#ren

I remember the sift that occurred after Abby was born - there'd been the great big before, where dying grandparents and natural disasters on the news were sad but mostly distant concerns. But then I became a mother, and when that happens, you cross a line that makes all loss a crushing, personal matter. ↗

— DEB CALLETI

#motherhood #nature

Adora changed her color scheme from peach to yellow. She promised me she'd take me to the fabric store so I can make new coverings to match. This dollhouse is my fancy." She almost made it sound natural, my fancy. The words floated out of her mouth sweet and round like butterscotch, murmured with just a tilt of her head, but the phrase was definitely my mother's. Her little doll, learning to speak just like Adora. "Looks like you do a very good job with it," I said, and motioned a weak wave good-bye. "Thank you," she said. Her eyes focused on my room in the dollhouse. A small finger poked the bed. "I hope you enjoy your stay here," she murmured into the room, as if she were addressing a tiny Camille no one could see. ↗

— Gillian Flynn

#families #insecurity #parental-approval #scary-houses #nature

It occurred to Raule that all children were monsters in the world and were instinctively aware of it. They were reminded of their anomalous nature by adults, whom they failed to resemble, and with whose habitations and tools their bodies were at odds. This was surely why the little girl played with the sequins so solemnly and with such intense concentration. She was doing nothing less than conjuring, out of pattern and colour, a world that conformed to her desires and obeyed her will. The boy, on the other hand, showed with the whole attitude of his being that he knew there was only the one world and he would kill it if he could. ↗

— K.J. Bishop

#children #conjuring #emilia-vargey #jacope-vargey #monsters

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. ↗

— Sabina Dosani

#hope #possiblity #parenting

No matter how long it’s been or how far you’ve drifted, no matter how unknowable you might be, there were at least two people in the world whose job it was to see you, to find you, to recognize you and reel you back in. No matter what. ↗

— Jennifer E. Smith

#relationship #relationship

What's going to motivate you today? Are you going to do your work because you want to do it well and have some pride in it, or is your paycheck going to be your major motivation? The answer to that question tells you a lot about yourself, and it tells others a lot about you. It also indicates your relationship to life, too, and just how much you're getting out of life. Our lives are full of opportunities and wonderful chances to do wonderful things, and it's only the self-motivated person who's going to find and enjoy most of those great opportunities. The person whose motivation has to come from outside him- or herself is only going to uncover the treasures that others direct them to--and believe me, others won't direct us to too many treasures when they could keep them for themselves. ↗

— Tom Walsh

#effort #inspiration #motivation #opportunity #self-motivation

Without the support from religion--remember, we talked about it--no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#children #father #parenting #religion #religion

Whoever possesses God in their being has Him in a divine manner, and He shines out to them in all things; for them all things taste of God and in all things it is God's image that they see. ↗

— Meister Eckhart

#religion #sacramental-awareness #religion

Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe. ↗

— Frank Herbert

#leto-ii #philosophy #religion #religion

Actually, the substitution of the reality-principle for the pleasure-principle denotes no dethronement of the pleasure-principle, but only a safeguarding of it. A momentary pleasure, uncertain in its results, is given up, but only in order to gain in the new way an assured pleasure coming later. But the end psychic impression made by this substitution has been so powerful that it is mirrored in a special religious myth. The doctrine of reward in a future life for the—voluntary or enforced—renunciation of earthly lusts is nothing but a mythical projection of this revolution in the mind. In logical pursuit of this prototype, religions have been able to effect the absolute renunciation of pleasure in this life by means of the promise of compensation in a future life; they have not, however, achieved a conquest of the pleasure-principle this way. It is science which comes nearest to succeeding in this conquest; science, however, also offers intellectual pleasure during its work and promises practical gain at the end. ↗

— Sigmund Freud

#delayed-gratification #religion #renunciation #science #religion