From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown
“Once, when I was seeking the advice of Howard Thurman and talking to him at some length about what needed to be done in the world, he interrupted me,” writes Gil Bailie in the acknowledgments of his book Violence Unveiled. Thurman replied, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.”
The quotation now appears on everything from Instagram posts to mugs and posters. While it is popular enough to risk losing its meaning, that quotation remains emblematic of Thurman’s work. Howard Thurman observed an aliveness in all living things, despite their physical appearance. During stark winters, when dead leaves cling to skeletal trees and flowering perennials die back, life is still at work underground. When spring arrives, as new tree seedlings blast up through hard soil and leaves burst out of tree buds, our spirits are similarly stirred and awakened. In a moment we glimpse an inner shift from emptiness to fullness, from stagnation to animation.