Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.
The internet is full of articles promising to change your life. They play to our anxieties about constant improvement. I may not know you, but if there is one thing I could pass on that is: You are complete as you are.
How do I know this? I live in a community where we count our struggles as blessings. Pittsburgh is often misrepresented as having 90 neighborhoods. In fact, there are 91 when you include one of its most famous one – Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
If there is anyone who knows how to manage fears and feelings, it was Fred Rogers. Here are thirteen quotes from Mister Rogers to Remind You to Appreciate Life.
Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past.
We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered February 19th, 1968 and would span 31 seasons nd 895 episodes until 2001. Fred Rogers welcomed everyone to explore the world around us and explore our inner feelings. Angry. Hurt. Happy. Sad. He invited us to approach difficult subjects and speak honestly when we did.
Development comes from within. Nature does not hurry but advances slowly.
5. Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.
6. The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have but what we do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and give everything away.
Real strength has to do with helping others.
8. Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.
There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus to our growth.
10. In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.
11. The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.
I’m proud of you for the times you came in seconds, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you had ever done.
13. Often out of periods of losing come the greatest striving toward a new inning streak.
For more quotes from Fred Rogers, I’d recommend these books:
- The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
- Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers
- Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way
If you’re looking to stay home and watch a movie, watch one on our neighbor:
Lastly, I’ll leave you with this:
You are a very special person. There is only one like you in the whole world. There’s never been anyone exactly like you before and there never will be again. Only you. And people can like you exactly as you are. – Fred Rogers.
Special thanks to Fred Rogers Productions, Heinz History Center, Bill Isler, and others for their assistance.