Whole with joy w/Bell Hooks
“Author and cultural critic bell hooks poses for a portrait on Dec. 16, 1996, in New York City.”
In June 2020, a client of mine expressed her deep appreciation for Bell Hooks' book “All About Love: New Visions.” This piqued my curiosity, and I wanted to understand why she felt so profoundly moved by this work. I’m grateful that I pursued this curiosity and chose to read “All About Love,” as it has been transformative for me, resonating with the deep longings of my heart. Having always been captivated by the concept of love, I struggled with knowing how to truly embody it. I could go into the many reasons & theories of why this is, but I think it is safe to say that like many others, I am finding my way in learning how to create love and to do my part in cultivating a culture of love and belonging. I appreciate Bell Hooks’ dedication and passion in “All About Love: New Visions,” which inspires and informs the principles I integrate into my work, focused on collective healing and wholeness. I have read some of her work in “Salvation: Black People and Love,” “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love,” “Yearning.” and was recently introduced to her work “Sisters of the Yam'' which I look forward to diving into. In honor of her birthday month during this Libra season, I am sharing some of my favorite quotes from Bell Hooks, hoping to inspire others toward love, liberation, and joy.
Whole with joy w/Bell Hooks:
"Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion." ~bell hooks
“I don't think you can hate anything that you know intimately. There is no fine line separating love from hate because there's a deep chasm separating love from hate.”~bell hooks
“Once you do away with the idea of people as fixed, static entities, then you see that people can change, and there is hope.” ~bell hooks
“If I were really asked to define myself, I wouldn’t start with race; I wouldn’t start with blackness; I wouldn’t start with gender; I wouldn’t start with feminism. I would start with stripping down to what fundamentally informs my life, which is that I’m a seeker on the path. I think of feminism, and I think of anti-racist struggles as part of it. But where I stand spiritually is, steadfastly, on a path about love.” ~bell hooks
“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust.” ~bell hooks
“But love is really more of an interactive process. It's about what we do not just what we feel. It's a verb, not a noun.” ~bell hooks
“The practice of love is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination.” ~bell hooks
“When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.” ~bell hooks
“It’s in the act of having to do things that you don’t want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.” ~bell hooks
“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” ~bell hooks
In an ideal world, we would all learn in childhood to love ourselves. We would grow, being secure in our worth and value, spreading love wherever we went, letting our light shine. If we did not learn self-love in our youth, there is still hope.” ~bell hooks
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?” ~bell hooks
“What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.” ~bell hooks
“True resistance begins with people confronting pain… and wanting to do something to change it.” ~bell hooks