Category: Martha N. Beck

It reminds me that we are born innocent but ignorant, and that to remedy the second of these conditions we inevitably surrender the first.

It is a frightening thing to love someone you know the world rejects.

…he is constantly reminding me that real magic doesn’t come from achieving the perfect appearance, from being Cinderella at the ball with both glass slippers and a killer hairstyle. The real magic is in the pumpkin, in the mice, in the moonlight; not beyond ordinary life, but within it.

It comes from looking at the heart of things, from stopping to smell not only the roses but the bushes as well. It is a quality of attention to ordinary life that is so loving and intimate it is almost worship.

My real feeling, the one I couldn’t articulate yet, was that my entire life hinged on knowing that there were people who would continue to love me unconditionally, even if I were damaged, even if I were sick. Such love was the only thing that had sustained me during the turmoil of the past months. If I eliminated my child because of his disability, if I put him out of my life, I would be violating the only thing that was keeping me alive.

You’ll never be hurt as much by being open as you have been remaining closed.

They decided to allow their baby to be born. What they did not realize is that they themselves were the ones who would be ‘born,’ infants in a new world where magic is commonplace, Harvard professors are the slow learners, and retarded babies are the master teachers.