I love quotes. I have them plastered on my walls, around my desk, above my mirror, in my car, on my clothes, mugs, cards, everywhere. Some people collect dolls. I collect quotes. I posted a quote on my blog and it got me thinking. I was hoping you could add some of your favorite quotes, about living life with diabetes, or just life in general. I could use some inspiration today. One quote I love that reminds me of my life with diabetes–all the sticking–the bumps, bruises, fingerprick marks, hardened skin, and it comes from Jane Hirschfield’s “For What Binds Us.” It is:
“…see how the flesh grows back across a wound, with a great vehemence, more strong than the simple, untested surface before. There’s a name for it on horses, whwen it come back darker and raised: proud flesh, as all flesh is proud of its wounds, wears them as honors given out after battle, small triumphs pinned to the chest–”
From one of Samuel Beckett’s prose works, Worstward Ho (I think,but don’t quote me on that. Boom boom.). Despite the lazy assumptions that Smilin’ Sam was all about despair and monotony, I really rather like the idea of aspiring to fail better. There’s something muddily realistic about it. And it says a lot about my relationship with blood sugar. Motto for my life.
I can’t, for the life of me, remember what movie I heard this in but it was also in the the best-selling autobiography, called WILL by the famous Watergate burglar, G. Gordon Liddy.
“if you see ten trains coming down the track, nine of them will derail before they get to you.” - Calvin Coolidge on keeping your composure.
“I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.” - Chumbawamba
“Whatever doesn’t kill me, weakens me for the final blow.” (Apologies to Chris for this, but I couldn’t resist. The original never made complete sense to me.)
We find a delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I know you know this one already, but its still one of my favorites along with Mark Stand’s line from his poem Keeping Things Whole-the quote I like is: “I move to keep things whole”
here’s the poem:
Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.
When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.
We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.
Here’s one that’s special to me - a friend told me this when he found out I was diagnosed.
“I asked God for strength and He gave me difficulties to make me stronger.”
Amylia, I love that quote you posted though. I looked at my fingertips when I read and and it makes perfect sense, and it’s put so poetically. So nice!
No worries Terry. I kind of expected a similar response. Those with positive outlooks on life, I think, can relate and understand the meaning behind it. I do believe that both have some validity to it but I choose to follow the more positive road. I think it helps for those who run into more than their fair share of difficulties.
In the words of Lester Burnham in American Beauty, " I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.". Now think about a diabetic saying these very words…
“I have decided to be happy because it’s good for one’s health.”
“To one who waits, all things reveal themselves, so long as you have the courage not to deny in the darkness what you have seen in the light.”
“When the heart grieves for what is lost, the spirit rejoices over what is has left.”
“The noble challenge of our lives is to reach out, to act, and to live for what we know is real, even if that reality is not apparent to our senses. This is the only real faith. The path with heart is walked by those who know the Truth of Love, and are willing to ignore the separation that would discourage others from breaking down the lonely towers that have been constructed about our hearts. When we find the hearts of our sisters and brother, we discover our own.”
Wow–there are some amazing quotes you posted. I, too, loved that American Beauty quote. I remember it from the movie and it touched me profoundly. And so many others…I remember doing that photography exhibit in college using the words f rom"Keeing Things Whole" from Mark Strand over the b/w photos I took. And thank you to everyone who posted beautiful, inspiring quotes. Keep adding! I will use them on days like today where I feel blue.
Another one I’m looking at right now near my desk,
"In fact, the ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms, not to mention the further and more fulfilling figt of getting started all over again–never resting upon the oars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment…Getting started, keeping going, getting started again—in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm…
-Seamus Heaney
Chris, actually, I do understand the concept of the original quote. I adopted it myself after I first heard it and it has, in fact, been true for me.
I came up with the more cynical retort because of things I saw happen to other people. It’s not that they had a negative outlook, it’s just that they got hit so frequently and so hard they never had a chance to recover.
I don’t bring it out off the cuff, but generally to show the other side of the coin, and you seem to have grasped that.
I have another pair that I like:
“The race is not [always] to the swift, nor the battle to the strong . . . but time and chance do happen to them all” - Ecclesiastes 9:11
“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong . . . but that’s the way to bet.” - Damon Runyon
