Christopher Willard > Quotes

“There is no problem with your mind wandering; that's the human mind doing what it does 47 percent of the time. The most important moment in mindfulness practice is the moment *after* the distraction. What do you do with it? What attitude do you have toward your mind? [...] When we begin to practice mindfulness, our minds are untrained, but that's no reason to judge them harshly. We can just smile and recognize them as untrained, not judge them as bad or lazy or weak.”
― Christopher Willard, Growing Up Mindful: Essential Practices to Help Children, Teens, and Families Find Balance, Calm, and Resilience

“The light indicating the bathroom is occupied clicks off and the fabulous Gigi Fandone saunters back to stage side.
A heavy smell follows her.
It's a smell much like the trenches in the zoo, but worse.
It's a smell much like Detroit's septic system, but worse.
It's a smell much like a diaper disposal truck, but worse.”
― Christopher Willard, Garbage Head

“The revolution of success turned into ugly access.”
― Christopher Willard, Garbage Head

“Everywhere and neverwhere, everyway and neverway, everything and neverthing.”
― Christopher Willard, Sundre

“The host of Novel Ideas says, "It's the logical ending to the book. It ends where it should end."
Professor Preskey says, "What you mean is that if the readers approach the text with responsive patterns and preconceptions based on a coherent narrative, shouldn't authors provide empirical sequencing where ending constructs are manifold?"
The host of Novel Ideas chuckles and says, "I have absolutely no idea what -- but that's a good not to end on.”
― Christopher Willard, Garbage Head

“Emotions, particularly strong emotions in people we care about, are contagious. But just as so-called negative emotions are contagious, so are calming and compassionate ones. [...] Mirror neurons in the brain are what cause us to feel the experiences and emotions of people around us. In the classic example, if I am watching you eat a banana, the neurons in my brain that are involved in eating bananas begin to fire. Likewise, if I am sitting across from you and feeling sad or angry, you are likely to have those neurons fire in your brain as well; thus you are *feeling* those emotions yourself, not just detecting them.”
― Christopher Willard

“I have been memorizing the internet
to say all that has been said.”
― Christopher Willard, Ship of Theseus

“Once I hung my heart on a tree limb and forced nature down the gullet. Now I expect a time when breezes no longer flow with names and even memory's moon no longer wanes and waxes. I expect a time not so long forward when pink new fingers trace over grey photographs.”
― Christopher Willard, Sundre

“We don't master death by attending funerals. We don't learn to deal with death by glancing in a sideways sort of way at other people's deaths.”
― Christopher Willard, Sundre

“The larger the purse,
the closer the purse.”
― Christopher Willard, Ship of Theseus

“Once the internet took over, it had the same function as TV: People spent hours looking at pictures of other people.”
― Christopher Willard, Garbage Head