There are two quotes that friends shared with me as I was starting my Peace Corps adventure, each of which has had an enourmous impact on my daily life so far, to the point I want to share them with you.
The first one was passed along by a returned Volunteer who served in Belize. She was a tremendous support and source of motivation and excitement in my preparatory process, and continues to be an invaluable resource and friend as I chart my own path of challenges more trying and highs more gratifying than anything I could have concieved of -she was absolutely right about this being a roller coaster ride! While written by a Chinese Taoist philosopher, this quote captures beautifully the essense of what Peace Corps work is all about:
Go to the people
Live with them
Learn from them
Love them
Start with what they know
Built with what they have
But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished
The people will say
"We have done this ourselves"
~Lao Tzu
The second one was sent to me by a dear friend whose unending support can hardly be described - she radiates warmth and positivity and has kept me sane and smiling through years of trying to figure out both daily life and what the bigger picture is all about. She always has the right words, hers or borowed, for whatever life throws at you. Neither she or I could have imagined how much this quote would be what I needed, but it has really helped me start to build a deeper level of patience and stay calm when I get anxious
wanting a certain phase or difficulty or unknown to hurry up and resolve.
"I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart,
and to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or
books written in a foreign language. Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now because you would not be able to
live them. The point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.
Perhaps then someday far in the future you will gradually, without
ever noticing it, live your way into the answers."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, German Poet
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