Pico Iyer describes his writing as "intimate letters to a stranger," and I think that is what the writing process is. It begins with a question, and then you follow this path of exploration. Terry Tempest Williams More Quotes by Terry Tempest Williams More Quotes From Terry Tempest Williams And so we polish our own lives, creating landscapes and canyons and peaks with the very silt we try to avoid, the dirt we disavow or hide or deny. It is the dirt of our lives—the depressions, the losses, the inequities, the failing grades in trigonometry, the e-mails sent in fear or hate or haste, the ways in which we encounter people different from us—that shape us, polish us to a heady sheen, make us in fact more beautiful, more elemental, more artful and lasting. Terry Tempest Williams hate loss beautiful I grew up in a culture in which it was a sin for a woman to speak out. Terry Tempest Williams speaks-out sin culture My body is a compass - and it does not lie. Terry Tempest Williams body doe lying Is this the curse of modernity, to live in a world without judgment, without perspective, no context for understanding or distinguishing what is real and what is imagined, what is manipulated and what is by chance beautiful, what is shadow and what is flesh? Terry Tempest Williams perspective real beautiful I wonder how, among the Fremont, mothers and daughters shared their world. Did they walk side by side along the lake edge? What stories did they tell while weaving strips of bulrush into baskets? How did daughters bury their mothers and exercise their grief? What were the secret rituals of women? I feel certain they must have been tied to birds. Terry Tempest Williams daughter grief mother Storytelling is the oldest form of education. Terry Tempest Williams library storytelling form We have to speak out now on behalf of our community and on behalf of the land and say they're the same thing and say No, we are not rolling over and No, this is not a corporate enterprise. This is democracy in the fullest sense and we must have regard and reverence and those are the cornerstones of a just society. Terry Tempest Williams speaks-out land justice I have felt the pain that arises from a recognition of beauty, pain we hold when we remember what we are connected to and the delicacy of our relations. It is this tenderness born out of a connection to place that fuels my writing. Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. Terry Tempest Williams pain writing moving I believe every woman should own at least one pair of red shoes. Terry Tempest Williams shoes red believe Perhaps the most radical act we can commit is to stay home. Terry Tempest Williams commit radical home Mythmaking is the evolutionary enterprise of translating truths. Terry Tempest Williams translate enterprise But, today, the idea of faith returns to me. Faith defies logic and propels us beyond hope because it is not attached to our desires. Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact. Terry Tempest Williams grace teacher ideas This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. Terry Tempest Williams sorcery literature stories A trip to the hospital is always a descent into the macabre. I have never trusted a place with shiny floors. Terry Tempest Williams macabre descent never-trust Lanscape shapes culture. Terry Tempest Williams shapes land culture The creative process ignites our imagination, and I believe that that same imagination is what will propel us forward with issues of social change. I do think we have to acknowledge that we are a very capitalistic and consumptive nation, and that talk about conservation or issues of sustainability is never going to be popular with the dominant culture because it means checks and balances on an economy that is reserved for the dollar, rather than an economy that honors and respects spiritual resources and the right of all life to participate on the planet, not just our species. Terry Tempest Williams spiritual mean believe The danger is in what we codify, commodify, and exploit. Terry Tempest Williams exploits danger Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening. Terry Tempest Williams voice heard listening There are different qualities of silence. There's the silence that sustains us, as women, that nourishes us, the silence where I believe our true voice, our authentic voice, dwells. But there's also the silence that censors us, that tells us what we have to say does not want to be heard, should not be heard, has no value. And that if we speak, it will be at our own peril. This kind of silence is deadly. This kind of silence is deadening to who we are as women. And when a woman is silenced, the world is silenced. When a woman speaks, there is an opening. Terry Tempest Williams quality silence believe Even as a woman who has a voice in the world, I struggle to find it, to use it, to keep it, to stretch it, to take risks with my words. And I don't think I'm alone. I think the most powerful women among us struggle with how to use their voice. Because I think what every woman knows, is that when she speaks her truth she is at risk - whether it's Hillary Clinton or a rural woman in Rwanda. Terry Tempest Williams powerful struggle thinking
