“I mean, when you’re like on your sixth year of a novel, it’s real easy—and you’ve taught a student in a workshop and they’ll write a novel in six months—it’s not unimaginable that you’ll blame yourself. A friend of mine said something that was helpful for me and pushed me through this. Every time you write a new book, even if it’s your first book, the hard part isn’t writing it. The hard part is becoming that person you have to become to finish the book. And usually what you need to finish a book is not more talent or more workshops or more criticism. Usually what you need to finish your book is an extra dose of compassion, not just simply to connect to your characters—that helps. But usually the compassion that you need to connect to your characters is first modeled whether you’re compassionate to yourself.”
Tag Archives: compassion
Remind Yourself
“Remind yourself, in whatever way is personally meaningful, that it is not in your best interest to reinforce thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. Even if you’ve already taken the bait and feel the familiar pull of self-denigration, marshal your intelligence, courage, and humor in order to turn the tide. Ask yourself: Do I want to strengthen what I’m feeling now? Do I want to cut myself off from my basic goodness? Remind yourself that your fundamental nature is unconditionally open and free.”
-Pema Chodron
She Could Never Go Back
“She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.”
-Terri St. Cloud
Courage, Compassion and Connection
Courage, compassion and connection will be my constant companions.”
-Brene Brown
Perfectly Imperfect
“Not being perfect allows us to feel empathy and compassion, not just for ourselves but also, and especially, for others. We see our own frailties and shortcomings in our friends and lovers. Being imperfect joins us in humanity….Better to taste this gritty, imperfect life we have than to defer it to some more perfect future that will never come.”
-Roger Housden
Compassionate Action
“Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live. This place, if you can touch it, will help you train yourself throughout your life to open further to whatever you feel, to open further rather than shut down more.”
Pema Chödrön
The Circumstances of Our Lives
“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. We always have the choice.”
The Dalai Lama
Waking Up This Morning
Waking up this morning, I smile,
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
And to look at all beings with the eyes of compassion.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Teacher That Is Your Life
“All the situations in our lives, from the insignificant to the major, conspire to teach us exactly what we need to be learning at any given time. Patience, compassion, perseverance, honesty, letting go—all these are covered in the classroom of the teacher that is your life.”
-Daily OM
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