MAYA ANGELOU: “You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great…”
I love this Maya Angelou quote. I also loved the way Brene Brown wrote about her wresting with the meaning if this quote in her book, Braving the Wilderness.
Brown's take on the quote is interesting because she says that must first belong to ourselves. Radical self acceptance is tough. But only after we accomplish that can we ever build the kind of community that we humans as social animals are designed for.
I love Three: "We cannot ever know the mind of another being. Not truly. I’m not even sure I can know my own mind." The first sentence reminds me of an Aldous Huxley quote, that I will need to look up. Love the geese with the intermingled seagulls and the haiku!
Same here / after 17 years with my Matt I often say I know him better than he knows himself. Often I do. But NEVER completely. I think the same happens with him knowing me. Most things we know by intuition & time spent together. But I think we both have, like most, a part of us we share with no one. It is the part I think everyone has. The vulnerability, the fear of things like growing older, or more feeble.
No one knows me as well as Matt other than my best friend who has been around me since high school. But still the me that can be sad, worried, or blue…. No one knows that part of me. Thank you Jason
I also think about this in the context of my relationship with my parents and my children. I never felt like my parents knew me at all, and that left a kind of hole in my heart. I feel as if sometimes I know my children better than they do themselves, and am still so often delightfully surprised as we discover new parts of their personality. (And as teenagers they're all bursting with personality!)
After losing my Dad at 12, Mother and I butted heads until I got married at 18 and left. We never got close. She said later in life she didn’t understand how we (my sisters and me) were not close like others.
She pushed us all away - my sisters and I are close. She was always too worried what other people thought - if she only knew no one gave a damn!
"Sometimes, we humans create barriers to belonging where none need exist." Such a touching metaphor today! Nature is often a springboard, an illustration that launches us into reflection on much more profound topics than the simple dynamic of alone seagull in a flock of geese. Thanks for bringing us along on your journey!
You are sounding a bell in our souls with your beauty and wonderings about the seagull and the geese. No we ultimately don’t want to die alone and unloved. On 3 and 4, “anything anyone ever says about me is all about them. How I take what they said into my body is all about me.” Keep ringing the bells!
Love this. I have always been the seagull. I wonder if that's true of everyone who is at heart a poet... I'm glad that substack lets the seagulls flock together virtually!
Profound. And I can see it just five minutes from my house. Great artwork too.
Thank you!
Fabulous haiku
A post that speaks to my soul
I understand you
your kind commet is
a haiku reply with rhyme?
thanks for making time!
The fear of aging
Begins with little children
Ends with self-hatred
we all time travel
slowly in one direction
drawn to death’s portal
very good, especially that part about knowing minds. Hearts are tricky too.
Hearts might even be more indecipherable!
MAYA ANGELOU: “You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great…”
I love this Maya Angelou quote. I also loved the way Brene Brown wrote about her wresting with the meaning if this quote in her book, Braving the Wilderness.
I didn’t read the book, but I believe I became aware of the quote through a clip of BB talking about the quote.
Yup! I can see how this is a tough concept for many of us to grasp because we desperately want to belong.
Personally, it has taken considerable effort on my part to learn to love myself enough to accept the consequences of not fitting in…
Yes! That last sentence.
Brown's take on the quote is interesting because she says that must first belong to ourselves. Radical self acceptance is tough. But only after we accomplish that can we ever build the kind of community that we humans as social animals are designed for.
I love Three: "We cannot ever know the mind of another being. Not truly. I’m not even sure I can know my own mind." The first sentence reminds me of an Aldous Huxley quote, that I will need to look up. Love the geese with the intermingled seagulls and the haiku!
Thanks! Please let me know if you find the Huxley quote! He always has such incisive language
I will get it posted on my page this week!
Same here / after 17 years with my Matt I often say I know him better than he knows himself. Often I do. But NEVER completely. I think the same happens with him knowing me. Most things we know by intuition & time spent together. But I think we both have, like most, a part of us we share with no one. It is the part I think everyone has. The vulnerability, the fear of things like growing older, or more feeble.
No one knows me as well as Matt other than my best friend who has been around me since high school. But still the me that can be sad, worried, or blue…. No one knows that part of me. Thank you Jason
I also think about this in the context of my relationship with my parents and my children. I never felt like my parents knew me at all, and that left a kind of hole in my heart. I feel as if sometimes I know my children better than they do themselves, and am still so often delightfully surprised as we discover new parts of their personality. (And as teenagers they're all bursting with personality!)
After losing my Dad at 12, Mother and I butted heads until I got married at 18 and left. We never got close. She said later in life she didn’t understand how we (my sisters and me) were not close like others.
She pushed us all away - my sisters and I are close. She was always too worried what other people thought - if she only knew no one gave a damn!
I love this: "every poem has a scarp of my soul embedded inside"
Thank you!
..thank you
Thanks for reading!
Those humans who accept, embrace and cherish the beauty, the reality, and the impermanence of the life know the immortal secrets of the gods.
Well said.
"Sometimes, we humans create barriers to belonging where none need exist." Such a touching metaphor today! Nature is often a springboard, an illustration that launches us into reflection on much more profound topics than the simple dynamic of alone seagull in a flock of geese. Thanks for bringing us along on your journey!
Nature really does feel like a mirror much of the time.
I love this.
Thanks!
You are sounding a bell in our souls with your beauty and wonderings about the seagull and the geese. No we ultimately don’t want to die alone and unloved. On 3 and 4, “anything anyone ever says about me is all about them. How I take what they said into my body is all about me.” Keep ringing the bells!
Thanks!
Such a perfect lesson Jason
Thank you!
Beautiful!!!!! 💚💚💚💚💚
Thanks!
Love this. I have always been the seagull. I wonder if that's true of everyone who is at heart a poet... I'm glad that substack lets the seagulls flock together virtually!
You are probably right, to see yourself as a poet you have to see the world a different way from most people.
#2 is most profound. Thanks for that, Jason.
Thanks for reading!