The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without.
Joan Didion
“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs. … Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible, comforts.“ -Joan Didion
The confidence in oneself, an assurance that one is behaving with honor and authenticity, is something I can remember experiencing even as a young child.
- It was forged out of necessity; the reality of being a nine-year-old latchkey kid.
Self belonging. It’s like returning to a home where you can move and be moved in unrefined and familiar ways. All good things come to an end and good new beginnings soon follow.
Orly Avineri
Self-belonging (being in a place where I can move and “be moved in unrefined and familiar ways”), resiliency and in the midst of new beginnings is how I would describe where I am as this first quarter of 2024 concludes (and as the moon waxes to the first quarter phase).
I am abiding (and thriving) within a sense of restorative clarity and new beginnings made possible by rest and therapeutic creative work.
- Time — along with essential boundaries, kindred support and curative methods — has allowed for perspective and recovery amidst raw assessments of my life and relationships.
- A constant practice of letting go to make space and to process and heal. (And I am inspired and energized to step into my Next, writing for healing along with rewilding and living-changes.)
Life has a way of dissolving projections and one must, amid the disappointment and desolation, begin to take on the responsibility for one’s own life… Only when one has acknowledged the deflation of the hopes and expectations of childhood and accepted direct responsibility for finding meaning for oneself, can the second adulthood begin.
James Hollis
Thank you kindly for your presence here, Braveheart.
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
2024 Right Brain Planner® Kit | field notes | Right Brain Planner® FAQ
2024 Right Brain Planner® Kit [Theme] Kaleidoscope Perspectives ✨ [Focus] — Noticing Beauty (within the kaleidoscope of your living: the ongoing, ever-changing “formations” of color and meaning)
❤️ Braveheart, as the Creator/Artist of Right Brain Planner® I am ever-grateful to have the opportunity to share my creative work online + support other creators since 2008! 🎉 This is possible, in part, by {you} and your presence here. But also because of the support of my Ko-fi patrons and the other other member/subscriber communities I host (via their presence, input and subscriptions).
P.S. I have been devoting more time to writing here about my creative practice. 😊 I hope you will join me here, Braveheart. 🎉