This I Believe

Last year I created a reading list at work, where I had everyone submit book recommendations. I compiled them all together to make a fantastic list of reads. I may have been the only one who got really excited about this list but lists and books represent two of my favorite things! (Dork alert.) I’ve made it my mission to read as many books on the list as possible (except the ones that I’m just really not interested in- can’t be too extreme). There’s probably 80 or so books on there.

So far I’ve read:

Beach Music by Pat Conroy- Very interesting read but most certainly written for a different generation. I felt I would have gotten a lot more about of it if I was my parents’ age.
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb- Absolutely loved it… until the ending which was delivered all neatly wrapped in a big ol’ bow. Little disappointed there.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed- Loved every minute of this book. Have not seen the movie yet but I’m hoping to this week.

For Christmas this year I asked for a couple books off the list including This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. It’s based on the NPR series that existed both in the 1950s and in the 2000s. It’s been a really incredible read. I want to share with you a couple of lines that I thought have been pretty poignant.

“Give, give, give–what is the point of having experiences, knowledge, or talent if I don’t give it away? Of having stories if I don’t tell them to others? Of having wealth if I don’t share it? I don’t intend to be cremated with any of it. It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world, and with the divine.” -Isabel Allende

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious–the knowledge of the existence of something unfathomable to us, the manifestation of the most profound reason coupled with the most brilliant beauty.” – Albert Einstein

“I believe in the power and mystery of naming things. Language has the capacity to transform our cells, rearrange our learned patterns of behavior and redirect our thinking. I believe in naming what’s right in front of us because that is often what is most invisible.” -Eve Ensler

“It would be folly for an individual to seek to do better- to do better than to go on in his own imperfect way, making his mistakes, riding out the rough and bewildering, exciting and beautiful storm of life until the day he dies.” – Oscar Hammerstein II

“I believe in the creative powers of the unknown. I believe in the exhilaration of standing at the boundary between the known and the unknown. I believe in the unanswered questions of children.” -Alan Lightman