Shellen Lubin's Monday Morning Quote

15 Jun, 2026 - #BeUseful

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

BE USEFUL

"The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something."
Barack Obama
8202;
"We only have what we give."
Isabel Allende

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived ..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

People put so much stock in getting,
in owning, in
holding,
in possession.

As if we really own anything,
as if anything is really
ours.

And as if having the most toys
(abodes, silks, jewels)
makes anyone happy when they're not.

Today is Barack Obama Appreciation Day,
and I think we all appreciate Barack Obama--
his intelligence, his warmth and savvy,
his grace--
even more than we did when he was President
(don't it always seem to go).

In hard times you can grasp and horde
or you can share and take care
and it always seems the caretakers
are "happier" (whatever that is)
than the hoarders.

You know?

Shellen Lubin
June 15, 2026

8 Jun, 2026 - #MakingHope

Mon, 8 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

MAKING HOPE

"Hope is a discipline."
Angela Davis

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all."
Emily Dickinson

Hope is a study, a practice,
a discipline--
applied optimism--
renewed enthusiasm--
finding it, working it, playing it
moment to moment
every day.

Hope is a study,
a practice, yes,
but, too, it can be a surprise.
A flutter in your belly, a swelling
of your chest, a wrinkle in your nose,
the corners of your mouth
slightly, gently uplifted.
Where did it come from?
Are you sure you know?
But there it is.
Because you found it, worked it, played it?
studied it, practiced it
every day?
Maybe.
Maybe.
And maybe sometimes it's just like
the bird flying past you,
the butterfly landing inches away,
the tune carried in the wind--
a luscious, poetic
surprise.

Shellen Lubin
June 8, 2026

1 Jun, 2026 - #OwnPath

Mon, 1 Jun 2026 00:00:00 UTC

OWN PATH

"The road snakes south, then north, ultimately taking us east, and I wonder if life is like that ... go one way, then another, to end up ... someplace else."
Ellen Hopkins
PERFECT

"It's just a way to go. There isn't only one way to go. You're trying to find a road where there isn't one. It's like ... gleaning in the woods. You have to pick your way through the thickets and the trees, and it's different every time."
Naomi Novik
UPROOTED
8202;
"You don't have to know where you're going to get exactly where you need to go."
Marilyn A. Hepburn

My child, my soul,
I know you've learned from me
to forge your own path through
the brambles and thickets,
to make your own way
through these woods,
ignoring most advice,
the tried and tested ways and means,
the tools offered to you,
and I get it, I do.

But no one gets anywhere without
a family, a village,
fellow travelers,
whether reciprocated or not,
willing or not,
appreciated or not,
and so I say:

Do not just forge your own path,
you must also
own the path
you take,
own the choices, the costs,
the consequences to you and others,
the trade-offs you make each step
of the way.

It is your own journey.
Each step is yours.
Own the path.

Shellen Lubin
June 1, 2026

25 May, 2026 - #IntheLight

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 UTC

IN THE LIGHT

"People do terrible things to each other, but it's worse in places where everything is kept in the dark."
Tom Stoppard
NIGHT AND DAY

People can be horrible
when their behavior is unseen.
65279;True in macrocosm
and microcosm.

Why I'm not much for privacy.

Privacy, too often a license
to do terrible things
to ourselves
and others.
When the light is on,
when doors are open,
behavior shifts dramatically.

That is something I am thinking about
on Memorial Day.
How do we
(as individuals and as a nation)
want to know and experience
ourselves?
How do we want to be known and experienced
by others?
By what thoughts and deeds and actions
do we want to be remembered?
And are we capable of living
the way we wish to be known?
In the light?
In the dark?

Aye, there's the rub.
Integrity.
The degree of distance between how we wish
to see ourselves
and how we are.
The only hope for integrity
is not only the effort expended
to live up to our word,
but the willingness to own how and where we have not,
and to hold ourselves accountable
for the consequences of that.

America?
I can't even.
Different in light and dark,
but
even in the light
the hypocrisy,
the fear-mongering,
the lack of accountability
abounds.

But today is Memorial Day.
So today I mourn for the just-barely-adults
(mostly boys, mostly lower classes)
who have died and continue to die
every day all over this Earth
fighting wars that for the most part
were not their own.

And, too, those who have died
fighting injustice throughout history,
and, now, struggling against
this shameless underhanded undertaking,
this crack at kakistocracy.

I mourn for the families
who have had to go on without them.
And I weep that people go on
doing terrible things to each other
generation after generation,
privately and publicly,
in the dark and in the light,
and that we have to be taught the same lessons
over and over and over again.

And still we do not learn.

Shellen Lubin
May 25, 2026

18 May, 2026 - #IfaDoorCloses

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 UTC

IF A DOOR CLOSES

"Every closed door isn't locked and even if it is, you just might have the key."
Sanjo Jendayi

"... if a door closed, it's because what was behind it wasn't meant for you."
Mandy Hale

"The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality."
Parker J. Palmer

If a door closes,
it still might not be locked.
Or you might have the key.
The key may be weathered, rusted,
but you might have the WD-40,
the oil necessary to unlock it again.

If a door closes,
there may be a window you can open
to get in or out.

If a door closes,
is there a glass you can see through?
a peephole?
Just watch a bit.
It might not be as you imagined,
fantasized,
on the other side.
It can't be.
All you imagined is your fantasy,
never what's really there.

If a door closes,
there are other doors,
other rooms to explore,
to make your way into and out of,
to make your way through.

If a door closes,
sit and reflect on the place you already are.
Maybe you need to be there for awhile longer.
Maybe there's something you have not yet discovered,
and only will
in this place
on this path
right where you are.

If a door closes,
paint the walls
where you are.

If a door closes,
break down the walls,
and make a new door.

Shellen Lubin
May 18, 2026

11 May, 2026 - #FindingSunshine

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 UTC

FINDING SUNSHINE

"A dove struggling in a storm grows stronger than an eagle soaring in sunshine."
Matshona Dhliwayo

"For a dark street, sunshine is most welcome; for a wounded sole, love ..."
Mehmet Murat Ildan

"And we will meet in the woods far far away ... and share love and sunshine."
Avijeet Das

Sometimes the sun comes to you,
easily, peacefully,
in all its golden splendor.
Sometimes it fills the sky
so strong and hot and persistent you seek
shade, running from the strength of its light
and heat.

But sometimes--
sometimes some dark cloud-filled days
sometimes some torrential stormy days
sometimes some harsh, bitter days--
you have to find your sunshine.
And sometimes it's all you can do
to find just a sliver.
Sometimes it takes all day
and all the strength you have
to find just one
streak of sunshine
to warm your face and your hands,
and remind your face, your body,
your heart
that these harsh, dark days will pass,
and there will be sun again.

How do you find your sunshine
when it's making itself so hard to find?
Is your light incandescent, flourescent,
or diodes?
Do you use flashlights or candles
or an app on your phone?

And then there is warmth from
teas, coffees, cocoas,
music that fills the world with light and joy,
love ...

How do you make light and warmth
when there is none?
How do you find sunshine?

Shellen Lubin
May 11, 2026

4 May, 2026 - #HopeforEnthusiasm

Mon, 4 May 2026 00:00:00 UTC

HOPE FOR ENTHUSIASM

"Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
8202;
"... the only things that we are in control of are the choices we make at any one given moment."
Patricia Vanasse

When I'm being beaten down
when I'm not sure what I can do next
the best I can do for myself
is to dig down deep
find something to hope for
some aspect of the venture
to re-gain my enthusiasm
to move me forward to the space
where hope and enthusiasm are renewed.

These days it can take a lot.
And yet
it's always there.
And the strength to find it
is where we find resilience.
It doesn't even have to be our own strength,
our own finding ability.
It can be reaching out and getting help
from someone who can.

Because that's how we turn the corner,
turn it into something great,
or find the greatness inherent in it,
or just move forward to something else.

Hope for Strength.
Strength for Enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm for some kind of movement forward.

It's always there to be found.
Until it's not.
Until there's nothing left at all.

I hope I can find it today.
I hope you can, too.

Shellen Lubin
May 4, 2026

27 Apr, 2026 - #Truthiness

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 UTC

TRUTHINESS

"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie."
Miyamato Masushi

"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance."
Orville Wright

Can we have it both ways?

Especially in this time of truthiness?
This time of marketing, advertising, p.r., and reputation management
above connection, expression, and knowing and sharing of self?
This time when the powers that be lie to us so constantly
that anything that happens to them
or around them
is suspect?

Can we accept what is true
while still questioning
what is accepted as truth?

Can we challenge what is accepted
while still acknowledging the truth?

How can we know what is truly true?
Only by trying to have it both ways,
65279;both acknowledging and testing truth.

Another contradictory co-existing reality.

Shellen Lubin
April 27, 2026

20 Apr, 2026 - #CURS #ChronicUnderRepresentationSyndrome

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 UTC

CURS: Chronic Under-Representation Syndrome

"People assume you arent sick
unless they see the sickness on your skin
like scars forming a map of all the ways youre hurting."
Emm Roy
THE FIRST STEP

"If I only could explain
How much I miss
that precious moment
when I was free
from the shackles of chronic pain."
Jenni Johanna Tovoinen
8202;
"It got worse still as time went on because people did not sympathize with you any more. They couldn't do enough for you at first, and that helped, and then they got bored with your troubles. But your troubles went on just the same and you had to bear them alone."
Elizabeth Goudge
THE SCENT OF WATER

It's like a chronic illness,
living under a government that does not see or hear you, that
does not care.

There are many of us who have lived that way
in more ways--for far longer--than others:
people of color, women, immigrants,
and, of course, the disabled and those suffering
actual chronic illness and injury,
each suffering their own misery,
acknowledged more or less by the society at large
depending on the current fashion.

For those currently in charge of the systems that be, we
who suffer
are
out of fashion.

So doesn't it feel like that? Like a chronic illness?
Like every day you wake up and it's the same oppressive regime
trying to go back to a truly savage time
when only white male royalty and gentry were seen as people,
as worthy of recognition
and representation?
Look at them, trying to change the laws,
trying to placate a madman king,
weaponizing against us
not just the justice system,
but the entire government,
abusing it, bleeding it dry,
weaponizing the government
against itself.

Like a curse.
I'll name it.
CURS:
Chronic Under-Representation Syndrome.
The curse this country was ostensibly founded
to get beyond,
the curse our forefathers
came here to get away from,
the curse of which so many have tried
with marches and movements and music and more
to break the spell.

We must break the spell.

Shellen Lubin
April 20, 2026

13 Apr, 2026 - #RecoveryPeriod

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 UTC

RECOVERY PERIOD

"If you desire healing
let yourself fall ill."
Rumi

"The medicine is already within the pain and suffering. You just have to look deeply and quietly."
Thomas Hubl

I actually haven't been sick this last week, and yet ...

the body has been depleted.

In between the minimum things I've gotten myself to do,

all I want to do is rest.

And I've been trying to give myself over to that.

Because I know.

I've learned.

If I don't give myself over to retreat, reflection, and recovery the second I feel that first tickle or burn or hint of some kind that something nefarious is there to tackle me and take me down, inhabit me and own me, it will revolt and take me over completely, for far longer than I'm inclined to allow it.

Not everything is healed by rest, but most require moments of retreat and reflection in order to begin recovery.

I am in a period of retreat, reflection,
and 65279;recovery.

Shellen Lubin
April 13, 2026