TTerri
(discussing his kidney donation with Cash) Besides, I've had it with the volunteering. I'll do the kidney thing and be done with this karmic-payback crap in one fell swoop.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
It is rare to get the chance to actually save someone's life. For most of us, our days are filled with a series of smaller gestures... like a place to lay your head or a beer for a thirsty friend. Then there are times when life calls for a bigger gift, whether you give a fresh start to yourself or a second chance to someone else. But, at the end of the day, perhaps it is our small gestures that will add up to something big... to a life saved or at least a life bettered. Because sometimes the grandest gestures can be the smallest one of all.
Hey, Elmo. Patrick and I were just discussing movie magic. There's just something about sitting down in a dark theater that lets you escape the reality of your own life and live in the fantasy of someone else's story but what if the cameras were turned on you? In the movie of your life, do you like what you see?
IIvan
(to Annie) You remind me of my country. Beautiful face, but with a complicated history.
We all love to lose ourselves in a good movie. When I was a girl, I loved The Wizard of Oz. Especially the moment when Dorothy opens the door into that fantastic world. But once Dorothy appreciated how bright and beautiful everything was, she realized she had a bit of a mess on her hands. One of the classic examples of "Be careful what you wish for." Spend five minutes in a fantasy and you might just find yourself wish for your old life back. We miss what's right in front of us when we're busy looking over the rainbow. But sometimes it takes stepping into someone else's world to realize how much you love the life you have. Because no matter how magical the movies are, there is no place like home.
Travel is good for the soul. It opens your eyes. Takes your mind and body to new places. But what about the people who stay behind. How can we trust that you won't be seduced by these new sights and sounds. If you set something you love free, can you really trust that it will come back to you?
Humans are born with the desire to roam the earth. We crawl, then walk, then run, all in an effort to move further away from where they came from... home. I know firsthand the thrill of what changing one's surroundings can do for one's heart, and now I also know that sometimes staying home and letting others go can be its own fantastic journey. Because when you let go of something, you make room for something else entirely, something you never expected, something that makes "home" seem like its own unexpected adventure... A trip where new treasures are found around every old corner, for the world and all its complexities come right to your doorstep. Because, in the end, the power is not just with those who go away, but also in what they leave behind.
The humpback whale generally doesn't stay in long-term relationships. I know, it's like a typical guy... gets action and then moves on.
Opening your door to someone is, in many ways, a lot like opening your heart. It's not always easy. Some of us aren't used to opening up. It can hurt. But we do what we can for our guests. We try to be hospitable, giving them whatever they desire. Sometimes, all you can do is help them feel better while they wait to return home. And soon enough, the guest is gone, leaving us to move the couch, do the laundry, go back to our lives as usual, if that's possible.
It seems that everyone is taking in a guest these days. It's a tricky thing, sharing your space whether by choice or circumstance. We all want to bend over backwards to make our guest feel at home but what happens when our home stops being our own? How do you find space for yourself? You tell me, Elmo, is it possible to let someone in and still keep your distance?
The mind is a funny thing. It's the place from which everything emanates yet no one can access anyone else's which means we've got to communicate. With animals, we use only the most straightforward language…but, between one another, things quickly get complicated. What we say is not always what we mean. And, at times, we have to fight through mixed messages or start all over again. But, no matter how hard it is and how often we feel misunderstood, it is our responsibility to keep fighting for clarity because, in the end, we teach people how to treat us, which means the responsibility to communicate lies not on the shoulders of others but on ourselves.
Hey Elmo! Annie and I were talking about matters of the heart. We all have emotional boundaries that we set for ourselves but, all too often, we cross them. With authority and repetition, we can train animals to think and act a certain way. What about when it comes to ourselves? Can we train our emotions to sit and stay?
There's an old saying, "What you don't know can't hurt you." But is that really true? Or can the things not said today haunt you tomorrow? Everyone knows the truth can be painful. But it can also set you free. It's a risk you take whenever you open yourself up to someone. I, for one, think that honesty is worth it. And who knows? You just might be pleasantly surprised.
Hey, Elmo! Before we get started today, I want to wish a warm "welcome home" to Patrick. A lot has happened since he left. We all know how unsettling change can sometimes be, especially when we learn something about a person we don't want to know. Can knowing too much be a deal breaker? What do you think, Elmo? In a relationship, is it better to be an open book or is something better left unread?
We are the daughters of the feminist movement, taught from an early age that nothing can stop us, that we can rise as high and achieve as much as any man. And in some ways that's true. We have taken great strides, stepping over traditional gender roles, and going after and getting exactly what we want but part of being powerful is knowing when to take the backseat and look at life from another perspective. Because the thing is, in a relationship, there is no C.E.O. It's a delicate dance, a push and pull, a back and forth, an up and down. But we endure because, at the end of the day, we don't want to go it alone and, when we find someone, a partner, we compromise, loving everything we can and putting blinders onto everything else because love isn't perfect. But it's the really great and perfect love that keeps us evolving, happy. And, in the end, isn't that what life is all about?
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Men in Trees pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.