I have a meditation app on my phone that shares inspirational quotes with me after I meditate. (I’m trying to improve my relaxation and well being with more meditation in my life, but that’s a blog post for another time.) Recently, this quote popped up on my app after a meditation session, and it resonated with me so much so that I needed to put it somewhere for safekeeping. My blog seemed like the perfect place.

Sometimes I find myself saying something like, “I feel guilty because I don’t feel as bad as I should about X, Y, or Z.” Or maybe I’ll think, “I should not be this happy about X, Y, or Z, but I am.” I’ll automatically blame myself for feeling a certain way or not feeling a certain way, and I know I’m not alone in this thinking. Thankfully, as I so often discovered in my childhood, Mr. Rogers knows just what to say about that. As he so effectively points out in this quote, there’s no correct way to be. Our feelings are our feelings, and it’s not constructive to try to apply logic to them.

As a writer, I’m often astounded by how much writing and feelings come together. Sometimes there is no better way to try to make sense of feelings than to put pencil or pen to paper (or fingers and thumbs to keyboard), and see what happens. Sometimes the best words come from feelings, and sometimes when I let myself just be, the writing leads to those constructive choices that Mr. Rogers mentions.

I think I need more Mr. Rogers’ quotes in my life. I think we all do.