I have this quote above here, "However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light." I think that, when I was a kid, I went to Sunday school with my friends to pass the time, and we sang that, "This little light of mine" song a bit too much.
I have a new friend at work who has a motto,
"Don't get into a knife fight unless you're prepared to get cut."
She's a teacher. This is her motto. I guess she won't have a TV movie made after her, but she sure does seem like an interesting person to me.
There was this guy I worked with my first year of teaching, and he said once in a staff meeting,
"Teaching is really the toughest job you'll ever love."
At that moment, with all that was happening- well, let's just say I only partly agreed with that statement.
Another guy always said, "Just keep pounding that stone." If applied to teaching, I have absolutely no idea what that means.
I worked with yet another teacher who told me,
"First, keep them busy. Second, teach them something." Hm...
That's almost like "Safety second" or "Put on the condom after you pull out..."
Then, one of my oldest, dearest friends has a motto, "Even the air itself is filled with monsters."
She isn't a teacher. I think she works retail. So, that makes sense.
She wrote the most fantastic thing in my yearbook one year, and it all turned out to be a quote that wasn't in quotations.
Truly, my own motto is, "Do your best with the time you have been given." I think that quite often. It's really boring, though.
Anyone else have a motto to live by?
Whenever I have an encounter with someone (usually on the phone at work) who is really angry and taking it out on me for no reason, I think to myself, "It must be really sad to live a life where everyone is out to get you."
ReplyDeleteOnce I was complaining about someone to a friend and she responded with "Well they're doing the best they can."
ReplyDeleteInitially that really did not fit especially as I wanted her to agree about how obnoxious the person was. However since then I have told Mumsey about the phrase "Well they are doing the best they can" and now we use it all the time. And oh how it fits. First we said it as a joke. But now it really helps when we are having trouble with X, Y or Z. After X,Y and Z are doing the best they can.
Gina has a good one there.
ReplyDeleteMy mother says 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time".
I like "The future peace and happiness you dream of is possible in this very moment" by Thich Nat Hanh.
And a girl once said to me after I was cringing about having mentioned a topic which was a bit of a sore point to another girl "People will find a million and one ways to pin their shit on to you". That one has comforted me many times when I've put my foot in my mouth.
I've always loved, "Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional."
ReplyDeleteMy personal mantra is, "There's nothing that can't be made better by a hug or a tail wag." I should probably find a more quote-able way to say that.
My Mom's motto: Don't hold back.
ReplyDeleteRose is reading the back issues! I'm flattered.
ReplyDelete