Who I am is what fulfills me and fulfills the vision I have of the world.
Interpretation
True fulfillment comes from being authentic and aligning with one's vision for the world.
Audre Lorde emphasizes the importance of authenticity and self-awareness in achieving personal fulfillment. By asserting that one's identity and actions must align with their inner vision, she highlights the connection between self-acceptance and the realization of one's aspirations for a better world.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-acceptance and personal growth.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in that moment, a way of saying, "This is my experience right now, and it's okay." Then go into the next moment without any agenda.
The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.
We must follow the wisdom of the Brundtland Report. We must pursue development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.
Those who wish to appear learned to fools, appear as fools to the learned.
It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.
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