Quotes from Amy Hollingsworth

Our world needs more time to wonder and reflect but there is too much fast paced constant distraction. – Mister Rogers.

That's what we both wanted. To be read. To be asked. To have someone in our lives we couldn't fool.

Fred was patient with me in the years that followed our first meeting. He taught me that taking one's time, especially in relationships, allows the other person to know he or she is worth the time.

At last I had it: Fred's intense devotion to the disenfranchised, to the least of these, arose from the realization that he was one of them.

They will do their best to invalidate your story. If that doesn't work, they will tell you not to tell your story.

If you ever fall into quicksand, the most important thing to remember is this: take your time. Quicksand, unlike water, will not move out of the way to let you pass. Instead, it resists movement. Flailing about will only cause you to sink deeper. But slowly gets you safely to shore. It's no accident that each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood opens with a shot of a traffic light flashing in yellow caution mode.

There is one thing that evil cannot stand, and that's forgiveness.

If parents can remember what it was like to be a child, they are going to be much more empathic with their own children.

Fred rightly reasoned that if we accept ourselves we are better equipped to accept our neighbor.

the essence of prayer is relationship

An old supply pastor, many years before, had taught him that: What is offered in faith by one person can be translated by the Holy Spirit into what the other person needs to hear and see. The space between them is holy ground, and the Holy Spirit uses that space in ways that not only translate, but transcend.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.

My grandfather was supporting the things I was trying out. It's great to have people like that in your life, and I hope that, well, as a matter of fact, he was the one who said, "You've made this day a special day by just your being you, Freddy."...Well, I've been able to pass that on to other children.

And so, for me, being quiet and slow is being myself, and that is my gift.

For Fred, this practical outworking of loving our neighbor-using not only our heart and eyes but our hands-is what defined a hero: 'To see people who will notice a need in the world and do something about it, and rather than view it with despair they view it with hope-that to me is such an enormous gift in this life. Those are my heroes.

But he also fiercely guarded his time of quiet and reflection (as you will see in the following chapter), and he always, always took his time.

If we can learn to wait through the "natural silences" of life, he liked to say, we will be surprised by what awaits us on the other side.

Know this: You should judge every person by his merits. Even someone who seems completely wicked, you must search and find that little speck of good, for in that place, he is not wicked. By this you will raise him up, and help him return to God. And you must also do this for yourself, finding your own good points, one after the other, and raising yourself up. This is how melodies are made, note after note. REBBE NACHMAN OF BRESLOV

He taught me that taking one's time, especially in relationships, allows the other person to know he or she is worth the time.

Despite his strength, Jim lost his battle with cancer. Fred understood that sometimes God's answer to prayer is no. But he understood something else too: "Jim gave us all an enormous gift by helping us understand the many forms of healing (not just physical) in this life.

He appreciated and represented the intricacies of life and showed an appreciation for complex and conflicting feelings. He wasn't naïve; he knew that seeing the best in ourselves so that we can see the best in our neighbor—an act that translates into harmonious relationships—is only possible because of forgiveness.

He appreciated and represented the intricacies of life and showed an appreciation for complex and conflicting feelings.

Frankly, I think that after we die, we have this wide understanding of what's real. And we'll probably say, 'Ah, so that's what it was all about.' Fred Rogers

Let the little ones come to me and forbid them not," he told me, repeating Jesus' words, "because, boy, the kingdom of heaven is filled with little people, and that doesn't mean in size. That means people who are disenfranchised and know that they need God—that's who teaches us.