How many of the people I know - sons and daughters - have intricate abstract expressionist paintings of their mothers, created out of their own emotions, attitudes, hands. And how many have only Polaroid pictures of their fathers. Ellen Goodman More Quotes by Ellen Goodman More Quotes From Ellen Goodman We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential. Ellen Goodman drawingnew-yearyears I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference. Ellen Goodman motivationalinspirationallife Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to a job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it. Ellen Goodman humorjobsorder The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears. Ellen Goodman struggleinspirationalchildren Ultimately, time is all you have and the idea isn't to save it, but to savour it. Ellen Goodman savourmindfulnessideas There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives. Ellen Goodman sad-loveletting-gojobs Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential. Ellen Goodman new-yearinspirationinspiring Our 'mistakes' become our crucial parts, sometimes our best parts, of the lives we have made. Ellen Goodman mademistakesometimes There is so much more information about the scientific world than there was a generation ago that we have all increased our opportunities for ignorance. There are more things not to know. ... The machinery that we deal with is so much more complex that it is possible to become dysfunctional at a much higher level of performance. Ellen Goodman progressignoranceopportunity Forty is ... an age at which people have histories and options. At thirty, they had perhaps less history. At fifty, perhaps fewer options. Ellen Goodman agefiftypeople We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook? Ellen Goodman distancemotherfather We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness. Ellen Goodman forgivenessgratitudelove Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for the personal attack. Ellen Goodman issuestodayrooms If women can sleep their way to the top, how come they aren't there? Ellen Goodman successsleepway This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage. Ellen Goodman nextgenerationsstories Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience - unless they are still up. Ellen Goodman good-morninginsomniasleep What he labels sexual, she labels harassment. Ellen Goodman harassmentlabels What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my period of grace. Ellen Goodman summerhomelife My generation is the first in my species to have put fitness next to godliness on the scale of things. Keeping in shape has become the imperative of our middle age. The heaviest burden of guilt we carry into our forties is flab. Our sense of failure is measured by the grade on a stress test. Ellen Goodman stressguiltfitness Values are not trendy items that are casually traded in. Ellen Goodman itemstrendyvalues
