I’ve long held a fondness for quotations and lyrics. They are like little bite-size nuggets of inspiration or wisdom or sarcastic fun. I think I love them so much because of their easy resonance. That quality of “aha”: that quality that has me smiling the moment I read it or nodding my head or feeling nostalgic.
I find many times that someone else has voiced (and far better than I ever could) precisely what it is I may have been feeling or thinking. Other times, a quote or lyric holds a general tone or mood for something I believe or love or hope for. Or it is the “posterized” version of a more complex idea: short and sweet and to the point.
Quotes and lyrics have a unique way of striking a chord, getting to the point, and moving our heart in just a few short sentences. In a universal kind of way.
I used to reflect on lyrics and quotes quite a lot. I even had a blog tag “goofy for quotes” because I was a) that geeky and b) that inspired by the brief nuggets of truth.
Recently I’ve been finding a renewed and refreshed love for quotations and snippets while browsing and pinning on Pinterest. So many fabulous quotes have been shared and every time I come across one that gives me that resonating “aha” feeling, I pin it so I can come back to it later. And I’ve been cataloging and art journaling some of my most favorite quotes and snippets in one of my SMASH books.
And I wanted to encourage you to embrace the goofy for quotes. Because it’s that feeling, the “aha” resonance, the inner “yes!” or “word.” that our heart speaks when we see or hear a quote that moves us to remember it, that plants seeds for some amazing storytelling to be harvested later.
Listen to that resonating echo. Why does that particular quote or lyric strike a chord in you? That feeling is there for a reason. It’s there because it relates to you or speaks your heart or challenges you. And when we let ourselves think about it beneath the surface, there is a bit of our story there.
Maybe it’s as simple as “these brief words express exactly how I feel about a person” as it was when I scrapped a snippet of the song “You are My Sunshine”:
Maybe the snippet speaks a truth you want to share with someone you love. A “scrapable, teachable moment”, if you will. As was the case when I scrapped this quote from Albert Einstein. I wanted to share with Bugga what I believe is true and what Einstein stated in the perfect little “nugget”: “There are only two ways to life your life. One as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”:
Or maybe the words of a quote or song speak to our heart and reflect deeper hopes:
Maybe they inspire us to challenge ourselves or live it more in our lives:
But that “aha” feeling…it’s there because you’re feeling inspired to share something. A bit of you, a bit of your story. So I hope to encourage you with a simple, heart-led prompt series of shared quotes here on the blog. In the mean time, go and reflect on the words that resonate in you. ♥
