Jacob Nordby Quotes

Blessed are the weird people: poets, misfits, writersmystics, painters, troubadoursfor they teach us to see the world through different eyes.

~ Jacob Nordby

Like the body craves oxygen, the mind is desperate for certainty. It believes that without a safe foothold on reality, it will die.But the fascinating thing is that the illusion of certainty is exactly the opposite of safety because it hardens and narrows the vision to make everything fit its own scope. Then when new information arrives which would be its ally, the mind pushes it away in favor of the leaky life raft to which it clings, sinking all the while beneath the waves of change.In fact, the only antidote for this is to embrace 'I don’t know' so deeply that a powerful, dynamic safety emerges. This is like learning to surf so well that a tsunami wave shows up as a challenge to test our mastery.

~ Jacob Nordby

We keep waiting to be crowned,Waiting for the world to judge us worthy of offering our brightest, most empowered and beautiful stuff. But that won’t happen. Your next certification or ordination or degree will do nothing for your expression in the world until you accept how unspeakably worthy and valuable you already are to be here and share yourself with us.

~ Jacob Nordby

The soul of us is never confused about why it is here.It only asks us to wake up and see the breadcrumb clues it has been leaving all along.It asks us to have courage to face the wounds we have been hiding, allow it to heal them and untangle the heavy, snarled patterns.Because the soul of us has no doubt whatever that it can and, if we allow it to express fully, can live a life of such power and joy through us that our human selves will be astonished.

~ Jacob Nordby

Life loves to reveal herself to the raw, courageous doubters; to those who are willing to live inside the question.

~ Jacob Nordby

You can’t know this right now, but…your ragged, rugged honesty…your crazy, passionate, naked vulnerability…your trusting plunge into the unknown of Life at every turn…your journey of love and healing…these change your world, the world of those around you and the world as a whole.Someday you’ll know how important you are.

~ Jacob Nordby

Every pain, addiction, anguish, longing, depression, anger or fearis an orphaned part of usseeking joy, some disowned shadow wanting to returnto the lightand homeof ourselves.

~ Jacob Nordby

There is no greater moment in life than that when we discover the unique design which has shaped our lives from the moment of birth, save one:The instant we recognize destiny, accept it and then begin to create the rest of our own lives within it using the power of free will.When this threshold has been crossed, nothing can stop our inevitable journey into the highest good for ourselves and all around us.This is healing.This is actualization.This is integration.This is joy.And it is the birthright of every incarnated soul on this planet.

~ Jacob Nordby

Among the greatest tragedies is a person who believes that they aren't meant to win--by winning I mean find their purpose, passion and joy in life.They believe that other people have better DNA or happiness genes or something, but that they themselves are missing a critical chromosome.This is a lie and it is begging to be un-believed.For the moment we know the truth about ourselves, we can take both responsibility for our own lives and inspired action to create exactly the life which is our birthright.In other words, you were meant to win. You were created for joy.

~ Jacob Nordby

Living is art.Breathing and heart beating is music.Seeing is painting the world with our eyes.Touching is sculpting the shape of everything.Life is the most intense art of all.

~ Jacob Nordby

What do you really want?Did you know that every single one of your desires is an expression of your soul's longing to experience human life as you? It's true.These pure impulses get filtered through our conditioning and show up distorted at times, but follow them back to their source and nothing you desire is anything but good and possible.

~ Jacob Nordby

Writer's block is just another name for fear.

~ Jacob Nordby

With poetry and writing, the question isn’t “do you know the right words?”.The real question is, “can you make words from the unwordable, chisel blocks of raw silence into shapes and touch our souls?

~ Jacob Nordby

We are doing the most important possible work in the world when we open the door and reveal our creative nature. It is the work of the Universe itself.

~ Jacob Nordby

Life is an endless attempt to word the unwordable, to make what cannot be touched walk on the ground, to embody what can never be fit inside a single lifetime. We see reflections of ourselves in sunrises, hear our perfection in thunderstorms and babies' laughter--touch, taste and feel--and then try to somehow remember all of that while taking out the trash, paying bills and a million other ways we have invented to forget.We weave together within ourselves mud and spirit, shadow and light, animal and angel.No wonder humans feel crazy most of the time.But you aren't crazy. You are doing a heroic thing by being here as yourself.

~ Jacob Nordby

We wait, starving for moments of high magic to inspire us, but life is full of common enchantment waiting for our alchemists eyes to notice.

~ Jacob Nordby

There are no self made heroes or leaders. No matter how rugged or self assured, everyone requires a cast of players - friends, mentors, lovers, critics, villains and supporters - who call, invite, seduce, goad and encourage them to finally step into their true power. We are all heroes and leaders in some way, and we all need each other.

~ Jacob Nordby

If you could possibly understand how precious and powerful your experience of this one lifetime as yourself is, you wouldn't be trying to go anywhere else.If you could know the perfection of time and space,You would slow each moment downTo drain every possible nuance of juice and flavor from it.When you leave this place, your body and mind and the earth which holds you, you will look back and only wish you had known the immense richness that you hurried through trying to find other better states of being.But this is the best bite.Heaven is here.Nirvana is now.As soon as you know that for sureYour life will never be the same again.In fact, in every way it seeks to get your attention. begs you to awaken to the magic right before your eyes.

~ Jacob Nordby

I have come to differentiate not at all between what is spiritual and the rest of life. There is only Life, all of it is good and the more I am aware of this in every moment, the more my spirit comes alive.

~ Jacob Nordby

The great mission of our day is not conquering the sea or space, disease or tyranny. The grand quest which calls to the hero in every one of us is to become fully alive--to stand up and claim our birthright, which is inner freedom, love and radiant purpose. By fulfilling this, we transform the world.

~ Jacob Nordby

Come, come into this circle of grace and friendship.Come bringing only your open heart.You owe us nothing but truth, you need no heavy armor here.Show us your beautiful scars, the evidence of adventures you’ve survived.Tell your stories from the road.This space is home.You are safe to come as you are without fear.

~ Jacob Nordby

The art of living is to fall in love over and over again.It is no easy thing to walk through the world with an open heart, embracing everything, and also stand true, allowing no poison to infect us.But be cracked open often.Pour yourself into life withholding nothing. Heal and be healed. This is the way of living in full.

~ Jacob Nordby

Let Life race you out beyond your own boundaries over and over again until you are comfortable with watching the Map of Normal's edge disappear behind you.Let Life show you that it is safe to exceed your own expectations and reputation--and prove that the only danger in following her into the wilderness is a loss of your own fear.This is when we gain the warrior's heart, the master's eye, and the student's mind. After that, Life holds our hand in every adventure and shows us things not possible before.

~ Jacob Nordby

False humility is a form of psychosis which was imprinted on most of us since birth. It is a mental illness because it locks us in a victim state of keeping our light turned down, denying who we really are and silently begging for permission to simply show up as ourselves in the world. But there is good news. This is a jail whose lock is broken. We can walk free whenever we know the truth, and by so doing we show others an example of an end to madness. An example of freedom.

~ Jacob Nordby

I don't analyze beautiful. I sit in its presence and love the wholeness of it--the sweet and sad and raw and bright together.Poetry is that, the weaving of light-shadow. Making words from the unwordable.

~ Jacob Nordby

We are, all of us, always only one breath or softening of our thought away from an invasion of divine wonder and fresh miracles. Soul waits for any small opening of our hearts to steal into everyday life.

~ Jacob Nordby

The master in us all lives behind the masks and roles and wounds and beliefs. It calls us to live deep, full, radical lives. It asks us not to wait until we are told by anyone that we have arrived. It invites us forward, across the line of fear and unworthiness, to experience mastery in this moment--as much as we can right now. To learn from stumbling. To rise again and keep walking until we no longer notice our feet in their effortless dance. But mostly not to wait until some distant, perfect someday. Mastery is now.

~ Jacob Nordby

To reclaim our natural power and this birthright of real magic, we must get naked and face ourselves.The truth of Who You Really Are is vast. It is genius. It crackles with electricity and sensuality and other forbidden, dangerous things. You have longed for it all your life. You catch glimpses of it from the corner of your eye. A riff of music reminds you, a surge of ecstasy during sex brings you home, a crisp Autumn wind carries some long forgotten scent which thrills you for inexplicable reasons. A thousand tiny hints show up to seduce you awake and lead you back into your true nature, but they flee when you try to grasp them and leave you wondering if you were just imagining things. You weren’t though. This quality of richness and balance and home is Who You Really Are. That is the kingdom we seek and it waits for us to find it. It wants us to regain our rightful place.

~ Jacob Nordby

You know that crazy heart of yours? The one with lightning crackling and moonlight shining through it. The one you’ve been told not to trust because it often led you off the beaten path. The one so many have misunderstood your entire life. Trust it. Feed it. Grow it. It’s your greatest treasure and will point the way to your highest destiny. It is the voice of your soul.

~ Jacob Nordby

Dare to dream again.For dreaming is the language of your soul,And nothing your soul truly desires could ever be wrong or impossible.

~ Jacob Nordby

It's a funny thing, how it works...The moment we stop trying so hard to be someone, we become ourselves--only what was there all along, waiting and peeking out from behind all the masks we wore.And when this happens, we discover that Who We Really Are is much greater than anything we might have pretended or even hoped to be.

~ Jacob Nordby

Your enormous soul had so many choices of who it could show up as. It chose you.

~ Jacob Nordby

When in brief flashes of serendipity you glimpse what you were born to do... Do it. No matter what. Take steps toward it, even if they are depressingly small at first. With each inch closer to your central magic, you will feel it. It is unmistakable for anything else. It's called purpose.

~ Jacob Nordby