“If I try to be or do something noble that has nothing to do with who I am, I may look good to others and to myself for a while. But the fact that I am exceeding my limits will eventually have consequences. I will distort myself, the other, and our relationship—and may end up doing more damage than if I had never set out to do this particular ‘good.’ When I try to do something that is not in my nature or the nature of the relationship, way will close behind me. …When the gift I give to the other is integral to my own nature, when it comes from a place of organic reality within me, it will renew itself—and me—even as I give it away.”
-Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
Hi, Trish,
I read I/O in big gulps, instead of a little bit a day, and so I am just getting to the wonderful week of quotes that you offered three weeks ago. There are many that enriched me–e.g., Newell’s was beautiful, but this one was so wise a distillation of life experience, it fueled me to let you know that it –and they–enriched me. Thank you. Jeanne