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...
Emotions are classes in the Earth school. Some classes are about fear, and some are about love. The Universe is your tutor, and your classroom is your life. The main course in the Earth school, Authentic Power, is the same for everyone, but different students need different courses in order to complete it.
I curled myself into a ball and cried quietly, doing that thing that only young people can do, namely, feeling sorry for myself. Once you're past thirty you lose that ability; instead of feeling sorry for yourself you turn bitter.
Something is aware of even the energy of confusion inside of you. There is no need to get unconfused. Leave it - it will pass.
However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.
But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.