Living A Loved Life

Stories are our nearest and dearest way of understanding our lives and finding our way onward.”

—Ursula LeGuin

What has made you feel fully alive?

Who and what has been easy for you to love?

What are you serving?

When have you taken a great personal risk that moved you forward?

What major challenges have grown you as a person?

Who has inspired you?

Who has blessed your future?

Who have you inspired?

Who and what has steadied you and made you feel safe?

When have you loved the moments you were living?

What’s one thing that has been right about something that was wrong in your life?

Whose lives specifically have you touched?

What are the conditions that bring out the best in you?

What are you longing for?

When have you felt the Promise during a major challenge?

How have you related effectively to the things you can’t control?

If we all speak our truth, no matter how heavy or how trivial our stories seem, then together we can light the way toward a new future and a new story, one that is no longer based on silence and shame… Whenever we tell our truth and break our silence, we become like candles that light the way for others out of their darkness until they find the courage to speak up themselves.”

—Zainab Salbi, Freedom Is an Inside Job

After all, you can never lose who you really are. Your only job is to learn to love the life you are living and live a life you can love.”

all need to learn to think with our brains, hearts, and bodies. Girls need to grow up to lead, and boys to connect. Humans need to find ways to make possibilities from their differences. That’s why Life made a one-of-a-kind Promise for each of us the moment we were born.”

The monks’ tears were not those of grief, but rather a reminder of the preciousness of each moment and the uniqueness of each beautiful life.

We need to make both kinds of choices, my darling, to love our lives and grow wise. A step toward what makes you safe, and then a leap into what can grow you in a new direction.”

Love is a choice you make, just like noticing where you are free instead of where you are stuck.

“Never create limitations…where…there are no limitations given!”

“This is what the world does to you sometimes. It slaps you into shape, pushes you around, stretches you. This can make the talents you bring even stronger, Ketzaleh. The yeast in the dough is like the Promise that wants those talents to rise and reach out to others.”