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
Today I felt pass over me A breath of wind from the wings of madness.
Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.
She supposed that houses, after all - like the lives that were lived in them - were mostly made of space. It was the spaces, in fact, which counted, rather than the bricks.
We are all victims of the violence that animals suffer... their liberation is also our liberation.
I have to feel myself doing what's right. If I'm the arbiter of that instead of letting the guy on TV be that or someone who doesn't know me at all, then I think that's a much better way to live.
Karate is like boiling water: without heat, it returns to it's tepid state
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