12minds

On March 21, 2012 at 2:23pm

One of my tasks at Borders was to organize the myriad books people would take out and forget to replace (or completely misplace). It was one of my favorite parts of the job; indeed, as frustrating as dealing with misplaced books may have been (which is to say nothing of the general sloppiness of people), there was a nice quality in seeing all the different kinds of books that other people read and found interesting. What was going through person X’s head as they left a sports book by the self-help section? How did a poetry book end up among the WWII shelves? There’s also my OCD self who really enjoys that sense of satisfaction and completion when a messy pile of disorganized books were transplanted back to their neat and logical homes among the ordered shelves.

Near the end of my time with Borders I was shelving downstairs in this section that was a miscellaneous mixture of books about art, photography, crafts, television, and music. Among the mess of books to be shelved was one of the postsecret hardcovers. I started to flip through this collection of anonymous, yet universal, secrets and feelings and a page torn from a loose-leaf notebook fell out onto the floor.

I set the books I was carrying aside, I bent over to pick up the paper, and saw writing on it. I saw writing and my heart stopped for a brief moment; I read it, paused, and read it again; and I then looked around as if the author were among the stacks watching me read what they had written. There was the secret thrill of having seen this secret note written to everyone, no one, and myself.

While I don’t believe a new place can change all of my struggles and things I don’t like about myself—I hope this move is the start of a new me, in many ways.

Today I’m reminded of this quote attributed (albeit incorrectly) to F. Scott Fitzgerald: I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

I don’t know what happened to this person, but I know I hope and wish and pray that they gained insight from their struggles; that they could distinguish that which they could control and change when it came to things they didn’t like about themselves; that they had the strength and self-confidence to accept the things they didn’t have control over; and that they have built something of a life for themselves wherever they are now.

I don’t know if I believe that moving to a new place really provides a new start to life. Except that, be it a physical or mental or emotional move, it’s the only thing that ever does. It’ll never be clean nor even clear, it’ll never be easy. But having the strength to move? Having the strength to start again? That’s the only thing that makes us grow.

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#Me#growth#growing up#F. Scott Fitzgerald#changes

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And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (via mishsquish)

(Source: quote-book, via irrevokable)

On November 17, 2011 at 10:51pm

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#haruki murakami#growth#growing up

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Getting stuck is not a problem. Staying stuck is. Good learners practice getting unstuck, and here’s how: Turn that around - praise for progress, don’t praise for perfection.

Alistair Smith (Brain Pickings)

(via roomthily)

On November 3, 2011 at 8:04am

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#Growth#Truths

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Did we find love because we grew up, got real and worked through our issues? No. We just found the right guys. We found men who love us even though we’re still cranky and neurotic, haven’t got our careers together, and sometimes talk too loudly, drink too much and swear at the television news. We have gray hairs and unfashionable clothes and bad attitudes. They love us, anyway.

What’s wrong with me? Plenty. But that was never the point.

Sometimes It’s Not You, or the Math - Modern Love - NYT

On September 26, 2011 at 1:08pm

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#NYT#love#Growth#relationships

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We weren’t satisfied with where we were in our lives and after much deliberation and planning decided to make changes. Our changes may have been more risky and drastic than others’, but what could be more risky and drastic than knowingly continuing down the wrong path? I wasn’t aware that it was a prerequisite to have a trust fund to quit your job, but it’s my opinion that if you’re waiting for the “perfect time” and situation to make a large and at times uncomfortable or, hell, scary change in your life, then you may be waiting a long time indeed.

The Skadden Associate Who Picked Up and Moved to Nepal - Above the Law

On March 12, 2011 at 10:51am

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#growth#growing up#movement#truths

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Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

Goethe

(via thresca)

On February 23, 2010 at 9:09pm

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#Life Is In The Living#Truths#growth

“Give the game away,” she advises.

“But if I do that, then I’ll have to build it all back up, won’t I?”

“But it’ll be yours, not hers. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t building it - and yourself - back up, the entire point of it all?”

On November 6, 2009 at 1:16pm

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#Truths#These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you.#growing up#growth#Me

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At any rate, that’s how I started running. Thirty-three - that’s how old I was then. Still young enough, though no longer a young man. The age that Jesus Christ died. The age that Scott Fitzgerald started to go downhill. That age may be a kind of crossroads in life. That was the age when I began my life as a runner, and it was my belated, but real, starting point as a novelist.

Haruki Murakami

On July 24, 2009 at 1:43pm

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#haruki murakami#running#F. Scott Fitzgerald#Truths#growth#growing up