Reblogged from BigMouthedWoman

In fact, the ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms, not to mention the further and more fulfilling gift of getting again all over again — never resting upon the oars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment, but getting renewed and revived by some further transformation.

Getting started, keeping going, getting started again — in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others."
~ Seamus Heaney | excerpt from his commencement ceremony speech at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | May 12, 1996

Re-blogged from BigMouthedWoman at Tumblr.