“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair.
We’d never have a friendship.
We’d never go into business, because we’d be too cynical.
Well, that’s nonsense.
You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
–Anne Dillard
Happy Monday!
Annie Dillard is a great seer, and this is a wonderful quote.
I was thinking about Rudolph Nureyev this weekend – how courageous he was to make his literal leap for freedom to the west. He definitely took Anne Dillard’s jump from the cliff. And how thankful I am that he did.
I’m really glad you took the leap and left your family. It lead to all of this largese. Well done.
Freedom
is terrifying
but dependency
is a warm soft blanket
that hardens to cold steel
truly the greatest lesson we can teach our little ones…..and it comes through providing unconditional love and belonging as a means to build their spiritual self esteem………
we think we give them wings, but really we need to teach them, like Dillard states here, to build them in flight.
Those birds remind me of the puffins we used to see in Alaska. They perch on the sides of these tall cliffs.
Then you see these round rotund little birds dive so gracefully into the water. It is amazing!