Egos Anonymous Reflections — Egos Anonymous

"Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole." —Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving We tend to experien

Wendy Etter 4/30/26 Wendy Etter 4/30/26

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"So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here." —Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy Revenge, in this sense, can describe any closed loop—the resentment we return t

Wendy Etter 4/29/26 Wendy Etter 4/29/26

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"I am rooted, but I flow." —Virginia Woolf, The Waves To be rooted suggests a ground that holds—something beneath the surface that doesn't shift with every mood or circumstance. Many of us have spent years looking for that steadi

Wendy Etter 4/28/26 Wendy Etter 4/28/26

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"Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things." —Epictetus, Enchiridion The ego tends to experience events and interpretations of events as the same thing. Something happens, and the stor

Wendy Etter 4/27/26 Wendy Etter 4/27/26

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"There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never stops pulling at us." —Gerald May, Will and Spirit Much of our eff

Wendy Etter 4/26/26 Wendy Etter 4/26/26

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"Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams." —Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Love as an idea can be quite comfortable. In the abstract, we are generous, patient, understanding. It is the a

Wendy Etter 4/25/26 Wendy Etter 4/25/26

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"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach." —Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times Self-will can

Wendy Etter 4/24/26 Wendy Etter 4/24/26

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"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" —C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves Self-protection often works by convincing us that our particular confusion, fear, or

Wendy Etter 4/23/26 Wendy Etter 4/23/26

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"Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." —Iris Murdoch, The Sublime and the Good Self-will tends to center everything around the self—its needs, its story, its version of events. Ot

Wendy Etter 4/22/26 Wendy Etter 4/22/26

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"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." —Blaise Pascal, Pensées Pascal wrote this in the seventeenth century, long before there was anything else to look at. The observation may feel

Wendy Etter 4/21/26 Wendy Etter 4/21/26

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"We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." —T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets The ego tends to experience the inner life as progress

Wendy Etter 4/20/26 Wendy Etter 4/20/26

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"I am large, I contain multitudes." —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Leaves of Grass Self-will often wants consistency—a stable, coherent self that knows what it thinks, feels, and wants. When we contradict ourselves, hold two feel

Wendy Etter 4/19/26 Wendy Etter 4/19/26

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"All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful." —Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners This is not a comfortable observation. We tend to imagine that we would welcome grace—that if s

Wendy Etter 4/18/26 Wendy Etter 4/18/26

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"All flourishing is mutual." —Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass Much of our effort can rest on the assumption that flourishing is individual—something we achieve through the right decisions, the right effort, the right amoun

Wendy Etter 4/17/26 Wendy Etter 4/17/26

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"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked." —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet We often try to hold joy and sorrow as separate experiences—one to pursue, one to avoid. Self-will can spend considerable energy trying to secure more of the first a

Wendy Etter 4/16/26 Wendy Etter 4/16/26

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"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God." —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together There is a version of the day that goes according to plan. We know what we intend to do, who we expect to encounter, what we hope

Wendy Etter 4/15/26 Wendy Etter 4/15/26

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"The important thing is not to think much but to love much; and so do that which best stirs you to love." —Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle For many of us, the interior life has become another project to manage—something to a

Wendy Etter 4/14/26 Wendy Etter 4/14/26

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"The ineffable inhabits the magnificent and the common, the grandiose and the tiny facts of reality alike." —Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone Self-will tends to sort things into categories—important and unimportant, sacre

Wendy Etter 4/13/26 Wendy Etter 4/13/26

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"I said to the almond tree, 'Speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed." — Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco The response in this image is not words. It is not explanation or argument. The tree simply does what it does—an

Wendy Etter 4/12/26 Wendy Etter 4/12/26

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"There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change." — William Stafford, The Way It Is The rest of this poem describes how others may not see the thread, and how explaining it is beside the poi

Wendy Etter 4/11/26 Wendy Etter 4/11/26

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