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Quotes and References

The photos in this little photo essay below are all taken by my husband David.

Whether the space you find yourself is ...

prickly ...

stony ...

sunny ...

stormy ...

fast paced ...

contemplative ...

Wherever you find yourself ...

build on a firm foundation ...

bloom where you are planted ...
bloom where you
are planted ...

shine ...

and bring in the harvest ...

I am an inveterate collector of words – thoughts written by others that resonate with my being … I offer you just a smattering of some of my favourites. I’ve posted them in categories as a way of trying to make them more accessible, but really, since I believe life is a whole, the categories are a ‘fiction’! – they are all related. Hope you enjoy these, and if they remind you of words special to you, I’d love to hear from you! Email them to me at maralyn@lifecyclecoaching.com

CREATIVITY AND RISK

We are led to believe in a lie when we see with and not through the eye. – William Blake

Straightway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God. – Johannes Brahms

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist one he grows up. - Pablo Picasso

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. – Joseph Chilton Pearce

… to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. – Georgia O’Keeffe

Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten piece of art, it may be a necessary stepping-stone to your next work. Art matures spasmodically and requires ugly-duckling growth stages. - Julia Cameron

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples’ models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open. - Shakti Gawain

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer your heart’s desire. - Emmet Fox

If I affirm that the universe was created by a power of love, and that all creation is good, I am not proclaiming safety. Safety was never part of the promise. Creativity, yes; safety, no. All creativity is dangerous. - Madeleine L’Engle

There are no easy answers. Often we are put in positions where all of our choices are wrong; there is no right thing to do. At that point we must pray that we choose that which is least evil, and then ask for forgiveness for that inevitable evil which we have done. - Madeleine L’Engle

Courage is the capacity to resist the temptation to demand security, certitude and perfection – the capacity to face an uncertain and ambiguous reality in which action requires risk. - James Wilkes

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. - Seneca

In a dark time, the eye begins to see. – Theodore Roethke

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity. - Keshavan Nair

Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein

Learning is movement from moment to moment. – J. Krishnamurti

LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. - Martin Luther King Jr.

There is no situation that cannot be ennobled either by action or by acceptance. - Paul Tournier quoting Goethe

Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news. – Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

TRUST. It all fits. – Charlie Goedken

I learn my lessons slowly, seldom once for all. Continually they have to be learned and re-learned, not with solemnity, but with awe and laughter and joy. - Madeleine L’Engle

In her book The Cup of Our Life, Joyce Rupp writes about:

The Chipped Cup

it is time for me
to see the flaws
of myself
and stop
being alarmed
it is time for me
to halt my drive
for perfection
and to accept
my blemishes

it is time for me
to receive
slowly evolving growth
the kind that comes
in God’s own good time
and pays no heed
to my panicky pushing

it is time to me
to embrace
my humanness
to love
my incompleteness
it is time for me
to cherish
the unwanted
to welcome
the unknown
to treasure
the unfulfilled
if I wait to be
perfect
before I love myself
I will always be
unsatisfied
and ungrateful

if I wait until
all the flaws, chips
and cracks disappear
I will be the cup
that stands on the shelf
and is never used

The Cup of Our Life,
Joyce Rupp (Ave Maria Press, 1997)

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
And try to love the questions themselves.
Do not seek the answers that cannot be given to you, Because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything! Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers. - Rainer Maria Rilke

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DIVINE

To believe in God … because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given sense to receive our information with. With our own eyes we see, with our skin we feel. With our intelligence it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself. - Sophy Burnham

Whatever God’s dream about (us) may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless (we) cooperate. - Stella Terill Mann

And these words: “you will not be overcome” were said very insistently and strongly, for certainty and strength against every tribulation which may come. God did not say: you will not be assailed, you will not be belaboured, you will not be disquieted, but God said: you will not be overcome … for God loves us and delights in us. - Dame Julian of Norwich

It is the hear that is not yet sure of it’s God that is afraid to laugh in his presence. - George McDonald

From the writings of Teilhard de Chardin:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally,
impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
on the way to something unknown,
something new, and yet
it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability …
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with us.
Our ideas mature gradually.
Let them grow; let them shape themselves without
undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today
what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually
forming within you will be.
Let God lead you, and accept the anxiety
of feeling yourself incomplete.
And to this we answer: YES!

In his book Guerillas of Grace, Ted Loder writes:

Gentle me,
Holy One,
into an unclenched moment,
a deep breath,
a letting go
of heavy expectancies,
of shrivelling anxieties,
of dead certainties,
that, softened by the silence,
surrounded by the light,
and open to the mystery,
I may be found by wholeness,
upheld by the unfathomable,
entranced by the simple,
and filled with the joy
that is you.

- Guerillas of Grace, Ted Loder (Innisfree Press, 1984)

LEADERSHIP

The Optimist’s Manifesto:

What happened probably isn’t my fault.
And even if it is, that’s not what’s important right now.
This obstacle I’m facing won’t last forever.
Okay, that’s the worst scenario. What are two others?
I will speak to myself with a little more charity.
What’s my next step? - Source unknown

In his book Leadership is an Art, Max DePree invites us to wonder about our working environment in a variety of ways:

Does what I do count?
Does what I do make a difference?
Why should I come here?
Can I be somebody here?
Is there for me any rhyme or reason here?
Can I ‘own’ this place?
Do I have any rights?
Does coming here add any richness to my life?
Is this a place where I can learn something?
Would I show this place to my family - or am I ashamed to show them - or does it just not matter?
Is there anybody here I can trust?
Is this place open to my influence?
-- Leadership is an Art, Max De Pree (Dell Publishing, 1989)

Ron Heifetz offers a number of principles to be considered by leaders who are handling challenging situations:

Give meaning to the crisis - speak clearly to the orienting values and identify the adaptive challenge - the discrepancies between our values and our behaviour

Avoid restoring order prematurely - speak dramatically enough to maintain the level of urgency at the same time as addressing its causes

Keep attention focused on the issue and caution against work avoidance mechanisms such as:

- their problem, not mine
- looking for a quick ‘technical fix’ so people can relax
- holding onto the past
- scapegoating - others ‘it’s their fault!’

Give responsibility to those who ‘own it’ ... the challenge will require adaptive and ongoing work ... likely requiring a change in both people’s attitudes and how things are structured - a difficult task involving EVERYONE ... all are ‘in this’ together

Let dissident voices be heard ... protect the voices of those who lead with little authority - even though these voices may often be both deviant and annoying.

The rule of thumb in choosing a decision making process is: One becomes more autocratic - exclusive - when the issue is likely to overwhelm the current resilience of the group or society, given the time available for decision.
Adapted from Leadership Without Easy Answers - Ron Heifetz - Belknap Press of Harvard University Press- ISBN 0-674-51585-6

In response to the question the question “Where, in God’s name are we?”, David Whyte in his wonderful book The Heart Aroused – Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, shares a poem by an old Native American elder as the first step when we find ourselves in any ‘mess’:

LOST

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back here again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
-- The Heart Aroused, David Whyte (Currency Doubleday, 1994)

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