#Openness

Keeping the Soul Open to Experience

Emily Dickinson’s image of the soul standing “ajar” transforms inner life into a threshold rather than a fortress. Instead of sealing ourselves against surprise, she suggests that wisdom begins with a kind of deliberate...

True Joy Grows When the Self Opens

Desmond Tutu begins with a striking image: the self as a little shell, enclosed and protected yet ultimately cramped. In that metaphor, he suggests that a life organized entirely around private comfort and self-concern m...

Open Hands Shape How the World Meets You

Toni Morrison’s line sounds gentle, yet it carries a bracing claim: the way you hold yourself teaches the world how to approach you. “Open your hands” evokes release—of tight control, fear, and the reflex to clutch what...

Questions Break Limits, Opening New Possibilities

In “Question limits loudly until they answer with openings,” bell hooks compresses an entire practice of liberation into one sentence: identify a boundary, challenge it audibly, and keep pressing until something gives wa...

Turning Every Empty Space Into a Doorway

Rumi’s line, “Make the blank space a doorway, not a wall,” urges a radical shift in how we interpret emptiness and interruption. What first appears as a dead end—a pause in conversation, a failed plan, a season of uncert...

Openness Is the First Step to Growth - Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama)

This quote highlights that being open to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences is essential for personal and intellectual growth. Growth begins when we are willing to listen, learn, and accept change.

The Mind Is Like a Parachute: It Doesn’t Work If It Is Not Open – Frank Zappa

This quote emphasizes that for the mind to function effectively and to its full potential, it must remain open to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences, just as a parachute can only fulfill its purpose when open.