Quote of the Day

I didn't set out to become a wild-eyed shame evangelist or a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but after spending the past decade studying the corrosive effect that shame has on how we live, love, parent, work, and lead, I've found myself practically screaming from the top of my lungs, "Yes, shame is tough to talk about.  But the conversation isn't nearly as dangerous as what we're creating with our silence!  We all experience shame.  We're all afraid to talk about it.  And, the less we talk about it, the more we have it."

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 62

Quote of the Day

In the end these things matter most: How well did you love?  How fully did you live?  How deeply did you learn to let go?

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 85

Quote of the Day

I know -- believe -- there's a new dawn at hand for poetry and for poets as heroes, which parallels a new dawn in America and its changing human landscapes.

-- Richard Blanco, For All of Us, One Today, p. 108

Quote of the Day

If you don't want to marry a homosexual, then don't.  But what gives you the right to weigh in on your neighbor's options?  It's like voting on whether or not redheads should be allowed to celebrate Christmas.

-- David Sedaris, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, p. 156

Quote of the Day

It's all about paying attention.  Attention is vitality.  It connects you with others.

-- Susan Sontag

Quote of the Day

A criminal blackmailer might threaten to use knowledge about a person's past to ruin her reputation, or ask to be paid off in cash to hide a secret.  Emotional blackmail hits closer to home.  Emotional blackmailers know how much we value our relationship with them.  They know our vulnerabilities.  Often they know our deepest secrets.  And no matter how much they care about us, when they fear they won't get their way, they use this intimate knowledge to shape the threats that give them the payoff they want: our compliance.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. x

Quote of the Day

Some people have been taught to expect meaning outside of this world beyond our earthly experiences. When they come upon the many absurdities of life and see that it's "not as advertised," an existential despair can take hold. The problem is not solved by inventing a God in which to place all our hopes, but rather, to face life honestly and create beauty from the absurd.

-- Ryan Bell, "Why you don't need God"

Quote of the Day

Just the way exposure to light was deadly for the gremlins, language and story bring light to shame and destroy it.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 58

Quote of the Day

Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you.  They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 83

Quote of the Day

Why isn't poetry a part of our cultural lives and conversations; part of our popular folklore as with film, music, and novels?

-- Richard Blanco, For All of Us, One Today, p. 101

Quote of the Day

I did not know that I was gay when I was born, but I am sure that I was.  God makes homosexuals as surely as he makes everything else.

-- Michael Fields, The Thousand-Petaled Lotus, p. 13

Quote of the Day

When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The more people come across your work, the more criticism you'll face.

-- Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!, p. 149

Quote of the Day

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Quote of the Day

My experience is that acknowledging the absence of God has helped me refocus on the wonderful and unlikely life I do have. This realization has increased my appreciation for beauty and given me a sense of immediacy about my life. As I come to terms with the fact that this life is the only one I get, I am more motivated than ever to make it count. I want to experience as much happiness and pleasure as I can while helping others to attain their happiness. I construct meaning in my life from many sources, including love, family, friendships, service, learning and so on.

-- Ryan Bell, "Why you don't need God"

Quote of the Day

Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust.  It's not oversharing, it's not purging, it's not indiscriminate disclosure, and it's not celebrity-style social media information dumps.  Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them.  Being vulnerable and open is mutual and an integral part of the trust-building process.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 45

Quote of the Day

Treat others with justice and respect.  In the long run, how you treat others will be how they treat you.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 82

Quote of the Day

As a poet, I've been schooled to never conjure up cliched imagery, but there is no other way to say this: we stumble over words blurred by our tears, at times our voices surrender to silence as the only fitting homage to the pure, uncensored honesty we feel unworthy to read aloud.

-- Richard Blanco, For All of Us, One Today, p. 100-101

Quote of the Day

When I was eleven years old, I gave my life to Jesus.  I have no reason to think that he ever gave it back.

-- Michael Fields, The Thousand-Petaled Lotus, Introduction

Quote of the Day

Part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind.  They are everywhere.  But don't look for them in the wrong places.

-- Henry Miller

Quote of the Day

Emotional blackmail is a powerful form of manipulation in which people close to us threaten, either directly or indirectly, to punish us if we don't do what they want.  At the heart of any kind of blackmail is one basic threat, which can be expressed in many different ways: If you don't behave the way I want you to, you will suffer.  

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. x

Quote of the Day

My fear of meaninglessness comes from one place: my own willfully closing my eyes to the mystery of wonder. 

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 138

Quote of the Day

One question I've been repeatedly asked is how my life has any meaning without God. While I had heard dozens of Christian apologists claim that meaning cannot be found without God, I had a curious experience. My appreciation for life and its potential increased when I stepped away from my faith. 

-- Ryan Bell, "Why you don't need God"

Quote of the Day

As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are.  Otherwise you will miss most of your life.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 80

Quote of the Day

Connecting to people -- and having them connect emotionally to their own lives -- had become a kind of personal mission underlying my poems, my fundamental belief that this indeed was the ultimate beauty, power, and purpose of poetry.

-- Richard Blanco, For All of Us, One Today, p. 76

Quote of the Day

To set the story free, to be heard, and allow it to be retold is the essence of our humanity -- to know and be known.

-- Jennifer Knapp, Facing the Music, p. 280

Quote of the Day

Whatever excites you, go do it.  Whatever drains you, stop doing it.

-- Derek Sivers

Quote of the Day

If you are looking for Bible verses with which to support slavery, you will find them.  If you are looking for verses with which to abolish slavery, you will find them.  If you are looking for verses with which to oppress women, you will find them.  If you are looking for verses with which to liberate and honor women, you will find them.  If you are looking for reasons to wage war, you will find them.  If you are looking for reasons to promote peace, you will find them.  

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 296

Quote of the Day

Trying to nail down theological certainties is putting faith in our imagination rather than in God's.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 138

Bookin' It in 2014

Although my latest adventure, writing for Out & About Nashville, took away from some of my personal reading time this past year, I did read the following 22 books in '14.  The titles in bold were particularly influential, inspiring or intriguing.

1. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel written by Madeleine L'Engle; adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson
2. Howl: A Graphic Novel written by Allen Ginsberg and animated by Eric Drooker
3. Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon 
4. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey 
5. Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield 
6. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
7. Swan: Poems and Prose Poems by Mary Oliver 
8. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women by Maya Angelou 
9. Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to Give Love, Create Beauty and Find Peace by Frank Schaeffer 
10. The Liberation of Sophia by David Hayward 
11. Facing the Music: My Story by Jennifer Knapp 
12. Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell 
13. Buddha's Little Instruction Book by Jack Kornfield
14. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
15. Awkward Moments Children's Bible, Vol. 1 by Horus Gilgamesh
16. Awkward Moments Children's Bible, Vol. 2 by Horus Gilgamesh
17. For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey by Richard Blanco
18. The Art of Coming Out by David Hayward 
19. The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood by Richard Blanco
20. The Thousand-Petaled Lotus: Growing Up Gay in the Southern Baptist Church by Michael Fields
21. Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You by Susan Forward and Donna Frazier
22. God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya
    

Quote of the Day

When I finally walked onto the stage the first thing I did was make eye contact with several people in the audience.  I asked the stage managers to bring up the houselights so I could see people.  I needed to feel connected.  Simply seeing people as people rather than "the audience" reminded me that the challenges that scare me -- like being naked -- scare everyone else.  I think that's why empathy can be conveyed without speaking a word -- it just takes looking into someone's eyes and seeing yourself reflected back in an engaged way.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 41

Quote of the Day

Each morning we are born again.  What we do today is what matters most.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 79

Quote of the Day

One of the great challenges of writing an occasional poem is how to be intimate and conversational while also being grand and Whitmanesque.

-- Richard Blanco, For All of Us, One Today, p. 66