Literary Quotes on Calmness
It’s crazy out there right now, what with the stock market sliding and coronavirus fears spreading and so much uncertainty in the air. When the noise in my head and the noise of the world is too loud, I turn to literature for some much-needed soothing of the soul. When all else fails, books are a beautiful refuge.
As Montaigne noted, “When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.” Here, then, some books to absorb you and banish the clouds:
“I began to regain a measure of calm. I had done a good job tying the ladder to the tree, after all. It wasn’t going to come loose just like that.” Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
I dig this because it reminds you that every day, you perform a thousand minor tasks that work out just fine. You brush your teeth and don’t choke on the toothpaste. You drive to work and don’t hit a deer. You eat the cookie dough and don’t get salmonella. Be calm because, after all, you’re probably more prepared than you think, and maybe it’s not all going to come loose just like that.
Get The Wind-up Bird Chronicle on Indiebound / Amazon
“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark
This is lovely because it accepts that, though storms are inevitable, there are lessons to be learned within the storm. I think of hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. On the rare occasion that we didn’t evacuate, we would all huddle together in a closet in the middle of our little house beside a kudzoo patch until the outer circle of the storm passed. When it grew quiet, we’d escape the closet and wander onto the porch, into the warm, strange silence of the eye. The world, in the center of the eye, feels utterly changed. It is the same place, only different, and I have always imagined that’s what it would feel like to step into an alternate universe–calm and slightly terrifying, painfully beautiful.
Get The Song of the Lark on Indiebound / Amazon
“Occasionally along the banks it would catch on some underwater obstacle, and eddies would develop. But the river flowed on, parading, concerned only with its hidden aims beyond the horizon, somewhere far off to the north.” Olga Tokarczuk, Flights
It’s like that, isn’t it? We snag ourselves on all these unexpected obstacles we couldn’t possibly have seen coming, submerged as they are beneath the surface. Flowing is a simpler business when you can’t see what’s ahead. We live with the eddies, but there is somewhere to get to, so we keep going there. In this steady flow, one finds calm.
Get Flights on Indiebound / Amazon
“You cannot wait for an untroubled world to have an untroubled moment…In the meantime, it is best to grab what wonderful moments you find lying around.” Lemony Snickett, All the Wrong Questions: Shouldn’t You Be in School?
So true. There will always be trouble, which makes it all the more essential to “grab” the good times. Don’t be shy about experiencing those moments. As the French say, profiter. (Or, a command, because in France one loves to issue orders: Profitez!)
Get Shouldn’t You Be in School on Indiebound / Amazon
“He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age…” Plato (Great Dialogues of Plato)
No disrepsect to Plato, but this may be simplifying matters a bit. Still, one can enjoy the spirit of it. A calm and happy nature may not ward of osteoporosis and the ultimate descent (or ascent, if that’s the way you see it), but it does make the journey more pleasant, to a point.
Get Great Dialogues of Plato on Indiebound / Amazon
“I think about what I’m reading or writing… All you need is a little peace and quiet and the words will come to you — your own voice or the other’s. Your own voice or the voice of God. Perspiration. Inspiration. It feels like a gift.” Thomas Lynch, Bodies in Motion and at Rest
Here, Lynch describes the essential, exquisite calm that comes with a life of the mind, a life in books. There is patience in this kind of life, in the stillness that books and writing bring, in the waiting for words. It’s the patience all writers strive for, the stillness we crave. I think we crave it more in times of chaos. There is a place you go to in the mind, a cocoon of safety: books can be the vehicle to take you there.
Get Bodies in Motion and at Rest on Indiebound
For a counterpoint, you might consider Oscar Wilde, who loved to provide the counterpoint, just to be contrarian:
“Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.” Oscar Wilde
Get The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde on Indiebound
Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of THE YEAR OF FOG, The Marriage Pact, Golden State, and other novels and story collections. Her books have been published in 30 languages. She lives and writes in Paris.
Discover THE YEAR OF FOG, the international bestseller about one woman’s search for a missing child.
“A mesmerizing novel of loss and grief, hope and redemption, and the endurance of love.” Library Journal, starred review
“A harrowing, beautifully written story of a photographer and soon-to-be stepmom whose momentary lapse in attention results in the disappearance of her fiance’s little girl on a foggy beach in San Francisco. What happened to 6-year-old Emma? The answer, and its implications, will keep you on the edge of your beach chair.” Denver Post
If you enjoyed this post, please share with your followers.
It’s not that kind of story: on moving to Paris from California
If you’ve spent any time reading memoirs about France, you might have noticed that these books tend to fall into one of the following categories:
- I quit/lost my job/boyfriend/wife and moved to Paris and fell in love.
- I quit/lost my job/boyfriend/wife and moved to Paris and learned to cook.
- I quit/lost my job/boyfriend/wife and moved to the French countryside and renovated a farmhouse.
- I met a Frenchman/Frenchwoman and moved to Paris and raised a child.
This is not that kind of story.
No one in my family quit a job. I’m still pretty hooked on the guy who caught my eye 24 years ago, and he is a Californian to the core. Having spent the past 19 years in the Bay Area, I’ve become a Californian too, although not the kind of Californian who grows her own herbs and knows her way around the Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook. I don’t expect to suddenly become a great cook, or even a very passionate one. I am so not DIY, and I won’t be renovating anything. Which is good, because at the apartment we’re moving into, we aren’t allowed to so much as paint a wall.
We are not running from anything; there is nothing to escape. We love Northern California. We love our friends, we love being so close to my husband’s parents and siblings and large extended family, and to my sisters family. We love our neighborhood. We love our sweeping canyon views and the zen-like calm of our comfortable house, which is in many ways our dream home. We are not really seeking new adventures, although we embrace adventures as they present themselves. We are not trying to slow the pace of life; the pace of life in Paris will, in fact, have far more in common with the rat race we lived in New York City many years ago. We are not, in any way, seeking greener pastures. The canyon on which we live is, indeed, very green.
No, we are escaping nothing, and adventure is not exactly on our radar. We are creatures of habit. When we were younger, we traveled a lot. Now, we both travel overseas for work and we take a family vacation out of the country about once a year, so we still enjoy travel, but not with the same fervor we once did.
We have aged out of discomfort. Had aged out of discomfort, I should say. We are now diving headfirst right back into it.
So what kind of story is it? Is it a romance?
A comedy?
A farce?
A grand adventure story?
A story of mishaps and misadventures coupled with discoveries of both the culinary and artistic variety?
Is it a story about how someone who does not do big cities well suddenly becomes a lover of big cities?
Is it a story about language? About culture? About wine?
About escaping this particular place on earth at exactly the right moment?
About getting lost on the metro?
About new friends and new neighbors and a tiny kitchen overlooking a courtyard?
Is it about learning to speak in code when nothing one says is truly private?
Is it a story about traffic?
Is it a story about cheese?
(Probably oui to both traffic and cheese).
Is it a story about rain? (My husband says it rains every time he’s in Paris, which will be a nice change in weather, until we are soggy and cold and wishing for our dry California heat).
Is it a story about navigating French bureaucracy and discovering French beaches?
Is it a story about appliances (it is rumored that the washing machines and dishwashers in France require vast quantities of tenderness and patience)?
We do not know.
We will soon find out.
This post was excerpted from my Paris blog, The Reluctant Parisian.
The Marriage Pact Challenge: Could you follow these marriage rules?
Could you follow these 10 rules for a lasting marriage? These rules are from the bestselling novel THE MARRIAGE PACT?
Could you follow these 10 rules for a lasting marriage? These rules are from the bestselling novel The Marriage Pact 10 Rules for Marriage:
1) Always answer when your partner calls
2) Exchange at least two thoughtful gifts every month
3) Cook your partner dinner twice a week
4) Unfollow your ex on social media
5) Never spend more than two nights apart
6) Tell your partner all your passwords
7) Only wear clothes your partner deems attractive or appropriate.
8) Enable the ‘find my phone’ feature so your partner always knows where you are
9) Have no secrets from each other (and confess any old ones!)
10) Do one activity your partner chooses every weekend.
Get the Marriage Pact book club party guide, including the rule sheet and rule tracker. Download 10 Rules for Marriage (and create your own).
Scroll down to see how book bloggers did with the challenge, and share your own results with the hashtag #MarriagePactChallenge.
Get the Sunday Times bestseller, The Marriage Pact.
“A smart, searing, frightening look at modern love.” Today.com
“Riveting psychological suspense!” Lisa Gardner
“Gripping, thought-provoking, and irresistible.” Dean Koontz
Sam at Clues and Reviews is struggling with #7, and her husband just doesn’t get #2:
I am absolutely breaking rule number seven when I roll out of bed and immediately put on my rattiest pair of sweatpants and my old university sweatshirt. #sorrynotsorry. By Friday, I finally decided to let Chris in on the experiment and he is extremely confused. When I suggest he should practice the new rules by purchasing me a thoughtful gift he tells me that he was the gift I received when we got married. I tell him that does not count.
Amanda at On My Bookshelf has a little problem with Rule #9:
One evening, to prove that I don’t have any secrets (rule number 9), I asked him if he wants to know my passwords. He looked at me strangely and asked if I want to know his passwords as well.
Let’s stay at rule number 9. Oh guys, I have secrets, I do! One evening, when he was very deep into searching for a new car in the internet I told him, haha, you know what, I’ve hidden a huge jar of Nutella behind my books, haha. He shrugged and said he’s not surprised. So now I have to look for a new hiding place for my huge jar of Nutella.
More blogger’s experiences with The Marriage Pact challenge coming soon.
What about you? Could you follow the rules? Which one would be the deal-breaker?
