Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Wisdom from The Secret Life of Bees




How come if your favorite color is blue, you painted your house so pink?”


She laughed. “That was May’s (the speaker’s sister) doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the color. I had a nice tan color in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, ‘Well, this is the tackiest color I’ve ever seen, and we’ll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May’s heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it.’”


“All this time I just figured you liked pink,” I said.


She laughed again. “You know, some things don’t matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart- now that matters. The whole problem with people is-”


“They don’t know what matters and what doesn’t,” I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.


“I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don’t choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”

Have you ever given into another person on a big issue? Was it the right thing to do, or did it harm you in some way?

What do you know that is true in the deepest part of your soul?

What really matters?

Is it really the hardest thing on earth to choose what matters?

Does your own will get in the way of relationships?

2 comments:

Kate said...

My will does not normally get in the way of relationships. I am very sensetive to this. And I have given in to another person on a big issue, and one time it was the oh so right thing to do, and the other time it was the oh so wrong thing to do. I am very interested in reading this book now. Thanks for sharing it.
Also, my man bought the Preparing for Adolescent CD's from Focus and they were AWESOME. He took our oldest on a weekend in the GA mountains hiking and they listened to the cd's on the way there, in the hotel at night, and had many long talks that incorporated the cds. I HIGHLY recommend them. I am so glad to hear your man wants to use them and do something like that with your son. It will have a lasting impression. :)

truevyne said...

I'm not finished with the book yet, but I love it so far.
And I do hope Preparing for Adolesence does have long term effects.