Quote #1 on my bulletin board, right over my computer, plus a bonus quote.
Like a lot of writers, I collect quotes. Quotes that inspire, quotes that gently nudge, quotes that make me smile.
1. “Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” ~ Alan Alda in a note to his daughter
This one is pasted to the bulletin board right above my computer. It’s hard to be brave sometimes, when we get a rejection, or aren’t accepted to a residency, or get a bad review. Without bravery, nothing would ever get done, not writing, not breakthroughs in medicine, not new products to make our lives easier. Be brave.
2. Nineteenth-century poet and author George MacDonald cautioned, “Work is not always required. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”
This one is also pinned to my bulletin board. Some might counter with the old adage, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”, but I say old George got it right. I know I feel guilty if I’m not doing something every second of every day. But without some idleness, without a chance to re-charge, without rest, I can’t hear the “still, small voice”. I can’t observe. I can’t enjoy. I don’t let my sub-conscious do its work. It’s usually when I walk away from a problem that I finally find the solution. Walk away. Rest.
3. “Little Havana is done with neverland.”
I have no idea what that means. I saw it written on a bathroom stall years ago, and for some reason it struck a chord. I wrote it on a scrap of paper, and to this day, it hangs on my bulletin board. Maybe someday I’ll understand.
What quotes inspire you?
“Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.”-Jack Handy