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Strength and temptation
“Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands — and then eat just one of the pieces.” ~Judith Viorst, author In any endeavor, success depends on discipline — otherwise defined as inner strength, as today’s quote suggests. If you want to build muscle, you must stick with your daily exercise plan. If you want to get published, you have to keep writing and submitting your work. If you want to kick a bad habit, you must be diligent about changing your routine. Personal discipline is hard. Temptation is everywhere. Oh, how easy it is to give up or get lazy — to…
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Who are your heroes?
“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.” ~Steve Jobs, Cofounder of Apple, Inc. In the sixth grade, I was deeply moved and inspired by the courage of diarist Anne Frank, who earned literary fame after her death with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne started her diary after she turned 13, recording the details of her life in hiding (from 1942 to 1944) during the German occupation of the Netherlands. After reading it for the first time, I sobbed for days at the thought of how a young girl — not much older than I was then —…
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Can we be alone without social media?
“Changing social media is not enough. We need to change ourselves. Facebook knows how to keep us glued to our phones; now we need to learn how to be comfortable with solitude. If we can’t find meaning within ourselves, we are more likely to turn to Facebook’s siloed worlds to bolster our fragile sense of self.” ~Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT Over the past several years, I’ve watched social media change our lives, and rarely for the better. I’ve worried about the negative impact it has on Americans, especially our young people. Today’s quote is from Sherry Turkle’s essay, “We Also Need to…
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Back in the flow
“It can be tempting to prolong certain agonies. There’s the sympathy vote to start with, and if you haven’t felt well or you’ve been through a difficult period, you certainly can’t be expected to work full days or do your own laundry. But bouncing back as soon as you’re able means getting back into the stream of life. This is where the opportunity is.” ~Victoria Moran We all have different ways of coping. During periods of grief or illness, I tend to nurse my deepest wounds by myself. When I’m really down, I decline activities or events that usually spark joy for me — because I hate to dump my…
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Revisiting Walden
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden Henry David Thoreau’s Walden tops my list of life-changing literature. It didn’t grab me the first time around. But after reading it a second time, I understood everything Thoreau was trying to tell me. I wanted to learn more about this eccentric man who revered nature, wrote for social justice, and treasured solitude. His writings challenged to keep moving “in the direction of my dreams,” even when it wasn’t easy. After visiting Walden Pond in Concord,…
