{"author":"Christopher Hawke","author_id":"Christopher+Hawke","total_quotes":24,"quotes":[{"text":"Jesus was stoned, but no rock hit him. He slipped into the crowd and was found later teaching on a hill somewhere. History tells us that he did nothing wrong, and we sacrificed him anyway. The day my father died, I assured him he was headed for heaven, though I had a hard time believing in something that floated so aimlessly through the minds of children. The concept seemed fair and unfair in such equal amounts that it appeared to cancel itself out. I’d never met someone so deserving of eternal bliss, yet from the time I was a child I was taught we all deserve hell. I wondered if heaven existed at all. But I wanted everlasting life to be real for the man who let me lie on his chest on a hammock in the backyard and taught me not to fear thunder. One of the many things my father taught me not to fear. His breaths were labored and aided by machines. He wore a white hospital gown. I remember thinking, “I can’t believe my father’s going to die in a gown.” “Are you afraid?” I asked.“Not at all,” he strained. “I’m going to be with the Lord.”I wished I shared his confidence. For him, it was a priceless thing no one could take. I wished the fear of death was like the fear of a passing storm cloud—something we outgrow with understanding. For men like my dad, I guess it was.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["death","everlasting","everlasting-life","fear","fear-of-death","heaven","history","jesus","lord","sacrifice"],"id":30143,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"I once held a belief that life made sense, that working toward a dream would birth substance. Nothing else mattered. I soon discovered that success is as long-lasting as any of life’s novelties. We’ve all been happy with new things, only to be disappointed later. Dolls and soldiers our parents toiled to give us found their way to pedestals, then to the back of closets. I’d always dreamed of marrying a woman I loved and watching my children grow. I wonder if our lives should be filled with the pursuit of such dreams, those magical hopes interwoven into our story. Our stories are decorative shells for the crabs we really are, both protecting and exposing us to the manic outside.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["dreams","hope","marriage","story","strories"],"id":34678,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"Beauty in the world is not always in the 'beautiful.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["beautiful","beauty"],"id":87370,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"There are casualties in war. Those who don’t make it back to a place of sound hopes and dreams. Some take on their demons alone. They are deceived into fearlessness and trampled by the hooves of their oppressor. Besides intervention, there is little justice for the thousands-upon-thousands hacked to pieces all around us. How dare we try to take life to the next level. Instead of merely protecting ourselves or scrounging up our next meal, we have the audacity to hope for something more—a witness for our lives who will survive alongside us.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["addiction","addictions","addicts","casualties","deception","dreams","fear","fearlessness","hope","hopes-and-dreams","intervention","survival","war","witness"],"id":125675,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"As a child, my mother told me not to talk to strangers. I did my best to obey. She hadn’t realized that everyone is a stranger to the part of us that makes us who we truly are. The part of us that prays for the rest in ways we cannot comprehend. In a sense, we are our own monsters, lying in wait under our own beds--our own angels and demons. The lives we lead will judge us. This is as natural as the sun rising and setting, something that happens whether or not we’re alive.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["demons-prayers","judgement","mother","mothers-monsters"],"id":125875,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"Life is a great big beautiful three-ring circus. There are those on the floor making their lives among the heads of lions and hoops of fire, and those in the stands, complacent and wowed, their mouths stuffed with popcorn. I know less now than ever about life, but I do know its size. Life is enormous. Much grander than what we’ve taken for ourselves, so far. When the show is over and the tent is packed, the elephants, lions and dancing poodles are caged and mounted on trucks to caravan to the next town. The clown’s makeup has worn, and his bright, red smile has been washed down a sink. All that is left is another performance, another tent and set of lights. We rest in the knowledge: the show must go on. Somewhere, behind our stage curtain, a still, small voice asks why we haven’t yet taken up juggling. My seminars were like this. Only, instead of flipping shiny, black bowling balls or roaring chainsaws through the air, I juggled concepts. The world is intrinsically tied together. All things march through time at different intervals but move ahead in one fashion or another. Though we may never understand it, we are all part of something much larger than ourselves—something anchoring us to the spot we have mentally chosen. We sniff out the rules, through spiritual quests and the sciences. And with every new discovery, we grow more confused. Our inability to connect what seems illogical to unite and to defy logic in our understanding keeps us from enlightenment. The artists and insane tiptoe around such insights, but lack the compassion to hand-feed these concepts to a blind world. The interconnectedness of all things is not simply a pet phrase. It is a big “T” truth that the wise spend their lives attempting to grasp.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["artists","circus","clown","clowns","concept","concepts","confusion","discovery","enlightenment","imagination","insane","insanity-interconnectedness","life","lions","logic","popcorn","understanding"],"id":128642,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"Hope starts as a promise made to yourself, the first drop of rain in a parched land, the first step onto dry earth for a shipwreck survivor. It is a listening crowd for a lonely heart.What we hope in must be greater than us; therefore, we will always need something greater than man to believe in. Good and evil may be a necessity to perceive our world, but hope is a prerequisite for life.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["good-and-evil","hope","survivor"],"id":149513,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"The earth is an orbiting speck in incomprehensible vastness. The histories of our civilizations, our accomplishments and secrets, great good and evil—these are no more significant than the single twinkle of a star. Perhaps, this is why we try to outshine the heavens with our cities and make theatrical events of our simple lives.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["acomplishment","civilization","earth","history","theatre"],"id":193918,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"The real world reveals itself like surprise gifts on our doorstep, special moments that seem above and beyond the reality of others. These times are full, beautiful and meaningful beyond words, even when wrapped in pain.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["beautiful","beauty","enlightenment","meaningful","moment","moments","pain","real","real-life","real-world","reality","world"],"id":194795,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"},{"text":"Sometimes you don't need to change what you're looking at only get a better view.","author":"Christopher Hawke","tags":["perception","perspective"],"id":211090,"author_id":"Christopher+Hawke"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":24,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}