Alicia Hawkins - Quote Collections

Alicia Hawkins, beloved community member from First Unitarian in Albuquerque, New Mexico, passed away yesterday.

A year or so ago, Alicia mailed me a collection of quotes that she had been amassing for 15 years or so. She organized the quotes under topics: Perfection, Wounds We Can't Heal, Trust, Shadow...

In thinking of her, and in the spirit of sending out love and light into the world, as Alicia always did, here are a few relevant quotes from her brilliant collection:

Here's one of Alicia's own poems, which she categorized under "Living the Questions."

Don't tell me your answers,
tell me your doubts.
Don't drag out your expertise
tell me what baffles you.
Let me wander around in your realness,
not in your carefully mended mask.

Under "Sorrow/Suffering," these words from Mary Oliver:

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand
That this, too, was a gift.

Under "Perseverance and Courage," these words from Jane Hirshfield (who wrote the poem "Optimism" - a real favorite of mine):

The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.

Under "Letting Go," these words from Christine Robinson:

Practice all the letting go's you can. From letting go of your thoughts in a meditation practice to letting go of your attachments to things and relationships that leave our lives constantly, practice letting go. Every goodbye you say is a practice for the big goodbye. Don't let a day go by without letting go of something!

Under "Death," these words from Rainer Maria Rilke:

The great secret of death, and perhaps its deepest connection with us is this: that, in taking from us a being we have loved and venerated, death does not wound us without, at the same time, lifting us toward a more perfect understanding of this being and of ourselves.

And these from Kahlil Gibran:

When you part from your friend, you grieve not; for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And finally, these words from her dear friend and collaborator in three books, Christine Robinson:

The only legacy we leave is the light that shines from our life.