The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears. 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 drawing new-year years 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 motivational inspirational life 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 humor jobs order Ultimately, time is all you have and the idea isn't to save it, but to savour it. Ellen Goodman savour mindfulness ideas 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-love letting-go jobs Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential. Ellen Goodman new-year inspiration inspiring Our 'mistakes' become our crucial parts, sometimes our best parts, of the lives we have made. Ellen Goodman made mistake sometimes 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 progress ignorance opportunity 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 age fifty people 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 distance mother father 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 forgiveness gratitude love 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 issues today rooms If women can sleep their way to the top, how come they aren't there? Ellen Goodman success sleep way 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 next generations stories Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience - unless they are still up. Ellen Goodman good-morning insomnia sleep What he labels sexual, she labels harassment. Ellen Goodman harassment labels 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 summer home life 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 stress guilt fitness Values are not trendy items that are casually traded in. Ellen Goodman items trendy values The average parent may, for example, plant an artist or fertilize a ballet dancer and end up with a certified public accountant. We cannot train children along chicken wire to make them grow in the right direction. Tying them to stakes is frowned upon, even in Massachusetts. Ellen Goodman artist average children
