I was delighted when I came across this quote yesterday,
It is a help towards sanity and calm judgment to acquire the habit of seeing contemporary events in their historical setting, and of imagining them as they will appear when they are in the past.
—Bertrand Russell
I do that a lot, especially trying to guess how people a hundred years from now would describe this period. It does help put things into perspective.
Another of his quotes is,
The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
He was talking about how children are so curious and excited by life but most adults lose that capacity. We can regain it if need be. I think that’s especially true with the internet. We can explore the world now without even leaving home.
And, of course, there are these two Mary Oliver quotes that I’ve mentioned before.
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world….
and,
Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
As I’ve written, my version is,
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing.
Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.
What do you think?
November 25, 2024
…wonderful words.
🙂
Good advice. Jack is endlessly curious about everything. He often asks questions that I have no answers for.
🙂
All good advice.
🙂
I love your post today! They are thoughts to mull over and savor.
Thanks. 🙂
Two thumbs up! I’d love to discuss the first over Thanksgiving dinner with my deep-thinking son.
Please do, and tell us what he says. 🙂
I think you rank right up there with the other two. It’s a great philosophy of life.
Thanks. 🙂
I totally agree with all of this! Is this Mary Oliver the poet? I have one of her books and love her!
Yes. I love her too. 🙂
Great quotes! 🙂
🙂
All great advise….I think too often we do things for other reasons rather than search for the things that really make us happy. For instance…I know many young people who have not figured out what they want to do, so therefore, they only go after the money. Life is so much easier when we wake up each day …going out and doing what we love….makes it much easier for us to be kind to others and to give to the world rather than to take. Does this make sense?
There is a lot of pressure on kids today to be successes. They are pushed into it. It’s sad.
I love them all…I love the one by Mary Oliver or if you feel unexpected joy, give in to it!
Yes! 🙂
I like them all but that first one really fascinated me. I like the idea of looking at life now as if it were in the past.
I like that one too. 🙂
I don’t recognize either of these persons, but I do that same thing you do, think about what future generations will think when they see what we see now. I also do the reverse and look at things from the past and wonder about how they felt. I think I do that later the most. like riding in a wagon from NY to CA with no contact with the outside world, they lived in the NOW not the past or the future, just struggling to survive.
I know. And they never saw their families again. I think of that part a lot.
“I do that a lot, especially trying to guess how people a hundred years from now would describe this period.”
A 100 years of now people will describe this period as the age of selfishness.
God bless.
I think it’s more complicated than that, but we won’t be around to see what they think. 🙂
Love all of this Jean, A good lesson for me today as I try and back away from the news and the havoc that is coming. He is now going to tariff Canada, the lord preserve us all from the monster.
XO
WWW
I know. 25% they say. Wow!
Very interesting quotes. Thanks for sharing them. I love the Mary Oliver quotes the most. Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving too. 🙂
Life is meant to be lived…
Of course our life does change…
I know a lot of inward living people who somehow can’t find that “joy”
Now I’m living in this small community, I can see people “locked in” to something hinging on … something that’s not reality of “living” maybe locked in something past.
Some changes are easier to adjust to than others.