"I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice
so that you become someone who has a great capacity for
being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people
like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people
like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
I love this quote because it reminds us that our journey is not just for ourselves
but also for those who look up to us, who follow us, learn from and imitate us.
Children look to us for how best to get along in this world
whether we are their parent, teacher, or friend.
As Joseph Campbell once said,
"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life."
They need to know, as do we, that life is filled with heartaches,
and the best life is not one without heartache or failure
but the one in which we find the treasure in every difficulty.
(Photo: San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden)
(Copyright: Kirsten Steen)