Il Bel Centro Quotes

“There is a passage in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where the main character, Francie, talks about when her diet of stale bread and potatoes begins to feel flat, she takes her allowance and buys a pickle. She works on that pickle all day, and relishes its sourness. Then the bread and potatoes taste good again. This Thanksgiving is our pickle. It has shaken our frame for Thanksgiving, what it means, how to think about it, and how to celebrate it. We had to let go of some things we always do, and in doing so, the things we’ve kept felt all the more special.”
― Michelle Damiani, Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center

“I need to remind myself that every time I choose what is easy—checking a website instead of reading, eating leftover Halloween candy instead of reheating soup, putting a movie on for the kids instead of pursuing a common interest, sending Keith to the store so I don’t have to deal with it—I am denying myself an opportunity to stretch, to feel, to deepen.”
― Michelle Damiani, Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center

“Over dinner, he elaborates that while he’ll certainly miss specific people, what he’ll really miss is a culture that values interaction. I think about how people here live modestly, in houses that have been in families for generations. They drive beat-up cars. They work jobs that provide for basic necessities— gardener, barista, baker, without feeling the need to do more, have more, or be more. Instead of striving for more, they relax into what they have. Time.”
― Michelle Damiani, Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center

“Angelo reminds me that our country is a young one. And yet, in the space of just over 200 years, we’ve become a superpower. Drive and determination and grit propelled our relatively young country onto the world stage. Which is terrific. Complimenti. And now, those qualities that made our country great— relentless energy, productivity, force— are the ones that are prized. Angelo’s conclusion is that as Americans age and their energy fades, and they move from a place of powerful execution to softened reflection, they are dismissed as irrelevant.”
― Michelle Damiani, Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center

“may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
― Michelle Damiani, Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center