2.15.2011

your own true nature...

A side benefit of not being able to get out of bed was all the magazine time.  The glossy paged leaning tower of Pisa is much smaller now.  I tore out pages of interesting articles to send to my daughter, collected delicious looking recipes, jotted down tips and tricks on ways to improve my life, clean my house more quickly and feel better from the inside out.  I rubbed every perfume sample all over myself to ward off the stench of the flu and the magazine stack got much smaller but the torn out pages stack got much bigger. 

Not only am I fairly certain I will never cook any of those recipes, I have forgotten most of the tips and tricks, so my life remains unimproved and the dust continues to settle on my bookshelves (and in my mind).  I will always be this way.  I've been doing it for over 30 years now. 

Perhaps just those moments of inspiration are enough, I don't have to go back and utilize the information, I can forget it 5 minutes after the page has been torn out, I enjoyed it while I was doing it and sometimes that's enough.

There was one thing though, one little paragraph I read that I can't shake.  It was on the last page of the Oprah magazine from November - her "what I know for sure" page.  A quote from Mechthild of Magdeburg, a medieval mystic and it read...

"A fish cannot drown in water.  A bird does not fall in air.  Each creature God made must live in its own true nature." 

Wow, just wow.  I'm rooting around now, asking questions, wondering about my true nature.  "A fish cannot drown in water" goes through my head lately, over and over again.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I love that quote - thanks for sharing it this morning!

Felicity said...

Thank you for sharing this Jeanette - it truly is food for thought and I'll be asking the family what it means to them tomorrow night over the evening meal.

Felicity x

Gabby / Gypsy*Diaries said...

Big questions aren't they... lately I've been thinking more about myself as well... I'm in the proess of hanging my life around, and I couldn't be more excited! :)
xxx

http://gypsy-diaries.blogspot.com/

MJM said...

But Momma... I'm definitely NOT meant to be a ballerina as the photo suggests... :) But it is a thought provoking quote for sure.

Krysten @ Why Girls Are Weird said...

Great quote lady!

Diana Mieczan said...

That is one amazing quote and now Im going to be thinking about it too. Hmmm very interesting. Thanks,sweetie and wish you a sunny Tuesday
Muah

bronwyn said...

Ah, to find the place where I cannot drown. This will stay with me as well.

KR said...

I love this quote! Powerful!
You might not have discovered it had you not been laid up with the flu!
Thanks for sharing it with us.
The photo is precious!

Jillian said...

That quoate is certainly a good. one.

You make me want to curl up with a big stack of magaziens now!

angryparsnip said...

I know what you mean, I rip out pages of recipes, hints on decorations, crafts to do because I know I can do them and then once a year I go through my files and purge ! Now I mostly look for colorful full pages to reuse in envelopes and postcrds.

I hope your getting better, I seem to be but It took two rounds of an antibiotic that was counted out like gold !

Love the quote and there is one from Gloria Steinem that I read several years ago that made me giggle...
a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle

get better soon,

cheers, parsnip

Unknown said...

Great quote!

k said...

Ok, I'm exactly like you - I love 'wanting" to remember things but I very rarely do. Your stack of cut outs sounds like mine :) But yet, I CAN'T throw them away!

vintch said...

oh how beautiful, and COMFORTING! we can't be anything except who we were made to be. thank you for sharing:)

Andrew H. said...

That is a great little photo. And yes, the daughter was not cut out for the ballerina ranks :o)

Beatnheart said...

A fish can’t decide to be an airline pilot or a school teacher. Sometimes I think it’s because we do have so many choices that we lose our own path ( whatever that is) oh to be a bird...just fly, eat, sleep, chirp.

quintessence said...

Wonderful quote indeed! And was totally with you on the rest. My leaning tower of Pisa is unfortunately not going anywhere!!

Anonymous said...

I am chuckling at the thought of you rubbing perfume samples all over yourself... I do that too! xo

Stitchfork said...

What a thought provoking quote!
xo Cathy

Charlotta Ward said...

Yes I know that feeling of being inspired in the moment, having those wonderful minutes of dreaming it all up, then moving on..
Somehow though I think the information is stored inside and it will come out again when needed.

The quote is lovely. So reassuring of our abilities isn't it, but also a reminder that as humans we can push those boundaries and actually expand beyond our limits.

Hope you are feeling a little better today.

xx Charlotta

Stacey said...

Beautiful quote and definitely food for thought. I hope you'll be fully recovered too, although laying in bed perusing magazines is such a treat, isn't it? XX

this free bird said...

i think oprah's nuts, but that quote she shared is spot on. it will most certainly be echoing around in my head now, too.

hope you're feeling better btw. i had the flu for over a week and only wish i would have had a stack of magazine perfume samples to ward off the sick smell...i busted up laughing at that part!! brilliant!

xo,
carrie

the chirpy bird said...

I agree! Sometimes it's all about the moment that you're in! Just embracing the inspiration that that specific moment gave you.. even if 'nothing specific' comes of it, the feeling that it gives you can ignite a shift and make a way for something else fabulous to come on in!
xx tash

audrey marie said...

great quote - hope you feel better!!!