Chances are that any helpful two-year-old will break some eggs. We are often not very good at things when we are new. But there may be an important choice to make at such moments. Do we support and protect the innate wish to be of help to others in our children, or do we protect the eggs? Hard as it seems, the greater mother wisdom may lie in a willingness to clean up broken eggs or replace a mitten and a box of crayons.
Rachel Naomi RemenI think ideas only lead to change for intellectual people; and not even them. What really leads to change is experience. Life itself is the teacher.
Rachel Naomi RemenGoose bumps happen when your soul is close to you, breathing lightly on the back of your neck, and wakes you up.
Rachel Naomi RemenBeing alive is being aware, being able to be touched and moved and changed, being able to respond rather than to react, being able to see and hear.
Rachel Naomi RemenPerhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing.
Rachel Naomi Remen