If we are lucky, we can give in and rest without feeling guilty. We can stop doing and concentrate on being. Kathleen Norris More Quotes by Kathleen Norris More Quotes From Kathleen Norris They are fruit and transport: ripening melons, prairie schooners journeying under full sail. Kathleen Norris melons fruit pregnancy To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it. Kathleen Norris surrender suffering moving There are men I could spend eternity with. But not this life. Kathleen Norris eternity men life Spring seems far off, impossible, but it is coming. Already there is dusk instead of darkness at five in the afternoon; already hope is stirring at the edges of the day. Kathleen Norris spring inspiring moving When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot? Kathleen Norris women unhappy memorable Maybe the desert wisdom of the Dakotas can teach us to love anyway, to love what is dying, in the face of death, and not pretend that things are other than they are. The irony and wonder of all of this is that it is the desert's grimness, its stillness and isolation, that brings us back to love. Kathleen Norris desert dying faces I've come to see conspiracy theories as the refuge of those who have lost their natural curiosity and ability to cope with change. Kathleen Norris conspiracy curiosity natural In middle age we are apt to reach the horrifying conclusion that all sorrow, all pain, all passionate regret and loss and bitter disillusionment are self-made Kathleen Norris regret pain loss The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . . . He makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and . . . he instills in the heart of the monk a hatred for the place, a hatred for his very life itself. Kathleen Norris hatred heart moving The High Plains, the beginning of the desert West, often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them. Kathleen Norris desert crucible west Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found. Kathleen Norris mediocrity real found Traversing a slow page, to come upon a lode of the pure shining metal is to exult inwardly for greedy hours. Kathleen Norris shining reading book To eat in a monastery refectory is an exercise in humility; daily, one is reminded to put communal necessity before individual preference. While consumer culture speaks only to preferences, treating even whims as needs to be granted (and the sooner the better), monastics sense that this pandering to delusions of self-importance weakens the true self, and diminishes our ability to distinguish desires from needs. It's a price they're not willing to pay. Kathleen Norris humility self exercise I was taught that I had to 'master' subjects. But who can 'master' beauty, or peace, or joy? Kathleen Norris taught masters joy It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough? Kathleen Norris spring beautiful book When I was a child, it was a matter of pride that I could plow through a Nancy Drew story in one afternoon, and begin another in the evening. . . . I was probably trying to impress the librarians who kept me supplied with books. Kathleen Norris pride book children Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world. Kathleen Norris monk poet world Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know us as we are. Kathleen Norris force knows In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary. Kathleen Norris Intimacy is what makes a marriage, not a ceremony, not a piece of paper from the state. Kathleen Norris
