There's a part of every living thing that wants to become itself: the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one.That is spirituality.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the intrinsic desire for growth and transformation present in all living beings.
Ellen Bass highlights the fundamental drive within every living creature to evolve into its true self, drawing parallels between the natural transformations seen in tadpoles becoming frogs and caterpillars becoming butterflies. This journey towards wholeness is described as a spiritual quest, suggesting that spirituality is rooted in the innate need for personal and transformative growth.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, you could say, 'As Ellen Bass reminds us, every living thing has a part that wishes to become itself.'
So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality. You can say: This did happen to me. It was that bad. It was the fault & responsibility of the adult. I was—and am—innocent.” The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis
Moralists and philosophers have adjudged those who throw temptation in the way of the erring, equally guilty with those who are thereby led into evil
I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them.
The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.
We consider bibles and religions divine I do not say they are not divine. I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still. It is not they who give the life, it is you who give the life.
The people will learn to feel the dignity of man. They will not merely demand their rights, which have been trampled in the dust, but themselves will take them - make them their own.
Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.