To grow up is to find the small part you are playing in the extraordinary drama written by somebody else.
Interpretation
Growing up involves recognizing your unique role in a larger narrative created by others.
This quote suggests that maturation is not just about age or physical development, but about understanding one's place and contribution within the grander scheme of life, where everyone plays a role in a story that is partly authored by external circumstances, experiences, and societal influences. It implies a sense of humility and recognition that one's life is intertwined with the lives and stories of others, highlighting the complexity of existence.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to encourage students to find their place in the world.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
Facing this stuff, in real life is not like school, in school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow, but out there...when your a second away from being murdered or watching a friend die right before your eyes...you don't know what that's like.
Every 10 years or so, there was a moment when I'd say, even subconsciously, 'Is that all there is?' You've got to find ways to keep it fresh for yourself.
Everything you cherish_x000D_ _x000D_ Throws you over in the end_x000D_ _x000D_ Thorns will grab your ankles_x000D_ _x000D_ From the gardens that you tend.
Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.
You can have meaning, accomplishment, engagement and good relationships, even if you are dull on the positive affect side.
People spend a lifetime thinking abouthow they would really like to live. I asked my friends and no one seems to know very clearly. To me, it's very clear now. I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing 'Love in the Time of Cholera.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.