I'll write this all down for you," I said. "I'll put it in a story." I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters. Sue Monk Kidd More Quotes by Sue Monk Kidd More Quotes From Sue Monk Kidd some things don't matter much. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart--now, that matters. The whole problem with people is...they know what matters, but they don't choose it...The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters. Sue Monk Kidd what-matters color heart It takes a bee 10,000,000 trips to collect enough nectar to make 1 pound of honey. Sue Monk Kidd pounds bees honey A moment of grace. There rose up within me a profound sense of being loved. I felt "gathered together" and encircled by a Presence completely loving, as if I were enveloped by the music of a love song created just for me. It was not overwhelming or even emotional. Just a warm knowing that I was in God's loving embrace...centered and unified there. [Love]encounters cannot be analyzed, only shared. If you take a butterfly, Robert Frost said, and pin it down into a box, you no longer have a butterfly. Sue Monk Kidd butterfly emotional song If someone should ask me, 'What does the soul do?' I would say, It does two things. It loves. And it creates. Those are its primary acts. Sue Monk Kidd soul doe two I think many people need, even require, a narrative version of their life. I seem to be one of them. Writing memoir is, in some ways, a work of wholeness. Sue Monk Kidd writing people thinking So I taught Sunday school and brought dishes to all manner of potlucks and tried to adjust the things I heard from the pulpit to my increasingly incongruent faith. Sue Monk Kidd taught sunday school The only way I have ever understood, broken free, emerged, healed, forgiven, flourished, and grown powerful is by asking the hardest questions and then living into the answers through opening up to my own terror and transmuting it into creativity. I have gotten nowhere by retreating into hand-me-down sureties or resisting the tensions that truth ignited. Sue Monk Kidd creativity powerful hands There is no place so awake and alive as the edge of becoming. But more than that, birthing the kind of woman who can authentically say, 'My soul is my own,' and then embody it in her life, her spirituality, and her community is worth the risk and hardship. Sue Monk Kidd risk community soul There is no place so AWAKE and ALIVE as the edge of becoming. Sue Monk Kidd awake becoming alive Journal became a sanctuary where I could pour out in honesty my pain and joy. It recorded my footsteps and helped me understand where I was standing, where I had been, and even where God pointed. Sue Monk Kidd honesty pain joy The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters. Sue Monk Kidd hardest what-matters earth It only meant that my natural inclination was to draw my "energy" from within instead of seeking it outside myself, plus my mom was an introvcert, and so were a lot of normal people. The problem was I was shy on top of that. And we all know how the world loves a shy introvert. Sue Monk Kidd world-love mom people Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now Sue Monk Kidd fairness might world I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called 'bee yard etiquette'. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved. Sue Monk Kidd bees long thinking Every living creature on the earth is special. You want to be the one that puts an end to one of them? Sue Monk Kidd special-you earth want Nobody around here had ever seen a lady beekeeper till her. She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. It comes from years of loving children and husbands. Sue Monk Kidd women husband children How could I choose someone who would force me to give up my own small reach for meaning? I chose myself, and without consolation. Sue Monk Kidd consolation force giving-up I felt someone should personally thank every rock out there for the human misery it had absorbed. We should kiss them one by one & say, we are sorry, but something strong & lasting had to do this for May, & you are the chosen ones. God bless your rock hearts. Sue Monk Kidd strong sorry heart There's a gap somehow between empathy and activism. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of 'soul force' - something that emanates from a deep truth inside of us and empowers us to act. Once you identify your inner genius, you will be able to take action, whether it's writing a check or digging a well. Sue Monk Kidd empathy kings writing Unraveling external selves and coming home to our real identity is the true meaning of soul work. Sue Monk Kidd real self home
