I try to take care_x000D_ and be gentle to them._x000D_ Words and eggs must be handled with care._x000D_ Once broken they are impossible things to repair.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the fragility of both our words and delicate things, highlighting the importance of being careful in our interactions.
Anne Sexton's quote draws a parallel between the fragility of eggs and the impact of words. Just as eggs can break easily and cannot be repaired once shattered, words can have lasting consequences and once spoken, they cannot be taken back. This serves as a reminder to be mindful of our language and actions towards others, as they can deeply affect relationships and emotional well-being.
In practice
In a self-help seminar to stress the importance of mindful communication.
The Witch's Life" When I was a child there was an old woman in our neighborhood whom we called The Witch. All day she peered from her second story window from behind the wrinkled curtains and sometimes she would open the window and yell: Get out of my life! She had hair like kelp and a voice like a boulder. I think of her sometimes now and wonder if I am becoming her.
Do you like me?” No answer. Silence bounced, fell off his tongue and sat between us and clogged my throat. It slaughtered my trust. It tore cigarettes out of my mouth. We exchanged blind words, and I did not cry, I did not beg, but blackness filled my ears, blackness lunged in my heart, and something that had been good, a sort of kindly oxygen, turned into a gas oven.
Don't bite till you know if it's bread or stone.
Abundance is scooped from abundance yet abundance remains.
I find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last year’s cupful and downward into a decade’s quart and downward into a lifetime’s ocean. I alternate treading water and deadman’s float.
I am your dwarf. I am the enemy within. I am the boss of your dreams. See. Your hand shakes. It is not palsy or booze. It is your Doppelganger trying to get out. Beware...Beware...
Charity is like warmth in springtime or summer that causes grass, plants, and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual warmth, nothing grows.
It is no judgement of a thing outside yourself to say it makes you ill. The wise reader knows that every pronouncement is, to some degree, an act of self-exposure; the book you find too challenging might only show how ill-equipped you are to face its challenge.
I couldn't care less what anybody says about me. I live my life, especially my personal life, strictly for myself... Whatever you do, you're going to be criticized. I feel the one sensible thing you can do is try to live in a way that pleases you.
We learned many years ago that the rich may have money, but the poor have time.
The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.
To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability.
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