Debra Landwehr Engle > Quotes

“Honest concern for others is the key factor in improving our day-to-day lives. When you are warm-hearted, there is no room for anger, jealousy, or insecurity. A calm mind and self-confidence are the basis for happy and peaceful relations with each other. Healthy, happy families and a healthy, peaceful nation are dependent on warm-heartedness. Some scientists have observed that constant anger and fear eat away at our immune system, whereas a calm mind strengthens it. We have to see how we can fundamentally change our education system so that we can train people to develop warm-heartedness early on in order to create a healthier society. I don't mean we need to change the whole system—just improve it. We need to encourage an understanding that inner peace comes from relying on human values like love, compassion, tolerance, and honesty, and that peace in the world relies on individuals finding inner peace. —HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind

“Sometimes we have what we need right in front of us, but we’re programmed not to let it in.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“If your heart has a story to tell, there’s a heart that needs to hear it.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle

“That was the moment. That was the moment when I started to bend his strength against him, to reshape his words and meaning to hurt me since I could never, ever hurt myself enough.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty: A Novel

“I used to think that forgiveness meant letting someone off the hook, denying that their betrayal hurt my soul. But now I can see forgiveness in a whole new light. I need to forgive myself for expecting this world, my life, to be different from how it is, to arrange itself according to my expectations.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“That was when I started seeing her as a human being as well as my mom, and it was the first time I realized that we live many lifetimes within one life. Sometimes we pack up events and relationships and put them on the shelf, pushing them toward the back and closing the door on them.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“The next time you’re in a conversation—or even an argument—pause and ask: How does this look from the other person’s perspective? What fears or wounds might be driving their reactions? What values shape their beliefs?”
― Debra Landwehr Engle

“...overwhelmed with contentment. I wondered how I could be so blessed, finding everything I ever wanted in the two people I loved most.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“As long as I was rattled, I needed rattles in my dash to help me heal. But when my thoughts were healed, the rattles were no longer needed.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind

“You cannot fail at what you are made for.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Our lives unfold in stages. So do our stories. Each stage draws on a different kind of energy. And knowing how to return to Love, over and over again, gives both life and story their shape, and their reason to celebrate.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle

“While the world piles fear on top of light, our job is to remember that light within. When we do, whatever seems to conceal it ceases to exist”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind

“I've been a chronic list maker my whole life. It gives me some illusion that my life is under control or I can foresee the immediate future. Whenever my mind starts feeling like the desk catch-all drawer, writing things down makes me feel like I've cleared out the clutter, at least momentarily.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“First, there's surrender: “I have a desire and don't know how to fill it. But I know you do.” Second, there's a request: “Please bring what I'm looking for to me so I don't have to go looking, because I don't know what I'm looking for anyway, and I know what you bring to me will be a thousand times better than I could imagine.” And third, there's trust: “I know my job is to have patience and go on with my life, trusting that you will deliver when the timing is perfect.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Let Your Spirit Guides Speak: A Simple Guide for a Life of Purpose, Abundance, and Joy

“All these years, I could have been remembering hundreds of beautiful moments with Rose and Mama. And I chose to lose my heart to sadness instead. I would do it differently now. For whatever time I have left, I will remember the joy, not the heartache.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“There’s so much happening ‘behind the scenes’ in the world of Spirit that we’re not privy to. When you trust your Higher Self and all the unseen spiritual support preparing the way, you open yourself up to writing that can change lives, starting with yours.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle

“The only way to heal old wounds is to acknowledge them, not to lock them up.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind

“This is why we’re in relationships. To remember who we are. To know the love within us rather than the bitterness.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“Look at death not as an ending but as a sign of continuity... We are all connecting links. And sometimes when we step out of the chain, we allow new connections that could not have happened with us there.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“You are as Spirit created you. Free. Unlimited. Safe. Healed. Whole. And the same Love that gave you the desire to write will give you the words.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“The shift from fear to Love happens the moment you stop asking, ‘Why would anyone want to read what I write?’ and begin asking, ‘How can I be faithful to what I’ve been given to say?”
― Debra Landwehr Engle

“In life and in story, we’re called to see as Spirit does, looking beyond our human selves to the higher Love in each of us.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Sometimes the truest place to begin is the story that won’t leave you alone.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Writing is energetic. Words carry feeling. If you’re numb on the page, your audience will be, too. But if you’re clear, you are unstoppable.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Everything is used for love.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Digging in the dirt and shoveling manure in the corral is not going to strip off the layers of armor the first day or the second day or even the twelfth. But over time, they're part of something that they start from scratch and see through to the end. How often have they had the chance to do that? To feel like they created something? Especially something that could help keep another human being alive?”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Grace from the Garden: Changing the World One Garden at a Time

“Once again, I thought, I gave up too soon.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“What if, as a writer, you went for patina instead of perfection? What if you could be okay with what is, even if it has flaws? What if your writing could be like all of us—marred and scarred and proudly imperfect?”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“Without transcendence, a painful story is just a record of wounds. With transcendence, it becomes a transmission of Love, acknowledging that everything is a catalyst for growth and healing.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, The Writer's Miracle Method: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Writing with Freedom and Joy

“In memoir—and in life—transcendence is the moment the meaning changes.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle