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So You Want To Be...
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  (page 228 of 544)
Jan 05, 2026 08:31PM

 
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Thomas Merton
“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.”
Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

Jeffrey Eugenides
“It was one of those humid days when the atmosphere gets confused. Sitting on the porch, you could feel it: the air wishing it was water.”
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

Elizabeth Gilbert
“My thoughts turn to something I read once, something the Zen Buddhists believe. They say that an oak tree is brought into creation by two forces at the same time. Obviously, there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into a tree. Everybody can see that. But only a few can recognize that there is anther force operating here as well-the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void, guiding the evolution from nothingness to maturity. In this respect, say the Zens, it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

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