If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
TUTU DESMONDIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
TUTU DESMONDWe are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.
TUTU DESMONDForgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.
TUTU DESMONDForgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you dont want to repeat what happened.
TUTU DESMONDLife is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life.
TUTU DESMONDDiscovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.
TUTU DESMONDLanguage is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.
TUTU DESMONDWe are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know.
TUTU DESMONDIf you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people.
TUTU DESMONDA very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict.
TUTU DESMONDDear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end.
TUTU DESMONDIn the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.
TUTU DESMONDTo protect our children, we must talk to them about rape.
TUTU DESMONDWe need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are. A person is entitled to a stable community life, and the first of these communities is the family.
TUTU DESMONDDear Child of God, I am sorry to say that suffering is not optional.
TUTU DESMONDWhen we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
TUTU DESMOND