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You are a vessel of god and I am his messenger, he said. She felt the weight of respect for authority, the burden of it, handed to her by her grandmot
She’s fading, her brain cells flaking like paint, her spine crumbling, joints fusing, the past seeking its reckoning. Well, high time. She never thoug
The lemony smell of fever grass drifts across the counter. Pastor Edmond Slowly’s drink. Pauline’s stomach roils.
A single lightbulb hangs from a cord and throws her shadow against the stone walls. Her back is hunched. That is not her, cannot be her. She pulls her
Part of what I need to do to make a familiar place interesting is to never let it be the same place. That means trying to see or hear things that I di
You are meant to change. You are meant to change your mind. You are meant to change your perception. You are meant to change what you think you want w
We navigate by stories, but sometimes we only escape by abandoning them. —Rebecca Solnit
when you are feeling lucky, feel gratitude rather than guilt
‘Graham Greene,’ he said. ‘He wrote a superb 1943 novel that I think of often. Have you read it? The Ministry of Fear.’
Parts of Paris were enough like parts of the city of Dis – the gloriously overdone architecture of the Opera, for example, the Palais Garnier and the
Of all China’s coastal ports, Quanzhou preserves many buildings and much of the city layout from the Song dynasty, and walking around the streets and
Dick Davis’s translation of Shahnameh is wonderfully accessible,
Being curious and focused is a powerful combination. I define this combination as unleashing your curiosity within the domain of a particular task: as
Being a domesticated species, we’re most interested of all in the cause and effect of other people. We’re endlessly curious about them. What are they
This is the self-fulfilling prophecy of life in an AI world: a static, closed world. The desire for a controlled world arises from an inability to hon
imagination, the basis of morality, as Adam Smith said. if you want to understand someone, you don't need to empathise with them, you need to imagine
Which distractions in your life have become disguised as priorities?
In acting, understanding a character’s fears is a critical part of understanding his or her psyche. The fears create desires and the desires precipita
To remind myself of my values, I imagine myself winning an award in my later years: What would I want that award to be? Who would I want to hand it to
How do we live a life that is rich in meaning, connection and joy?
She needed to stop talking. This conversation would reappear in weeks or months, her words given a new colour and sharpness because they had simmered
Mr Farebrother was aware that Lydgate was a proud man, but having very little corresponding fibre in himself, and perhaps too little care about person
I think now that if I had had any intimation that the self I was going to find would turn out to be only the same self from which I had spent so much
Catherine drank until the alcohol’s effects allowed for her to sleep. Alone in their bed, she thought about Bud. Every couple subsides off a narrative
JARED (V.O.) As my classmates spoke, I noticed a pattern. Their stories were all about making sure other humans understood that they were smart or fun
People are made of stories. Our memories are not the impartial accumulation of every second we’ve lived; they’re the narrative that we assembled out o
“We live in a world shaped by stories. Stories are the threads of our lives and the fabric of human cultures. A story can unite or divide people(s), o
As Jonathan Gottschall says in The Storytelling Animal, ‘We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up
every convenience and comfort and ritual so discreet and regular that, in sum, they functioned like a well-paved road—indiscernible when maintained an
In company he claimed they got on like a house on fire, but it was clear which of them provided the petrol.
I wondered if Parrs had suggested my resignation, knowing I couldn’t do it because of what he’d told me the previous day. He’d twisted the knife in my
It would take all night for the absurdity of the situation to even begin to cheer us up. As if this hilarity lies deep down, as if it first has to wel
My favourite version of “all talk and no action” from Berlin dialect is keene Haare uff’m Kopp, aba ‘n Kamm inner Tasche. It means “no hair on your he
(Limbus is Latin for ‘edge’, so Limbo is just outside the boundary of Hell proper,
was walked: had walked. This use of a form of “to be,” where “to have” would be employed at present, is found on other occasions in Jane Austen, espec
We give words only to the things that matter to us as a society. The things that make no difference to us are erased from our world by never becoming
"The trick to viewing feedback as a gift is to be more worried about having blind spots than hearing about them."
White fragility functions as a form of bullying; I am going to make it so miserable for you to confront me—no matter how diplomatically you try to do
Integrity is assuredly not an easy thing to define because it is so individual at its core, yet it is perhaps the single most essential quality needed
For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innova
if you come across an explanation of vulnerability that doesn’t include setting boundaries or being clear on intentions, proceed with caution. Vulnera
Vulnerability without boundaries is not vulnerability. It might be fear or anxiety. We have to think about why we’re sharing and, equally important, w
Someone who is secure is also consistent: they’re the same person in front of everyone because they’re comfortable being authentic. They don’t have to
“Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that's why life is hard.” — Jeremy Goldberg
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important. — AMBROSE REDMOON
The word integrity comes from the Latin word integer, which refers to a whole number, not a fraction. All integers are multiples of one whole number.
noting the common root of the words integrity and integer (or whole number), author Warren Wiersbe observes, “A person with integrity is not divided (
And if you did guess, if you could foresee, would that be better? No: you’d live in grief all the time, you’d be mourning things that hadn’t happened
“I wish I could say you get used to people dying. I never did. I don't want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter th
Back home in Chicago, my parents grew old. I didn’t see this happening and neither did they. They were busy birdwatching, attending new plays, trying
Yes, a lost house itself is a tragedy, but there is an entire universe in the items inside, an entire universe in the single page of a book that drift
‘A war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know, and I have not r
Close-up searching at Greenwich also reveals the remains of the fruit and nuts that were eaten between courses and at the end of meals. Ancient hazeln
Roman weapons have also been found, in quantity, as imports in what is now Denmark. It is a familiar strategy—in that the Empire sold armaments not to
Social ties require a lot of effort to establish and maintain, especially across long distances, and people are unlikely to expend all that energy unl
Is reality what we are able to confirm with our five senses? As New Scientist magazine noted some years back, “This answer ignores such problematic en
Kay drags himself to his feet. First thing to do is to find his sword and shield. They usually get regurgitated somewhere nearby, though there’s no ex
She has a fancy e-reader in this world and he will sometimes prise her hand away from it and put it on himself. ‘I, too, am waterproof and touch-opera
Some of his experiments were highly perilous, and while ready to trust his own life to these untested devices, he was unwilling to risk the lives of o
What are valid reasons for an organization to request coaching for an executive? Under what circumstances is it not appropriate to provide executive c
Control is why brains are on constant alert for the unexpected. Unexpected change is a portal through which danger arrives to swipe at our throats. Pa
Correcting our flaws means, first of all, managing the task of actually seeing them. When challenged, we often respond by refusing to accept our flaws
What are the benefits of reflective practice? • Consolidate new learning into our practice. • Innovation and vitality through - opening our mindsets t
What did your clothes smell like? It wasn’t your own scent, Arthur thought, not to you anyway. His clothes at Hal’s always smelt of the Somerset earth
Memories are like hibernating bears. They disappear into some dark cave until you forget they were ever there, and that’s when they wake up and roar.
Crimson Orchard recommends that residents have as many of their belongings – photos, books, furniture even, any personal artefacts – arranged around t
The trick is to watch your audience and listen to them: are they following you at that speed? If they are, you can stay fast.
As you can tell from a number of the top twenty-five TED Talkers (who regularly ‘um’ and ‘er’), it’s not that big an issue, but it’s good to eliminate
She also includes a number of ‘markers’ in her speech to direct our attention and link her thoughts. ‘Which brings me to this …’; ‘What I know for sur
If you’re taking questions yourself and people are raising their hands, try to cover the whole room (don’t take all the questions from the same group