The “Independent” (London-based newspaper) featured a series of inserts on writing. One entitled “How to Write Poetry” included this advice from Wendy Cope: “I find that the most important and helpful question to ask myself when I’m working on a poem is ‘Am I telling the truth?’ TS Eliot said the greatest difficulty for a poet is to distinguish between ‘what one really feels and what one would like to feel’. Knowing what one really feels is not always such a simple matter as it may sound. Whether we are writing about our own lives, or our response to the world around us, or public events, Eliot’s dictum still holds. If the poet is, knowingly or unknowingly, being dishonest, the poem will fail. We need to search for the words and images that accurately convey the truth of the matter.”

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher.

I’m not feeling particularly courageous today. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed this quote.  There are a couple of things I will wake up and ”try again tomorrow.” I like the idea that those little undertakings are in themselves a form of courage.

Quick quote from a newsletter I received today:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
-Victor Frankl, M.D., PhD., Therapist, Author, Holocaust survivor

My friend, Michelle Saul, used to be a river rafting guide. She shared an interesting metaphore: “When I talk about the River, it is as a metaphor for facing into fear… I  use the story of kayaking on the river and there is a rock in the middle of the river.  In the kayak, if you lean away from the rock (to get away from the obstacle) you end up in more trouble (the currant catches the edge of your kayak and you get flipped upside down, and are underwater pinned against the rock).  It is only by leaning ‘into’ the rock that you end up supported by the river and having more options.  (You don’t get flipped over!).  It is ‘counter-intuitive’, but it is safer to face into fear then to lean or run away from things we are scared of.  A Celtic quote says it this way, ’If you run from a ghost, it will chase you forever.’ “

“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though it were his own.”
-Goethe

“The ornament of a house is
The friends who frequent it.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson