Mother Teresa is an astonishing example of gratitude and love that single handedly changed a world often described as cruel and cold. Sometimes we, the writers, fall into the trap of struggle and forget the wonder, love and magic of writing. These seven Mother Teresa quotes are meant to open our eyes to what writing is. Writing is an expression of love. So let’s take Mother Teresa’s words to heart and bring childlike joy back to our universe word by word.
1. Intense love does not measure, it just gives.
Writing is a difficult career to choose. You know where you start, a modest journal or a simple blog. You write in your spare time, carve hours in the morning, stay awake just one more line… You know your hopes and dreams, sharing your words with the world. But you don’t know when or if your beloved stories will get to be presented to the public.
All you can do is write. Write with the same passion every day. Keep the fire burning and love your craft like you did the day you discovered your power. If you start measuring how much love you gave, how many hours you put in, love will fade away.
To keep the fire burning, all you can do is write. Write your laughter, write your tears and write your joy.
2. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
When writing, especially in the beginning, the goals tend to be gargantuan. Big novels that sell in millions of copies seem to be the only goal that deserves to be taken seriously. We tend to forget that Rome was not built in a day and a good writer does not emerge overnight. Also, building credibility and a large audience is a marathon, not a sprint.
Writing is a habit. It is made out of small daily steps that lead to greatness. Writing starts humble, with small articles and reviews. By doing well these small things we grow, we gain experience and we master the art of the written word.
3. We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Sometimes looking at the world is overwhelming. Seeing that our cultural contribution, our well researched pieces, might get lost in the sea of other works out there can cut our wings and stop our flow. But the only thing to do is to keep on going.
Mother Teresa was often confronted when it came to her life. She left her family to become a nun when she was only eighteen, because she was sure her contribution could change the world. She believed that she could make a difference and she did her best every day. She knew that changing the world was possible only by dripping your drop of hope every day. By not letting go and pushing through even when you feel sad, when you don’t see results or life seems unfair, you will eventually see the impact you want to make.
4. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
The nature of a writer’s work requires long periods of solitude. At first, we discover the magic of books, we are charmed by the new worlds we discover. Then we learn from books how to create our own magic. We need to be in our own world in order to focus and create. We build a shell that quiets the world so that we can listen to our soul and write it down word by word.
But life is also meant to be lived together. We learn our craft by meeting other writers, we get driven and courageous by standing on the shoulders of giants and we feel the taste of success when we meet the giants. As much as we need our shell to create, we need our friends to be inspired.
5. One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
This is a rather new temptation. When you begin, the attraction of internet popularity might shine a little too bright. The number of likes might get in the way of you expressing yourself.
The validation that comes from your audience is important, but if it stays in the way of your growth, it will slowly steal your gift. When you feel the need to explain yourself and preach every time a question arises, it is time to pause and rethink your strategy.
Mother Teresa has shown us that you cannot chase love, appreciation or peace. You can only be yourself and play your part. As a result, you will attract the right people: meaningful relationships that will boost your career, a public that is in love with the real you and the feeling of interior peace that comes when you are true to yourself.
6. I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
The only way to move forward is to love. Love your craft. Love your public. Love your team. When you are building yourself into the writer you want to become, destroying yourself and rebuilding for better, you will feel the excruciating pain of growth.
By falling in love with your path, you will have the energy to write better and more every day. When you love with all your heart, nothing is too difficult, everything can be done and you never feel tired. You only feel the passion, the fire that brightens your way to the top.
7. If you judge people you have no time to love them.
We saved the best for last. As we mentioned before, every writer needs a tribe, needs a muse and giants to guide the way. The temptation is to hide in the safety of the shell and judge every move and every word. By hiding from the world and judging from a distance, we lose our tribe. But most importantly, we lose our ability to bring people together and effectively communicate our ideas.
We write for one, we write the books we would have loved to read, but to do that, we need to be ourselves. How can you be yourself in a world of one? In a world with no new interactions and no new experiences? By respecting the rule of love we become more, we become better and we grow in every way.
In the end, the wise Mother Teresa quotes can be resumed in a single word. Love. Love with all your heart. Live as you would in a world where love is as present as air. Trust that love is all you need to become more, to become better and to stand tall in a world that seems so lonely, cruel and cold. Love your craft, love your giants, love your muse.
Image credit: Peter López on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Larisa.png[/author_image] [author_info]Larisa Elena Muntean is an experienced writer and editor specialized in self-publishing and internet presence. Larisa oversaw the publication of more than ten books, is the editor in chief of an environmental protection journal and has collaborated with a variety of blogs and magazines. [/author_info] [/author]