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Parker Palmer on shadow

Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself. Let your altruism meet your egotism, let your generosity meet your greed, let your joy meet your grief…. But when you are able to say, “I am all of the above, my shadow as well as my light,” the shadow’s power is put in service of the good.

Recommended reading: A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life.

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Thich Nhat Hanh on interconnectedness

When we look deeply into a sheet of paper, we see that it’s full of everything in the cosmos: the sunshine, the trees, the clouds, the earth, the minerals, everything – except for one thing. It’s empty of one thing only: a separate self. The sheet of paper cannot be by itself alone. That is why the word inter-be can be more helpful than the word be. In fact, to be means to inter-be. The sheet of paper cannot be without the sunshine, cannot be without the forest. The sheet of paper has to inter-be with the sunshine, to inter-be with the forest.

Recommended reading: Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm.