Friday, February 13, 2015

excerpts and links

This article by Shauna Niequist is EXCELLENT. Letting go of perfection (or the attempt of it) is an ongoing theme for me. And I really, really LIKE being around people who embrace the same philosophy for living ... because perfectionism just holds us back and exhausts us.

"I’ve come back to Voltaire’s words a million times: Perfect is the enemy of the good.  You’ll never feel totally ready. The plan will never be perfectly formed. You’ll never have the money you think you need or the support you wish you had. You’ll never feel as strong and prepared as everyone else seems. (Psst: they’re not that strong and prepared, either. No one is.)"
*
Kayla Mueller's story and her words give me chills. What a brave life. This quote: "For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal, [I will not let this be] something we just accept." 

It makes me think of the scene in Hotel Rwanda, where Joaquin Phoenix as a cameraman covering the genocide has to tell a Rwandan: "I think if people see this footage they'll say, "Oh my God that's horrible," and then go on eating their dinners." That still gets me, because it's what I do. Tune it out and let suffering go on around the world like it's normal. I'm ashamed of that.
*
And this piece by Ann Voskamp is BEAUTIFUL and right-on. So good I wanted to paste the entire thing here, but here's a tease from the beginning ... 
"We married wrong. Don't buy what anybody else is selling: Everyone always marry wrong. 
Because what's wrong in the world is always us. 
Marriage and love and time, these are enormous forces that inevitably chisel and change us into strangers who have to meet and introduce each other to love all over again. 
None of us ever know whom we marry. And falling in love never made anyone angels ... it's only made it clear how far we've fallen. Who we say 'I do' to - is not who we roll over to touch twenty years later. The challenge for the vows is to fall in love with the stranger to whom you find yourself married. 
The vows are a vow to make the new stranger you've been long married to - know the intimacy of old love everyday."

2 comments:

Angie Myer said...

I loved Ann's post too! Hope you & your sweet family are doing well, Chels! :)

Becky said...

I love these excerpts too! always so uplifting chelcats:-)