What always seems miraculous is when aesthetic necessities yield an insight which otherwise I would have missed. Susan Griffin More Quotes by Susan Griffin More Quotes From Susan Griffin ... This is the paradox of vision: Sharp perception softens our existence in the world. Susan Griffin vision perception world Self-reflection is a desire felt by the body, as well as the soul. As dancers, healers, and saints all know, when you turn your attention toward even the simplest physical process - breath, the small movements of the eyes, the turning of a foot in midair - what might have seemed dull matter suddenly awakens. Susan Griffin eye reflection self Borrow a child and get on welfare. Susan Griffin motherhood humble children How many small decisions accumulate to form a habit? What a multitude of decisions, made by others, in other times, must shape our lives now. Susan Griffin habit shapes decision Before a secret is told, one can often feel the weight of it in the atmosphere. Susan Griffin atmosphere weight secret I love that moment in writing when language falls short. There is something more there. A larger body. Even by the failure of words I begin to detect its dimensions. As I work the prose, shift the verbs, look for new adjectives, a different rhythm, syntax, something new begins to come to the surface. Susan Griffin different writing fall We are the bird's eggs. Bird's eggs, flowers, butterflies, rabbits, cows, sheep, we are caterpillars; we are leaves of ivy and springs of wildflower. We are women. We rise from the wave. We are gazelle and doe, elephant and whale, lilies and roses and peach, we are air, we are flame, we are oyster and pearl, we are girls. We are woman and nature. And he says he cannot hear us speak. But we hear. Susan Griffin girl flower spring In the system of chivalry, men protect women against men. This is not unlike the protection relationship which [organized crime] established with small businesses in the early part of this century. Indeed, chivalry is an age-old protection racket which depends for its existence on rape. Susan Griffin chivalry age men Every time I deny myself I commit a kind of suicide. Susan Griffin kind suicide self Far more frightening than the thought of dying was the experience of erasure already occurring in my life. My fear of becoming someone who did not count. Susan Griffin becoming-someone becoming dying Each life reverberates in every other life. Whether or not we acknowledge it, we are connected, woven together in our needs and desires, rich and poor, men and women alike. Susan Griffin together desire men At the museum a troubled woman destroys a sand painting meticulously created over days by Tibetan monks. The monks are not disturbed. The work is a meditation. They simply begin again. Susan Griffin painting meditation museums One can find traces of every life in each life. Susan Griffin friendship We are nature. We are nature seeing nature. The red-winged blackbird flies in us. Susan Griffin blackbirds red healing Society, like nature, is one body, really. Susan Griffin body In my lifetime I have seen democracy begin to expand, not only to include those who have been excluded, but to provide a listening arena, a vocabulary, an intelligent reception for stories that have been buried. Not just stories of the disenfranchised and the marginalized, but marginalized and disenfranchised histories even in the lives of the accepted and the privileged. Susan Griffin vocabulary intelligent listening Is it a coincidence that stories from the private life became more popular just as the grand hope for public redemption through revolution was beginning to sour? I witnessed a similar shift in taste in my own time. In the 1960s, while a hopeful vision of a just society arose again, countless poems and plays concerning politics and public life were written, read, and performed. But after the hope diminished and public life seemed less and less trustworthy, this subject was less in style. Susan Griffin hopeful vision play Ordinary women attempt to change our bodies to resemble a pornographic ideal. Ordinary women construct a false self and come to hate this self. Susan Griffin hate change self Language is filled Susan Griffin cracks language country There is always a time to make right what is wrong. Susan Griffin inspirational
