“Empathy is… communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘you are not alone’.” ~ Brene Brown

by bruce | Nov 1, 2023 | quotes

Empathy is connecting with people so we know we’re not alone when we’re in struggle. Empathy is a way to connect to the emotion another person is experiencing; it doesn’t require that we have experienced the same situation they are going...

The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love… is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. ~ James Baldwin

by bruce | Oct 23, 2023 | quotes

“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. “Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and...

When two people both give themselves up in order to come close to each other… their being together is a continual falling. ~ Rilke

by bruce | Oct 18, 2023 | quotes

I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other… All companionship can consist only in the strengthening of two neighboring solitudes: when two people both give themselves up in order...

An inner hunger drives us on, an urge to come closer to other people. ~ JG Bennett

by bruce | Oct 15, 2023 | quotes

“Something is lacking in us, and we have an inner hunger that drives us on, an urge to come closer to other people, to overcome our inner emptiness, and to find our place in the scheme of things.It is only when we stop trying to use the world to fill this hunger...

No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. ~ John O’Donohue

by bruce | Oct 14, 2023 | quotes

“Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when...

Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. ~ Anthony Bourdain

by bruce | Oct 14, 2023 | quotes

“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a Negroni....