There's a part of every living thing that wants to become itself: the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one.That is spirituality.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the intrinsic desire for growth and transformation present in all living beings.
Ellen Bass highlights the fundamental drive within every living creature to evolve into its true self, drawing parallels between the natural transformations seen in tadpoles becoming frogs and caterpillars becoming butterflies. This journey towards wholeness is described as a spiritual quest, suggesting that spirituality is rooted in the innate need for personal and transformative growth.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, you could say, 'As Ellen Bass reminds us, every living thing has a part that wishes to become itself.'
So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality. You can say: This did happen to me. It was that bad. It was the fault & responsibility of the adult. I was—and am—innocent.” The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis
A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.
Africa has become the big game of the nation hunters. Today, Africa looms as the greatest commercial, industrial and political prize in the world.
What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.
The stone that was rolled before Christ's tomb might appropriately be called the philosopher's stone because its removal gave not only the pharisees but, now for 1800 years, the philosophers so much to think about.
I'm fascinated by the fact that we can't grasp anything about time.
Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.
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