What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes From Barbara Kingsolver Hope is a renewable option: Barbara Kingsolver dream running inspiring In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again(15). Barbara Kingsolver daughter dark life Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. Barbara Kingsolver creativity writing people Maybe life doesn't get any better than this, or any worse, and what we get is just what we're willing to find: small wonders, where they grow. Barbara Kingsolver willing grows wonder Every one of us is called upon, perhaps many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job...And onward full-tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another--that is surely the basic instinct...Crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is. Barbara Kingsolver loss jobs moving Thanks for this day, for all birds safe in their nests, for whatever this is, for life. Barbara Kingsolver nests safe bird One of the very first things I figured out about life...is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun. Barbara Kingsolver hopeful fun positive The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. Barbara Kingsolver life-lesson hope dream In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can. Barbara Kingsolver can-do life world The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know. Barbara Kingsolver important persons knows Human manners are wildly inconsistent; plenty of people have said so. But this one takes the cake: the manner in which we're allowed to steal from future generations, while commanding them not to do that to us, and rolling our eyes at anyone who is tediously PC enough to point that out. The conspicious consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spirtual error, or even bad manners. Barbara Kingsolver cake errors eye Honk if you love Jesus, text while driving if you want to meet up. Barbara Kingsolver driving want jesus Recall that whatever lofty things you might accomplish today, you will do them only because you first ate something that grew out of the dirt. Barbara Kingsolver dirt might today Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here? Barbara Kingsolver thoughtful feminist people A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from this world than haven't. Most don't mention it, and they go on from day to day as if it hadn't happened, so people imagine a woman in this situation never really knew or loved what she had. But ask her sometime: how old would your child be now? And she'll know. Barbara Kingsolver miscarriage love children You don't think you'll live past it and you don't really. The person you were is gone. But the half of you that's still alive wakes up one day and takes over again. Barbara Kingsolver grief past thinking Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life. Barbara Kingsolver empathy eye looks That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we stretched out our hands we could practically feel it rising up from the ground. I don’t know how a person could ever describe that scent. Barbara Kingsolver strong rain hands Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life. It grows right up out of it. Barbara Kingsolver your-dreams grows dream I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved. Barbara Kingsolver library soul mind
