They'd say, "I just don't have time for anything!" And at our fingertips, if it isn't e-mail, it's our Blackberry, and it's our iPods and telephones - we never stop. We never take those moments to stop the stimulus to find out "what's going on in there? What's really happening?" And then things start to build up. And then we are almost afraid to slow down.
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If I pull from places of faith, joy and gratitude, then I have the wind of creativity behind me. And, my work in the world is much more effective.
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Instead of fixating on the physical aspects of aging, it's good to contemplate the deeper source of our anxiety. That can be liberating.
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I hope this is the lesson we women really commit to memory - we learned that it doesn't work to try be someone other than who you really are.
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It is such a teaching in itself for us, all of us, every moment when we're with anyone.
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I'm not naive. I know how hard it is to get along.
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It is the acceptance of death that has finally allowed me to choose life.
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How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change.
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We must pay attention to the voice that calls us out of the safety zone.
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When you approach spirituality as an adventure of being alive, you start as you would any adventure--with a sense of mystery and not-knowing. Instead of searching for answers that make you feel safe, you set out into the vastness of life and death, with a willingness to continually grow. You open up to the possibility that your ordinary life is an extraordinary adventure, and that your joys and sorrows have meaning. Spiritual practice becomes your rudder, offering direction and insight and discretion as you venture into the unknown.
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Don't persuade, defend or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real. And listen.
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In the true spirit of the holidays, let the darkness of your moods lead you back up to the light, and when New Year's rolls around, your resolution will be tinged with new authenticity and power.
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The soul is the river of energy that animates who we are.
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One can be a full-fledged Christian and at the same time, enjoy the reality of a universal spiritual truth.
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Life is like a school; one can learn, one can graduate, one can skip a grade or stay behind.
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We need to claim our power for something beautiful, something harmonious and something globally healthy.
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As humans try to evolve out of greed, let's put aside some wild places, protected lands, protected farms, things like that, since we may not evolve fast enough to protect nature.
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First we forgive ourselves, then we forgive others and life itself.
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What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected others to do.
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If humanity does not evolve spiritually - each one of us and collectively - our species won't make it. So following that back to each individual - every day you are faced with choices.
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There is an art to grieving. To grieve well the loss of anyone or anything--a parent, a love, a child, an era, a home, a job--is a creative act. It takes attention and patience and courage. But many of us do not know how to grieve. We were never taught, and we don't see examples of full-bodied grieving around us. Our culture favors the fast-food model of mourning--get over it quick and get back to work; affix the bandage of "closure" and move on.
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Not only must we follow the golden thread towards spiritual freedom, but we must also unravel the garden-variety twine that is wrapped tightly around our hearts and minds.