5 Quotes and Why I Love Them (Phil)
Quotes are interesting aren’t they? What I love about them is that what resonates with me from a quote could be completely different to what resonates with someone else or indeed what was intended by the person who first penned it. I’ve previously fallen into the trap of having some favourite quotes and living by them. The problem with this is that I am constantly changing and therefore so is the way I view the world and my place in it. So I hope you enjoy these quotes; taking from them whatever you like. But also hold your ideas lightly and don’t become too rigid in your thinking about the world based on a few words thrown together in a rather pleasing or humorous way.
The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before - Neil Gaiman
I enjoyed reading Natasha’s post where she talked about making art that makes you happy. If you’d have told an 18 year old me that as a 39 year old I’d enjoy writing poetry and short stories and recording podcasts I would have laughed in your face (and then asked what a podcast was). But now I absolutely love the act of creating something that wasn’t there before. And it’s not about creating something to wrack up the likes or boost my listener numbers; it’s as much about the journey as it is the destination.
Something I’ve also started to do is to tell people when something they have created has made my world a bit brighter. And I try to go into a bit more detail than just liking an Instagram post. Lastly, for this quote, if you haven’t checked out any of Neil Gaiman’s books then please do. They are awesome!
Tama tū tama ora; tama noho tama mate - Māori Whakataukī
Māori Whakataukī, or proverbs, are full of so much beautiful wisdom. Te Reo Māori (the Māori language) is an amazing language in general and I’d highly recommend looking into it if you’re not familiar. Anyway, back to the quote: the literal translation of this one is, “the boy who stands is well; the boy who sits perishes.”
What I take from this quote is that if I’m feeling a bit bogged down or lethargic, or maybe even frustrated or anxious, it may well be because I’ve been sitting staring at my computer all day, stuck driving long distances or lying in bed for too long in the morning. These are signals to me that it’s time to get out for a walk or jump on my mountain bike and hit some trails. This links nicely to the Five Ways To Wellbeing.
They were not the same eyes with which he had last looked out at this particular scene, and the brain which interpreted the images the eyes resolved was not the same brain. There had been no surgery involved, just the continual wrenching of experience - Douglas Adams
I love A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. It’s full of little gems like this. This quote has been particularly useful to me lately. I’m from the UK originally but have been living in Aotearoa, New Zealand, for fourteen years. I feel very privileged to have been able to relocate but it is tricky to maintain friendships over such a long distance. This quote helped me realise that to spend time, effort and energy trying to encase past friendships into figurative fossilised amber that will keep them the way they were decades ago, is not only wasteful but is setting everyone involved up for failure. For example, one of my closest friends during university is now someone I send a birthday message to every year. That’s about it. But when I’m back in the UK for a visit, I know I’ll see him as I’m in more regular contact with his brothers. When we do meet up it’s so lovely and we chat and play board games as if we’ve never been apart. So I’ve accepted this as the new format of our friendship. I don’t expect a weekly phone call or regular updates; I just enjoy the time we have together when we do get together. Both our lives have moved on thanks to this continual wrenching of experience and I feel blessed that we are still part of each other’s lives in some way.
There are other friends who have fallen off the radar altogether. I think it’s worth mentioning here that there’s little point holding any grudges about whose fault this is. Time goes on, people become busier and their priorities change so there’s obviously going to be some kind of shuffling of the deck of current relationships. And just because someone has fallen off the radar, it doesn’t mean that those shared experiences and memories you have with them are any less beautiful or that they didn’t play a major part in shaping who you are today.
There are times to stay put and what you want will come to you and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself - Lemony Snicket
Another author (Ok, Daniel Handler technically) who is full of inspirational quotes. This one really slapped me in the face years ago when I realised that most jobs I’d taken, friendships that I’d developed and even the hobbies I’d taken up all came about because I’d stayed put and these opportunities had landed on my lap. This was partially what prompted me to have a mini-retirement in 2019. It felt like time to go out into the world and find such things for myself.
I’m not for a minute saying that staying put is a lesser option. And that’s the beauty of this quote; it acknowledges both in equal measure. Indeed, having had the privilege to travel and dip my toe into a few other careers in 2019, when I started to think about what I wanted to do long term I got a phone call from an old colleague. He was looking for someone to take over his role. Another opportunity that came to me. What followed was three years of an extremely rewarding job with lots of personal growth.
A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment - Douglas Adams
For this last one I’d like to talk about puffins. For some unknown reason I got a bit obsessed with these feathered friends. So when planning my trip back to the UK this year I started to research where I could find them. As it turned out, they frequent a small island called Lundi which is close to Devon where I planned on visiting a friend. For various (mainly weather and schedule based) reasons I thought the trip to the island wasn’t going to happen. So when we found ourselves booked on a day trip I was a tad excited to say the least! But I managed to reign it in slightly despite the images of the colourfully billed bird on the fliers and people talking about it being the right time of year and where the best place to spot them on the island was. I was just grateful to be on a lovely day trip with a friend. When we got onto the island I couldn’t help but get more excited. Again, I reigned it in and enjoyed the various other flora and fauna that were also on display. When we approached the most notorious spot for puffins, it was clear that lots of other people shared my interest. Having no luck with our own eyes and binoculars we eventually reached a ranger with a telescope set up. She kindly invited us to have a look. And there they were: a couple of puffins emerging from their nest and having a nice scratch. I was absolutely chuffed!
But let’s compare that to the experience I could have expected based on images I’d seen on Instagram. Maybe we’d be within touching distance (not that we would). Maybe we’d be the only people around. Maybe we could sit there for hours and marvel at the behaviour of these gracious birds. If I’d have expected this on Lundi then surely a brief glimpse of a couple of individuals who were hundreds of metres away while squinting through a telescope would have been a huge disappointment.
I’m not suggesting you don’t have goals and aspirations in life. What I do think is that at times, the more we burden ourselves with lofty expectations, the more likely we are to be disappointed.
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