Living into Focus Quotes

“Philo of Alexandria: “Be compassionate, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“increased Internet usage resulted in some loss of close friendships.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“First, initiate new habits with determined commitment. Second, do not allow exceptions to habits until the habits are firmly established. Third, never hesitate to practice the habit that you have chosen. Fourth, do small things every day to remind you of this habit’s priority.[262]”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“live differently and deliberately need circles of like-minded folks who reinforce in us the priorities we want to honor.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Parker Palmer notes that the next stage of social movements happens when like-minded people rely on one another.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Jacques Ellul wrote, “Once you have acquired a certain knowledge and experience, you must walk alone.”[254] Parker Palmer argues”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Professing a desire to live differently while denying the ability to do so is troubling.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“There is no place I would rather be. There is nothing I would rather do. There is no one I would rather be with. This I will remember well.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“fourth reason we settle for devices and practices that are ultimately unsatisfying is because so often we are just too tired to do otherwise.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“But technology “imperceptibly moved to colonize the center of life.”[245]”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“All you need to do is sit still, listen, go to the woods, pay attention, walk, slow down.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“crucial difference between reality and virtual experience is that the latter is at the consumer’s control and disposal.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“deep need for the natural is not satisfied by virtual or technological substitutes.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Avoid technology. Connect with loved ones. Nurture your health. Get outside. Avoid commerce. Light candles. Drink wine. Eat bread. Find silence. Give back.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Child,” she said again, “can’t take shortcuts if you want friends in this world. Shortcuts don’t mix with love.”[172]”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“based on shared responsibilities, shared difficulties, and shared experience . . . are superficial and unsatisfactory.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Learning to wait and be patient is a spiritual discipline.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“technology and how it affects awareness, there are three areas of concern. First, it often decreases capacity to pay attention, to dwell. Second, the quantity of information and stimulation it delivers can overwhelm and thus interfere with our ability to respond. And, third, it teaches us to expect to be in control of what we think is worth noticing or heeding.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“We have allowed our technology to outrun our theology.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“describes technology as “modification of the natural world.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“to pay attention to the deepest thing [I]”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Some churches practice “virtual baptism”—pastors Skyping to a candidate who dunks him or herself in a bathtub.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Focal practices root us widely.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Etiquette reminds us of the eminent worth of a meal as an end in itself, a focus, a focal practice.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“exploring one focal practice often led to speaking about many others.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“putting focal practices and focal things at the center of our lives—making them focal priorities”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Focal practices do not predictably produce foreseeable results. Yet unforeseen and unanticipated developments are crucial.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“Intriguingly, the skills demanded and the energy expended in focal activities increase enjoyment of those activities.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“We end up serving our gadgets instead of using them as tools to support our priorities.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

“When we allow devices and machines to reside at the center of our lives, we displace values and practices that once enriched the quality of how we live.”
― Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions