Julie Sutherland > Quotes

“Dramatically different from eros is agape, or selfless love. This is the unconditional love that propels our compassion, our empathy and our goodness. It fuels heroic feats of sacrifice, such as rescuing strangers from trauma. It also inspires simpler acts of kindness, such as spending time with elderly people in a retirement home or volunteering at a food bank. Mother Teresa's lifework epitomises the 'love in action' that is agape.... Another variety of love is storge, or instinctual love. This is the love that compels a famished mother to feed her daughter before herself. It is the love that fuels a father's night vigils as he cares for his suffering son. Some say the love of a parent for a child is the rawest, deepest love. Children, after all, fall from a star into our laps...”
― Julie Sutherland, Bright Poems for Dark Days: An Anthology for Hope

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore..." These words quicken our confidence because they promise new vistas. Courageous people don't have their eye on what is behind them but rather on what is ahead. This is often true of resilient people too. They are not imprisoned by their disappointments, failures or regrets. In this way, courage and resilience are close relatives. A courageous human is a resilient one.”
― Julie Sutherland, Bright Poems for Dark Days: An Anthology for Hope