"Notes" of An Elder

Nothing in life is of any value unless it is shared with others.

"Notes" of An Elder is a depository of pertinent information, knowledge and wisdom. Available weekly will be an elder's "thinking menu" for your use. Enjoy this bounty.

• The one thing you can’t escape in your life is yourself.

• Actions prove who someone is. Words show what a person wants to be.

• “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ― Edith Wharton

• The mind is an important and sacred place. Keep it clean and clear.

• When you say I understand, are you saying: I see it, I hear it, I feel it, I taste it, I touch it?

• On the other side of doubt is the truth.

• We all need someone who understands us better than we know ourselves, to keep us honest.

• Do you want a friend? Find someone willing to peer into the unknown and bring you problems.

• The best listeners are full-body listeners. They listen with their ears, eyes, and heart.

Meeting New People

• Be honest and humble.

• Be curious and vulnerable.

• Be appreciative and truthful.

• Be a connector and share ideas.

• Don’t be judgmental, be welcoming.

• Be a listener and ask smart questions.

• It’s About Them, Not You.

• If you listen to gain relevant information, knowledge, and wisdom, you’ll make better decisions in all parts of your life.

• There will always be choices. There will always be consequences for the choices we make.

• Confidence is the individual who fills out a crossword puzzle with an ink pen.

• When we want to be someone else, it is the result that we don’t like who we are.

• We have to stop living life where we love things and use people.

• A person who is a learning machine is intentional and continually seeks new information to get better.

• Heart: the place where intellect, emotion, spirit and will converge in the human self.

• It’s difficult to understand yourself if you are never with yourself.

• Few realize when we read, we are listening to the words in front of us. The stories we read generate internal conversations of self-talk.

Magic Question

Why did you ask me that question?

P.S. Searching for a book recommendation? Our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends Conversations with James Baldwin edited by Fred R. Standley and Louis H. Pratt. This collection of interviews with James Baldwin covers the period 1961-1987, from the year of the publication of Nobody Knows My Names, his fourth book, to just a few weeks before his death. This important collection contributes significantly to the clarification and expansion of the ideas in Baldwin's fiction, drama, essays, and poetry. It gives additional life to a stunning orator and major literary figure who considered himself a sojourner even in his own country. Yet early in his career Baldwin told Studs Terkel: “I am an American writer. This country is my subject.”

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