Know where you are going...

Know where you are going but remain flexible about how to get there.

--- Anne Firth Murray (from Paradigm Found)---

One of the most sincere, original, and compassionate people I have met through my day job is the one and only, Anne Firth Murray.  She is absolutely dedicated to the ideas of social justice, gender equality, and peace.  Anne has been such a pleasure to work with and I feel blessed to have met her, heard her stories, seen her sincere interest in inspiring college students to care and do something about international women's health and human rights.  This quote is directly from one of Anne's action steps that she outlines in her book Paradigm Found, which not only illustrates her journey in creating the Global Fund for Women, but also shares practical advice for how to make a difference from wherever you are in your journey.  It's such great advice to take to heart - as so often we try and predict what will happen in life and take calculated steps to get us to our desired outcomes, but so often the road looks a lot different than we originally anticipate.  When we are open on the journey, we will see things and experience things that we could not have imagined any better.  Thanks Anne for your inspiration over the years!

To IMAGINE is everything...

To know is nothing at all, to imagine is everything.

--- Anatole France Thibault ---

This was the first SPOP quote that I encountered as a staffer at UCI (forest green year).  It set the tone for our spring training and subsequent work in the summer.  Seeing the quote printed on every piece of material, wearing t-shirts with the quote on the back, and hearing it spoken by the coordinators of the program became a tradition to me that ingrained the power of words and understanding.  I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on imagination as a creativity-lover and one who practices 'dreaming' up new ideas.  Coming back to this quote, with a number of years more experience :), and a different understanding of how things work in the world, it is wonderful to see how some of the pieces of our lives in the past fit perfectly together.  I love this quote for what it meant to me back then, and what it now reminds me to see as an educator and life-long learner.