I am a member of the Muskogee people. I'm a poet, a musician, a dreamer of sorts, a questioner. Like everyone else, I'm looking for answers of some sort or the other.
Joy HarjoRead
At least I've had to come to that in my life, to realize that this stuff called failure, this stuff, this debris of historical trauma, family trauma, you know, stuff that can kill your spirit, is actually raw material to make things with and to build a bridge. You can use those materials to build a bridge over that which would destroy you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Failure and trauma can be transformed into tools for growth and resilience.
In this quote, Joy Harjo reflects on her realization that the challenges and traumas experienced in life, rather than being solely destructive, can serve as foundational elements to create something meaningful. These experiences can be harnessed as 'raw material' to construct a metaphorical bridge that allows a person to overcome past difficulties, ultimately leading to personal strength and transformation.
Themes
FailureTraumaGrowthResilienceTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech, one could use this quote to inspire those who face personal challenges.
More from Joy Harjo
All quotes →It's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.
Joy HarjoRead
A story matrix connects all of us._x000D_ There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.
Joy HarjoRead
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.
Joy HarjoRead
Bottom line, I have to follow what my soul says, or my spirit. And my spirit said that poetry and the arts should be without borders, should be without political borders.
Joy HarjoRead
I don't like this romanticization of Indian people in which Indian people are looked at as spiritual saviors, as people who have always taken care of the land. We're human beings. But I think different cultures have developed different aspects of humanness.
Joy HarjoRead
Similar quotes
But I think my mistakes became the chemistry for my miracles. I think that my tests became my testimonies.
T. D. JakesRead
The less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we should conduct our own affairs.
Warren BuffettRead
Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man's onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason.
Albert PikeRead
In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.
Michael JacksonRead
He who acknowledges a kindness has it still, and he who has a grateful sense of it has requited it.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Knowledge is simply a kind of fuel; it needs the motor of understanding to convert it into power.
John WyndhamRead