This week’s blog challenge is to share my favorite quote with you. I have a lot of them, but there is one that sticks out in my mind:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul”—Cicero
Honestly, I live by this quote. Every room in this apartment has books. There are piles of books next to my bed, and bookcases in the bathroom. I love to read. I can’t get enough. It’s my default comfort zone. Like, when someone tells me they don’t like to read, I just don’t get it. It’s incomprehensible. But when I think about how I’d rather read than watch TV, I kind of get it, because there are people who LOVE TV whereas I can take it or leave it. I mean, I enjoy TV when it’s there, but it’s not my first choice for entertainment. I’d rather read. Different strokes. But at any rate, there needs to be a book close to me or I don’t feel right. It’s weird.
Another quote I like is this one:
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”— Martin Luther King Jr.
I really felt this one when I was going through my divorce from Chris. I saw people draw their lines and pick their sides, and I was often left in the dust. But there were some people who supported me through the whole thing. And that’s how I learned who my true friends were. I tell everyone who is going through a divorce or separation that they’ll learn who is truly there for them when times get hard.
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”—George Eliot
At the ripe old age of 38, I feel like a lot of my dreams are silly and need to be shelved. Or they’re just unrealistic. And that’s OK. Not everyone can be a famous movie star. But I can still be a New York Times bestselling author someday. I just need to stop being scared and go for it.
“Kirtan is non-denominational, the Universal language of Spirit, the song of the Soul.”—New World Kirtan
Incredible was the day I realized that I got that same feeling of freedom, love, and happiness from singing kirtan that I did when singing certain worship songs in church. There are certain advocates that say yoga and kirtan is evil, from the devil, it’s “idol worship” and that the chanting is a bunch of gibberish. How close minded can someone get? And I won’t even go into how insulting it is that they call Sanskrit “gibberish”–it’s a legit language, asshats.
I remember the first time I went to kirtan, I was like “what the f—?” but then I couldn’t get the chants out of my head. And I started to seek them out. And I loved them. And before anyone gets all weirded out, please know that the first time I went to Catholic church, I was also like “what the f—?” …and the same when I went to temple. Funnily, I wasn’t like that the first time I attended a Lunasaugh ritual, but honestly, I am too darn lazy to be pagan.
My spiritual journey has been quite a ride, and I haven’t gone much into it on my blog, because I don’t fully understand it myself. I always put up a bit of resistance when deep down, I know something is going to pierce my soul in a good way. But I’ll tell you this. I can chant Jaya Jagatambe, or sing “Famous One”, or do a yoga practice to the Four Directions, and still feel that same soul shaking, party rocking good time. And that opens my heart more than any stern lecture from any pastor can.