Hanna > Hanna's Quotes

“You can keep your willpower, Frog. I am going home to bake a cake.”
― Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Together

“All the miles of a hard road are worth a moment of true happiness.”
― Arnold Lobel, Fables

“Blah, said Toad.”
― Arnold Lobel

“After I put on my bathing suit, you must not look at me until I get into the water.'

'Why not?' asked Frog.

'Because I look funny in my bathing suit. That is why.' said Toad.”
― Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad are Friends

“I am happy. I am very happy. This morning when I woke up I felt good because the sun was shining. I felt good because I was a frog. And I felt good because I have you as a friend. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think about how fine everything is.”
― Arnold Lobel, Days with Frog and Toad

“Respond to every call
that excites your spirit.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Drum sound rises on the air, its throb, my heart.

A voice inside the beat says, "I know you're tired, but come. This is the way.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Don't try to steer the boat.
Don't open shop for yourself. Listen. Keep silent.
You are not God's mouthpiece. Try to be an ear,
And if you do speak, ask for explanations.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“I don't want learning, or dignity, or respectability. I want this music, and this dawn, and the warmth of your cheek against mine.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

Drumsound rises on the air,
its throb, my heart.

A voice inside the beat says,
"I know you're tired,
but come. This is the way."

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give this joy to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups!
They swim the huge fluid freedom.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light. We are the space
between the fish and the moon,
while we sit here together.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“You are sitting here with us,
but you are also out walking in a field at dawn.

You are yourself the animal we hunt
when you come with us on the hunt.

You are in your body
like a plant is solid in the ground,
yet you are wind.

You are the diver's clothes
lying empty on the beach.
You are the fish.

In the ocean are many bright strands
and many dark strands like veins that are seen
when a wing is lifted up.

Your hidden self is blood in those,
those veins that are lute strings
that make ocean music,
not the sad edge of surf,
but the sound of no shore.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Your boundaries are your quest.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“This is a subtle truth.
Whatever you love, you are.”
― Jalaluddin Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“This is how it is to come near you
A wave of light builds in the black pupil
of the eye. The old become young.

The opening lines of the Qur'an open still more.
Inside every human chest there is a hand,
but it has nothing to write with.

Love moves further in, where language
turns to fresh cream on the tongue.

Every accident, and the essence of every being,
is a bud, a blanket tucked into a cradle,
a closed mouth.

All these buds will blossom,
and in that moment you will know
what your grief was,
and how the seed you planted has been miraculously,
and naturally, growing.

Now silence.
Let soul speak inside spoken things.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“In our studies we keep seeing how difficult it is for traumatized people to feel completely relaxed and physically safe in their bodies. We measure our subjects’ HRV by placing tiny monitors on their arms during shavasana, the pose at the end of most classes during which practitioners lie face up, palms up, arms and legs relaxed. Instead of relaxation we picked up too much muscle activity to get a clear signal. Rather than going into a state of quiet repose, our students’ muscles often continue to prepare them to fight unseen enemies. A major challenge in recovering from trauma remains being able to achieve a state of total relaxation and safe surrender.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma