Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Personal Mottos

To begin with, let us take the following motto...Literature is Love. Now we can continue.
~Vladimir Nabokov


I'd like to kick off this Wellness Wednesday by talking about people using their talents to be lovely to one another. For instance, after poet Tomas Tranströmer had a stroke that rendered him only able to play piano with his left hand, composer Daniel Stagno composed three left-hand-only songs for Tranströmer. Isn't that marvelous?

Have I mentioned that poet E.J. Koh has been writing love letters to strangers? (Her plan: to write a thousand!) My daughters received letters from her this week. *happy sigh*

Maybe something about the use of your talents will make it into your personal motto? I think the act of coming up with a motto/mantra/prayer/invocation/rallying cry can be a useful exercise. What feels right? What serves you?



Would you want to pick just one word to be your motto? (True confession: mine has fourteen words.) If you want to try going with just one, here's some info about One Little Word. They explain:

So what do you do with this One Little Word®?

You live with it. You invite it into you life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities and no right or wrong way to approach the adventure.

3 comments:

Margaret Simon said...

Thanks for this post. I do the One Little Word every year, but I feel a need to switch now that this new school year has started. I read Lee Ann Spillane's post: http://portable-teacher.blogspot.com/. The word Grace is what I need. Like the motto, "Do what you can..." Grace helps me to forgive myself when I am not at my best. Sometimes my thoughts are like threads that weave in and out of blog posts and quotes and things that come my way.

Tabatha said...

Thanks for sharing that Grace-ful post, Margaret. I like what she had to say about it. I am all for Grace, all year round.

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

Loving the lovely contents of this post, Tabatha. The love letters to strangers is such a fantastic idea... so glad your daughters were able to feel the direct effects.