Home & Blog | Lynne Baab

Quotations I love: Memory

Lynne Baab • Thursday April 15 2021

“Memory is many things. . . . It is a call to resolve in us what simply will not go away.” —Joan Chittister (born 1936), American Benedictine nun, theologian, author, and speaker

For most of my adult life, I would have read Joan Chittister’s words a certain way. For me, what wouldn't go away in my memories was pain, and I would have said we must face into pain from our past in in the company of others. I would have said that the unresolved memories in us that keep coming up should be dealt with in inner healing prayer, therapy/counseling/coaching, and in...

Read full article »

Quotations I love: The answer is in a story

Lynne Baab • Wednesday March 17 2021

“The answer is in a story and the story is being told.” —Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet, theologian, mediator, and leader of the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland [1]

There are a handful of people in my life who really bug me. I’ve heard that when people irritate you or make you mad, you should look at your own life to see if something you don’t like in yourself is being revealed. I’ve done that. I’ve talked about my relationships with these individuals in spiritual direction and therapy, and I have gotten some insight, but not very much.

Year after year, these relationships continue to be...

Read full article »

Quotations I love: G. K. Chesterton on doing things badly

Lynne Baab • Friday January 29 2021

I was in my early thirties when a friend said she had come across a very helpful quotation. “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly,” she said. She told me she had been raised to do things well, and she found living up to that standard to be paralyzing. She talked about the fact that she never wrote thank-you notes after her wedding because she knew they had to say something kind about the present, and she wasn’t able to do that. So she did nothing.

She told me that she had learned to write, “Thanks for the present,” then sign her...

Read full article »

Quotations I love: Bruce Springsteen on limits and possibilities

Lynne Baab • Friday January 22 2021

In my zoom women’s group this past week, the conversation was all about who had already gotten the vaccine and how/when the others would get it. These dear friends in my group are all in Seattle, while I am in New Zealand. The situation with covid in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries right now demonstrates a fascinating combination of limits and possibilities. The virus is still roaring, and people need to lead limited lives, but with each passing day, more people have received the vaccination and have hopes of regaining some freedom.

I love these words from...

Read full article »

<< Newer | Older >>