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Yvonne S
https://www.goodreads.com/revyvonne
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I know the secret of life: If you want to have loving feelings, do loving things.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
―
―
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
― Letters to a Young Poet
― Letters to a Young Poet
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
―
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
―
“Harper: In your experience of the world. How do people change?
Mormon Mother: Well it has something to do with God so it's not very nice.
God splits the skin with a jagged thumbnail from throat to belly and then plunges a huge filthy hand in, he grabs hold of your bloody tubes and they slip to evade his grasp but he squeezes hard, he insists, he pulls and pulls till all your innards are yanked out and the pain! We can't even talk about that. And then he stuffs them back, dirty, tangled and torn. It's up to you to do the stitching.
Harper: And then up you get. And walk around.
Mormon Mother: Just mangled guts pretending.
Harper: That's how people change.”
― Angels in America
Mormon Mother: Well it has something to do with God so it's not very nice.
God splits the skin with a jagged thumbnail from throat to belly and then plunges a huge filthy hand in, he grabs hold of your bloody tubes and they slip to evade his grasp but he squeezes hard, he insists, he pulls and pulls till all your innards are yanked out and the pain! We can't even talk about that. And then he stuffs them back, dirty, tangled and torn. It's up to you to do the stitching.
Harper: And then up you get. And walk around.
Mormon Mother: Just mangled guts pretending.
Harper: That's how people change.”
― Angels in America
“The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega, it is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blinded note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to "World." Distinctions blur. Quit your tents. Pray without ceasing.”
― Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
― Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
The Obscure Reading Group
— 200 members
— last activity Sep 20, 2024 04:19PM
July 2024 update: This group is going on hiatus due to low participation in recent discussions. Like a phoenix, however, it reserves the right to fly ...more
Dickensians!
— 643 members
— last activity 31 minutes ago
Do you love the stories by Charles Dickens, and anything Victorian? Are you keen to chat about his books, his life, the times or places he lived in, o ...more
Justice and Spirit: Unitarian Universalist Book Club
— 630 members
— last activity 12 hours, 32 min ago
Life never stops sending new spiritual challenges our way. How do we, as individuals and communities, search for truth and meaning, strive for justice ...more
Unitarian Universalists
— 179 members
— last activity Sep 27, 2018 02:42AM
A discussion group for Unitarian Universalists, UU friends, and people interested in Unitarian Universalism. (For more about Unitarian Universalism, v ...more
The Creative Spark with Uvi Poznansky
— 253 members
— last activity Apr 10, 2021 02:39PM
It's a pleasure meeting you here in Uvi's Corner! Let us make it a cosy, intimate place, a place where we can exchange ideas about the creative proces ...more
Yvonne’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Yvonne’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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