As another new week begins, make time for the thought-provoking pieces linked below – from the heartbreaking to the hilarious – with the excerpts that moved us to highlight them here on The Wisdom Daily. Whether or not you’ve grieved the loss of someone dear,?Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg’s writing tops our list because of her universally valuable insights. Whatever’s transpiring in your life, may you find the words of wisdom you need.
1. On the Front Lines of Grief
“Real empathy is sometimes not insisting that it will be okay, but acknowledging that it is not. When people say to me, ‘You and your children will find happiness again,’ my heart tells me, Yes, I believe that, but I know I will never feel pure joy again. Those who have said, ‘You will find a new normal, but it will never be as good’ comfort me more because they know and speak the truth.”
-Sheryl Sandberg, in her?viral essay on the loss of her husband
2. Once Upon a Time
“If even at first, our kids aren’t picking up on the breadth we’d like them to pick up on, I think we have to realize how deep some of these roots go in our society, how many of the fairytales that our kids are exposed to are about the girl marrying the boy. But I think it’s important for us to keep trying, not in a pointed, lecturing kind of way, but to keep exposing them to variety, because you never know when it’s going to hit their awareness…. We prepare the ground and hope that at some point the seeds take root, even if it may take awhile.”
-Dana Rudolph in?“The Straight Parents’ Guide to How Not to Raise a Homophobe – and How to Be a Better Ally” (Slate)
3. A Space for Music to Flourish
“A cellphone is a digital Swiss Army knife: flashlight, calculator, camera and, yes, audio player. Mali’s homegrown, offline digital music has created a space for sharing songs that is in many ways more vibrant than the algorithm-driven way music is so often experienced in the United States – more personal, more curated, more human.”
-Lydia Polgreen in?“A Music-Sharing Network for the Unconnected,” (New York Times Magazine)
4. Stopping Stereotypes in Their Tracks
“And when we cultivate mindfulness via the practice of meditation, we allow ourselves to create a space for awareness; a space where we can catch ourselves in moments where we could be kinder.”
-Dr. Claudia Aguirre in?“How Mindfulness Can Quash Stereotypes” (Huffington Post)
5. Scientists Are Human, Too
“Some researchers now believe the human family tree bore exuberant branches early on…. Hominids may have become much more diverse much earlier than previously thought.”
-Carl Zimmer in?“The Human Family Tree Bristles with New Branches” (The?New York Times)
6. Finding Our Kids Fearless
“Kids are weird and have different approaches to the real world…. We could drop him in the middle of the Atlanta airport and he could probably get back to his house in Indiana in a matter of hours with an extra Cinnabon for us. Ask him to come downstairs with his Little League uniform facing the right way, though, and you’ve got maybe a 50-50 chance of backward-facing baseball pants.”
-Jeff Vrabel in?“What It’s Like to Lose Your Son in the Wilderness – and Everywhere Else” (The Mid)
Image credit: Facebook
Here at The Wisdom Daily (TWD), we feature spiritual insights on daily life, designed to help improve and enhance our relationships with ourselves, our families and the world around us.