Jane Ha

“Being present builds a child’s confidence because it lets the child know that she is worth thinking about. Without this, a child might come to believe that her activity is just a means to gain praise, rather than an end in itself. How can we expect a child to be attentive, if we’ve not been attentive to her? Being present, whether with children, with friends, or even with oneself, is always hard work. But isn’t this attentiveness – the feeling that someone is trying to think about us – something we want more than praise?”
― Stephen Grosz, The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves

“What did I do? I lived. Living builds character. It shapes us into who we are going to become.”
― Tabitha Brown, Feeding the Soul (Because It's My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love and Freedom—A Vegan Cookbook and Inspirational Guide by Tabitha Brown

“Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch? Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself continually? Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone? Well, there is time left— fields everywhere invite you into them.”
― Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

“What is my name, o what is my name that I may offer it back to the beautiful world? Have I walked long enough where the sea breaks raspingly all day and all night upon the pale sand?”
― Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver