One can develop new capacities and strengths with which to meet the natural vicissitudes of living; that one may gain a sense of inner peace through greater self-acceptance, through a more realistic perspective on one's relationships and experiences.
Eda LeShanSomeone once said that middle age is like rereading a book that you haven't read since you were a callow youth. The first time around you were dazzled by impressions, emotions, and tended to miss the finer points. In middle age you have the equipment to see the subtleties you missed before and you savor it more slowly.
Eda LeShanBecoming more flexible, open-minded, having a capacity to deal with change is a good thing. But it is far from the whole story. Grandparents, in the absence of the social institutions that once demanded civilized behavior, have their work cut out for them. Our grandchildren are hungry for our love and approval, but also for standards being set.
Eda LeShanAlthough there are real hazards in saying yes to life, they are inconsequential when compared to the regrets that come with saying "no".
Eda LeShanDepression occurs when you are not being yourself. You're probably doing things you don't want to do.
Eda LeShanIn all our efforts to provide advantages we have actually produced the busiest, most competitive, highly pressured and over-organized generation of youngsters in our history and possibly the unhappiest.
Eda LeShanmost of us carry into marriage not only our childlike illusions, but we bring to it as well the demand that it has to be wonderful, because it's supposed to be.
Eda LeShanIt is strange but true that although we may have learned all sorts of important facts while raising our own children, when we become grandparents we still tend to forget a whole lot of things we knew.
Eda LeShanPsychotherapy can be one of the greatest and most rewarding adventures, it can bring with it the deepest feelings of personal worth, of purpose and richness in living.
Eda LeShanVisiting someone in a hospital recently, I watched an elderly couple. The man was in a wheelchair, the wife sitting next to him in the visitors' room. For the half-hour that I watched they never exchanged a word, just held hands and looked at each other, and once or twice the man patted his wife's face. The feeling of love was so thick in that room that I felt I was sharing in their communion and was shaken all day by their pain, their love, something sad and also joyful: the fullness of a human relationship.
Eda LeShanWe found ... that being a good parent to one's own child was never and in no way enough; until we were all responsible for all the children of the world, no child would ever be safe, no society could survive.
Eda LeShanWhen we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death-ourselves.
Eda LeShanA baby is like the beginning of all things: wonder, hope a dream of possibilities. In a world that is cutting down its trees to build highways, losing its earth to concrete, babies are almost the only remaining link in nature, with the natural world of living things from which we spring.
Eda LeShanA child can live with anything as long as he or she is told the truth and is allowed to share with loved ones the natural feelings people have when they are suffering.
Eda LeShanIf I have learned anything in long years of introspection, it is that life requires a price if you want to be as fully alive as you can be. You need courage to pursue the truth of your life and yourself.
Eda LeShanExcellence in life seems to me to be the way in which each human being makes the most of the adventure of living and becomes most truly and deeply himself, fulfilling his own nature in the context of a good life with other people.
Eda LeShanIt helps parents to feel better if we remind them of our failures with them! And how they turned out just fine despite our imperfections.... We never get over needing nurturing parents. The more we comfort our own adult children, the more they can comfort our grandchildren.
Eda LeShanIf grandparents want to have a meaningful and constructive role, the first lesson they must learn is that becoming a grandparent is not having a second chance at parenthood!
Eda LeShanUntil every individual feels personally responsible for the careful planning and the preservation of natural resources, the inexorable destruction will go on.
Eda LeShanEducation is in danger of becoming a religion based on fear; its doctrine is to compete. Our children are being led to believe that they are doomed to failure in a world which has room only for those at the top.
Eda LeShanthe highest priority for any government concerned with its own future and the peace of the world community ought to be the facilities it provides for the care and nurturance of young children.
Eda LeShan