Lunchbox Quotes

As Alana already mentioned in her “Hi, and Welcome!” post, the women of this blog like quotes. Our mom has been writing down sayings that move and motivate her probably her whole life, and she has passed this love of all things quotable down to us, her daughters. My mom started putting quotes in our lunchboxes when I was in elementary school and Alana was in middle school. I don’t know what prompted or inspired this, but it soon became an institution, something I would look forward to every day when I sat down for lunch. Sometimes, the quotes weren’t just for lunchtime, they were to get us through particularly trying days as well. I distinctly remember having a note for every hour of the school day on my first day of 5th grade, as it was the first year that I was not in the same class as my best friend Jordan, and needed all the help my little 11-year-old self could get. Opening those quotes that day (which were, if I remember correctly, more along the lines of “You can do it!” than “Gandhi once said…”) every hour, on the hour, is something I won’t quickly forget.

So, for about 10 years now, my sister and I (and our brother, too) have been graced with adorable, funny, touching, beautiful, poignant, and wise sayings (almost!) every single day. I am so thankful for this, really, as the Lunchbox Quotes have been a constant, enduring presence in my life for so long. They've got me researching their authors, had me laugh out loud, influenced my love of literature and my sense of humor, caused me to record my favorite ones and put them up on my dorm walls, and have always made me think.

Since Alana and I are out of the house now the quotes have morphed from lunchbox to mailbox as our mom sends them to us via e-mail. The quotes have not, however, lost their name, and with that in mind I bring your our blog’s first Lunchbox Quote, which is one of my personal favorites:

“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
For how long will you continue to listen to those dark shouters,
caution and prudence?
Fall in! Fall in!”
--Mary Oliver, excerpt from Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?