Castaway

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

A castaway does not learn to swim by easy stages, following the rules of the crawl, dogpaddle, backstroke, freestyle. No. He must be familiar with all the methods at that precise moment and choose by instinct the rules that the water on that day will decide for him. His life will depend upon his degree of trust in the sea. He who carries the sea within him will dare, swim, and survive.

~ Antonine Maillet

 from A Writer's Life: The Margaret Laurence Lectures

 

Confidence

Source: Unknown

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do. 

~ Eleanor Roosevelt 

On Quitting

Source: Favim

How much grit do you think you’ve got? 

Can you quit a thing that you like a lot? 

You may talk of pluck; it’s an easy word, 

And where’er you go it is often heard; 

But can you tell to a jot or guess 

Just how much courage you now possess? 

You may stand to trouble and keep your grin, 

But have you tackled self-discipline? 

Have you ever issued commands to you 

To quit the things that you like to do, 

And then, when tempted and sorely swayed, 

Those rigid orders have you obeyed? 

Don’t boast of your grit till you’ve tried it out, 

Nor prate to men of your courage stout, 

For it’s easy enough to retain a grin 

In the face of a fight there’s a chance to win, 

But the sort of grit that is good to own 

Is the stuff you need when you’re all alone. 

How much grit do you think you’ve got? 

Can you turn from joys that you like a lot? 

Have you ever tested yourself to know 

How far with yourself your will can go? 

If you want to know if you have grit, 

Just pick out a joy that you like, and quit. 

It’s bully sport and it’s open fight; 

It will keep you busy both day and night; 

For the toughest kind of a game you’ll find 

Is to make your body obey your mind. 

And you never will know what is meant by grit 

Unless there’s something you’ve tried to quit.

~ Edgar Albert Guest

Quote: Courage

Picture credit: Srivilasica

How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, 'No, I will not. This is wrong, and I don't care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over for promotion, or call my mother, I will not participate in this unsavory activity.' Wouldn't world history be rewritten if just a few people had actually acted like individual free agents rather than mindless lemmings?

~ Joel Salatin

Quote: Courage

Picture credit: Srivilasica

How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, 'No, I will not. This is wrong, and I don't care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over for promotion, or call my mother, I will not participate in this unsavory activity.' Wouldn't world history be rewritten if just a few people had actually acted like individual free agents rather than mindless lemmings?

~ Joel Salatin

Quote on celebration

Credit: Joel Brown of Axis Dance Company 

Celebration when your plan is working? Anyone can do that. But when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that's when you start to learn what celebration is. When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed, but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong, that's celebration.

~ Shauna Niequist

Quote on celebration

Credit: Joel Brown of Axis Dance Company 

Celebration when your plan is working? Anyone can do that. But when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that's when you start to learn what celebration is. When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed, but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong, that's celebration.

~ Shauna Niequist

Quote on entering others' lives

Source: livingwithwallflowers.tumblr.com/favim.com

It seems to me that you need a lot of courage, or a lot of something, to enter into others, into other people. We all think that everyone else lives in fortresses, in fastnesses: behind moats, behind sheer walls studded with spikes and broken glass. But in fact we inhabit much punier structures. We are, as it turns out, all jerry-built. Or not even. You can just stick your head under the flap of the tent and crawl right in. If you get the okay.

~ Martin Amis

Quote on entering others' lives

Source: livingwithwallflowers.tumblr.com/favim.com

It seems to me that you need a lot of courage, or a lot of something, to enter into others, into other people. We all think that everyone else lives in fortresses, in fastnesses: behind moats, behind sheer walls studded with spikes and broken glass. But in fact we inhabit much punier structures. We are, as it turns out, all jerry-built. Or not even. You can just stick your head under the flap of the tent and crawl right in. If you get the okay.

~ Martin Amis

Quote on living

Source: Tumblr/Favim

Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.

~ Andrew Solomon

Quote on living

Source: Tumblr/Favim

Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason.

~ Andrew Solomon

Quote on respect for mother

Image: Nicole Hill/Getty Images

One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands—BARE HANDS—and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED—a kind of unbelievable courage.

 ~ Robert Fulghum

Quote on respect for mother

Image: Nicole Hill/Getty Images

One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands—BARE HANDS—and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED—a kind of unbelievable courage.

 ~ Robert Fulghum