Quotes

More Quotes

• "Through you nature becomes aware of itself. Nature has been waiting for you, as it were, for millions of years."

  — Stillness Speaks

  Eckhart Tolle

• "The child wants simple things. It wants to be listened to. It wants to be loved.… It may not even know the words, but it wants its rights protected and its self-respect unviolated. It needs you to be there."

  — Ron Kurtz

  As cited in Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child

• "Just as too much physical force can break a child’s bones, too much control can break a child’s spirit and fracture his psyche. It can cause a splintering of self, causing a child to disown some parts of himself and to inflate others."

  — Beverly Engel

  Healing The Emotional Self

• "The garden is a spiritual place where the mind dwells."

  — Shunmyo Masuno

  Zen Garden Design

• "Nature is always moving and transforming, and Japanese gardens express this quality through the use of plants and trees that move with the wind and change over the seasons."

  Zen Garden Design

• "More than anything else, beauty helps people grow. If we always look at beautiful things, our kokoro “spirit” can be calm. More than anything else, human sensibility and sense of beauty can be developed."

  — Shunmyo Masuno

  Zen Garden Design

• "We should always remember that it is not practical for ordinary people to live in the depths of the mountains. So how can it be wrong for them to build waterfalls by their hillside cottages and plant a few trees as well? Pay no attention to anyone who tells you that you must not plant trees in this or that place!"

  The Art and Wisdom of Japanese Gardens

• "You are not separate from nature. We are all part of the One Life that manifests itself in countless forms throughout the universe, forms that are all completely interconnected. When you recognize the sacredness, the beauty, the incredible stillness and dignity in which a flower or a tree exists, you add something to the flower or the tree. Through your recognition, your awareness, nature too comes to know itself. It comes to know its own beauty and sacredness through you!"

  — Eckhart Tolle

  Stillness Speaks

• "You reconnect with nature in the most intimate and powerful way by becoming aware of your breathing and learning to hold your attention there. This is a healing and deeply empowering thing to do. It brings about a shift in consciousness from the conceptual world of thought to the inner realm of unconditioned consciousness."

  — Eckhart Tolle

  Stillness Speaks

• "You need nature as your teacher to help you reconnect with Being. But not only do you need nature, it also needs you."

  — Eckhart Tolle

  Stillness Speaks

• "Our ability as parents to be open and present for our children enables them to be both differentiated from our own expectations and desires for how they should be and linked to us through compassionate, respectful communication, enabling the integrative circuitry of their brains to develop well."

  — Daniel J. Siegel, MD

  Aware

• "It is one of the weightiest decisions: to decide what to do with your life. The challenge is to find a way of life that will be in harmony with your gifts and needs."

  — John O’Donohue

  To Bless the Space Between Us

• "The best way to help a child through a challenging moment is to give them a story about it, whether they’re being bullied, have fallen in love for the first time, or the tooth-fairy failed to show up."

  — Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

  The Story Cure

• "It is our privilege, and our responsibility, to find joy and laughter while fully aware of the wide array of pain and perils, as well as the vast possibilities for being of service on our precious planet."

  — Daniel J. Siegel, MD

  Aware

• "… adolescence is a period when many begin to challenge adult knowledge and imagine not only how the world might be but also how it should be."

  — Daniel J. Siegel, MD

  Aware

• "The caterpillar does not become a flying caterpillar; it morphs into a butterfly."

  — Ram Dass

  Polishing the Mirror

• "If you want your child to reach her potential, one of the most important traits to nurture is tenacity—the “I’ll stick with it” approach to challenges."

  — Kenneth R. Ginsburg, Martha M. Jablow

  Building Resilience in Children and Teens

• "If we want our children to experience the world as fully as possible—unfortunately with all its pain, and thankfully with all its joy—our goal will have to be resilience."

  — Kenneth R. Ginsburg, Martha M. Jablow

  Building Resilience in Children and Teens

• "Our challenge is to recognize the gifts in every child and, more importantly, create the circumstances in which young people will discover their own strengths, so they can ultimately determine those areas in which they can make their greatest contributions."

  — Kenneth R. Ginsburg, Martha M. Jablow

  Building Resilience in Children and Teens

• "We must prepare our children to thrive and succeed far into the future. We need to bear in mind that our goal in raising children is to prepare them to be successful at 35, 40, or 50 years of age."

  — Kenneth R. Ginsburg, Martha M. Jablow

  Building Resilience in Children and Teens

• "Our love is the most protective, enduring force we offer our children… The genuine sense that they are worth being cared for offers the bedrock of self-regard that will affect their behaviors and emotional well-being during childhood and adolescence, as well as the security from which they will launch into adulthood."

  — Kenneth R. Ginsburg, Martha M. Jablow

  Building Resilience in Children and Teens

• "We must gently help our children be exposed to the injured heart of another so they can consider the impact of their unkind behavior."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "If we want our children to discover their passion and purpose, we must stay open to what they drift toward rather than pushing them in directions we prefer they follow but that do not call to them."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "Kids whose boundaries are respected have a much easier time setting them appropriately with their peers."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "It is our challenge and opportunity to foster in our children the living, breathing knowledge that they are worthy — as is — of being loved."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "We need to raise our children to know they are inherently worthy of love and happiness so that they will be able to absorb all the good that comes their way."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "Establishing boundaries helps us raise children who know how to handle disappointment and who are therefore strong, adaptable, and self-reliant."

  — Susan Stiffelman

  Parenting with Presence

• "Parental neglect and rejection in childhood can adversely affect self-confidence and relationships in adulthood, as people repeat old, frustrating patterns and then blame themselves for not being happy."

  — Lindsay C. Gibson

  Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

• "Attentive and reliable emotional relationships are the basis of a child’s sense of security. Unfortunately, emotionally immature parents are usually too uncomfortable with closeness to give their children the deep emotional connection they need."

  — Lindsay C. Gibson

  Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

• "The practice of conscious “abdominal” breathing… is the bridge between the conscious and unconscious functions of our nervous system."

  — Alexis Brink

  The Art of Jin Shin