notable & quotable

 I came across this quote while reading the newspaper this past weekend:

To exist is to change. To change is to mature. To mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
–Henri Bergson

According to the writer, columnist and rabbi Albert Lewis, Henri Bergson is a French philosopher. I can't say that I've spent much time reading his works, or that of any philosopher, but I did feel a connection with this particular quote. I feel like I am constantly in the process of evaluating myself and my life and determining how I might want to change it. I think the concept of "creating oneself endlessly" might at first sound overwhelming or tiring but I prefer to think of it as hopeful. I think it speaks to the idea that living is about creating the life that you most want to have and creating the person you most want to be.

thoughts on creating

I just finished reading Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way by Shauna Niequist. I actually think I saw her book mentioned on another blog… another great thing I find on blogs is reading suggestions!

Anyway, one of the essays was on creating and why we need to create. I was particularly struck by this passage:

The world doesn't need another band, per se. It doesn't, strictly speaking, need another book or another photograph or another album. The general world population will survive without one more stage production and one more gallery showing.

This is the thing, though: you might not. We create because we were made to create, having been made in the image of God, whose first role was Creator. He was and is a million different things, but in the beginning, he was a creator. That means something for us, I think. We were made to be the things that he is: forgiven, redeemers, second chance-givers, truth-tellers, hope-bringers. And we were certainly, absolutely, made to be creators.

If you were made to create, you won't feel whole and healthy and alive until you do.

This resonated with me for several reasons. One, I loved the connection to God it presents. I like thinking about, wondering about, the fact we were made in his image and therefore our need to create is a connection to what is holy. Two, what a beautiful thing to recognize God as an artist and as a creative being. Some of my favorite Psalms give tribute to all he has created. And lastly, I get it. This passage puts into words the why behind my need to pursue my own personal creative endeavors and not just use my creative skills as a way to earn a living.

And another one!

From the same book I mentioned yesterday. I told you I liked it. This is also a quote of a quote of a quote.

Nelson Mandela, world leader and anti-apartheid activist, quoted author and speaker Marianne Williamson from her book, A Return to Love:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It it our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous–
Actually, who are you not to be?


You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone,
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

A quote!

I am in a Creating Leadership class at work. One of our assignments was to read The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. Many people in class were put off by the authors' style and the fact that most of the stories and examples were from their own lives. I loved the ideas presented by the book and feel like I could read it again to better absorb and apply them. In a nutshell, the book is presenting an alternative way to look at the world, to see possibilities instead of limitations.

This quote was in the book and it is actually a quote from another book. But I really like it and it encompasses one of the reasons I ventured out into the blog world. So I wanted to share it with you, faithful readers:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
–Martha Graham, quotes by Agnes DeMille, Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham