From Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale

People disappear when they die. Their voices, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living mempry of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continut to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humour, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.

--Diane Setterfield



Monday, May 5, 2008

Yesterday Tara and I were doing Zig Ziglar and Franklin Covey. Good times, but the homework was to tell yourself affirmations in the mirror every morning and evening.

Um. I really have problems doing that. A lot!

I guess it's just a testament to how I feel about myself but I cannot look myself in the eye and give myself a complement or tell myself that I am good. I don't believe me and I have always, always, always ended up in a horrible mood with or without some form of self inflicted physical punishment.

I was thinking about my dilemma and I had an awesome thought. I was rolling it around and it was going to be a profoundly new way of seeing things, and then someone said something and I lost my train of thought!! AHHH! and I have not been able to think of it again. I promise you it was really good. I remember thinking right after I lit upon it that it was so good I could use it to teach other people and help them grow and over come problems like my own... pity I can't remember it...

And so I'm still stuck...

3 comments:

Janika said...

Maybe you don't feel sincere when you feel forced to talk to yourself. Maybe you could look in the mirror and say, "Janika says I'm beautiful, have a meticulous awareness of detail, and people can't help but love you.

Unknown said...

hmmm. that's a thought... I'll have to try it.

THANKS!

James Quigley said...

If I were your screwtape, I would feel successful.

Remember who you are, Arren.

Remember.

We can see you, but you have been decieved. Believe us. You are great, powerful, soft, loving, kind, righteous, meaningful.

Remember who you are.