What I learned at the library

While I was at CTS I was a work study student for three years at the John Bulow Campbell Library. I loved working at the library for many reasons. The folks who work their are all wonderfully intelligent and unique. I got to interact with students (hello I am an extrovert). I got to read the Sunday papers while I put them on the racks. It is a laid back friendly place, while also being well organized and efficient. One of my greatest life/pastoral lessons came from one of the librarians who explained...

"The first question someone asks you is rarely ever the question they actually need the answer to."

Stranger than Fiction

I am not generally a Will Ferrell fan (his brand of slap stick is generally not to my taste) but my parents convinced me that this was a movie I needed to see. They were right. It is a wonderful movie about getting lost in and saved by the mundane details in life. I suggest you watch it. My favorite scene in the movie isn't something you can capture in a quotation. It is when the main character Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) snaps. This measured mild man begins smashing up all the things in his apartment. It is beautiful and funny and sad and true (if you get this reference you get two gold stars).

This is another great exchange in the movie I decided to share with you.

Harold Crick is explaining to Dr. Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) a literature professor what the narrator had said...
Harold Crick: "Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death."
Dr. Jules Hilbert: Little did he know. That means there's something he doesn't know, which means there's something you don't know, did you know that?

Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth

There was once an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day, his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.
"Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.
"Maybe," the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses.
""Such good luck!" the neighbors exclaimed.
"Maybe," replied the farmer.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the wild horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg.
Again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
"Such bad luck," they said.
"Maybe," answered the farmer.
The day after that, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in a war. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by.
"Such good luck!" cried the neighbors.
"Maybe," said farmer.

Big bro says...

The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang.

Morihei Ueshiba
The Art of Peace

It is bad to carry even a good thing too far. Even concerning things such as Buddhism, Buddhist sermons and moral lessons, talking too much will bring harm.

Feeling deeply the difference between oneself and others, bearing ill will and falling out with people - these things come from a heart that lacks compassion. If one wraps up everything with a heart of compassion, there will be no coming into conflict with people.

Yamamoto Tsunemoto
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

Anytime you feel tension and friciton building up between yourself and others, if you change your mind that very moment, you can prevail by the advantage of radical difference. This is 'becoming new'.

Miyamoto Musashi
The Book of Five Rings

The Way is the way of Heaven and Earth; Man's place is to follow it; therefore make it the object of thy life to reverence Heaven. Heaven loves me and others with equal love; therefore with the love wherewith though lovest thyself, love others. Make not Man they partner but heaven, and making Heaven thy partner do the best. Never condemn others; but see to it that though comest not short of thing own mark.

Inazo Nitobe quoting Saigo
Bushido: The Code of the Samurai

R&R

I discovered this weekend that many of the people in my world are stretched very thin (and I could pretend that I am not one of them, but we all know that wouldn’t be true). So here are some quotations in honor of rest. Send me your R & R quotations and I will add them to the blog.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
-Oscar Wilde

What is without periods of rest will not endure.
- Ovid

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.
- Sir John Lubbock

Be still, and know that I am God
-Psalm 46:10

don't just do something sit there

and from Kelly

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice. ~William James

Dolly Parton

Inspired by Alexis here are a few of my favorite Dolly quotes. I adore Dolly for many reasons, she is empowered and down to earth at the same time. She has used her fame to bring industry back to the poor town she grew up in. I am especially proud that she is from East Tennessee. When I was in Kenya a few years ago I was going to have tea with a family from the church. When I walked in the door I heard Dolly playing. I was so shocked to hear her in this traditional rural Kenyan home. I got really excited. "Dolly Parton! She grew up in the same part of the country I did!" I don't think they quite understood why I was so excited. It was so wonderful to hear something familiar in a place so far from home.

Ladies and Gentlemen Dolly Parton...
Find out who you are and do it on purpose.

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.

It's a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I'd be a drag queen.

My wise friends have offered...

Luke offered

"Listen to your stomach, not your head. Your head will rationalize you right into a job that you shouldn't have."

-Ray Bradbury

(Jay?)

"Stop thinkin', stop figurin',stop analyzing... just STOP. And let God have the floor."

-Maya Angelou

From Alexis

Don't find fault, find a remedy.
Henry Ford

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton (I love Dolly)

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Confucius

Decisions

“Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision.” -Dean Hawkes

OK, this is my official call for quotations. Please send me your favorite nuggets of wisdom about decision making and I will post them on my blog. And hopefully they will help me make since of my life too.

Moonstruck

Today's quotation is in honor of one of my Dad's favorite movies.

Moonstruck - Ronny Cammareri

"Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit."

Sage advice from my big sis'

Today's words of wisdom (apparently I need lots of words of wisdom in my life these days) comes from my adopted big sister Leigh. Over the past four years Leigh has help me survive Greek and Hebrew, major life transitions, and heart break. This year as I have been trying to figure out what to do and where to go she keeps reminding me that...

"All you can do is make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time."

thanks Leigh!

My Momma says...

Last night my Mom recounted to me the speech she gave to her 4th graders on their last day of class. Apparently she also gave this speech to our class, but I wasn't wise enough at 12 to remember it forever.

Mom if I don't get it right, feel free to correct.

"It matters. What you do and say in this world matters. Every time you enter or leave a room that room is changed forever. All the things we do great and small have an impact on the world in which we live."

My Dad also has some wonderful lines. I could do a whole series on wisdom from the family. Hmmm...