Quotes, Poems, & Sayings...

[Blade]

I will turn their mourning into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

[Andrew, Jr.]

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." Lao Tzu

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than a journey - work of the stars."
Walt Whitman

[justkim]

- If you attach to the negative behavior of others it brings you down to their level. -
- Guru Singh -

[Fancy]

Every journey begins
With but a small step.
And every day is a chance
For a new, small step
In the right direction.
Just follow your Heartsong.

by Mattie Stepanek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattie_Stepanek)

[Janstevie]

I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.

[wolfbittenpoet]

So it goes.

[WolfyOne]

Love doesn't make the world go round, Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. ~ Franklin P. Jones ~

[WolfyOne]

Love never claims, it ever gives; love never suffers, never resents, never revenges itself.
Where there is love there is life; hatred leads to destruction. ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~

[Queerasfck]

yJxCdh1Ps48

[WolfyOne]

All our young lives we search for someone to love. Someone who makes us complete.... We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope. All the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect who might be searching for us. ~ Kevin Arnold ~

[justkim]

- When we practice looking deeply, we realize that our home is everywhere. -

- Thich Nhat Hanh -

[moxie]

"...nobody can stand truth if it is told to him. Truth can be tolerated only if you discover it yourself because then, the pride of discovery makes the truth palatable." - Fritz Perls

[Diva]

Looking back, we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings.

~Dan Millman

[Diva]

I'm looking forward to looking back on all this.

~Sandra Knell

[Ms. Meander]

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.
- Patti Smith

[PinkieLee]

Nothing is impossible. The word itself is spelled I'm possible

[justkim]

- Raise your standards and you will rise along with them. -
- Mastin Kipp -

[cinderella]

"A planned life, is a closed life. It can be endured, but never lived."

by The Mandarin of Kwong Cheong in 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'

[cinderella]

"A planned life, is a closed life. It can be endured, but never lived."

by The Mandarin of Yang Cheong in 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness' (1958)

[2myladyblue]

The Waking - Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.


Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

[little_ms_sunshyne]

"Dont start again, I have to go to work!!!" :girldevil:

~Tcountry

[Diva]

If you do not learn from your mistakes, you might just as well not make them.

~Napolean Hill

[StillettoDoll]

http://myhatertots.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/patricks_day_comments_02.gif?w=400&h=388

[StillettoDoll]

http://myhatertots.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/patricks_day_comments_02.gif?w=400&h=388http://images-partners-tbn.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSm3DJs8xFN1BO2yAbXp4cqmSozz8t-EUpbWgvzAnKRWzQhBIq02D-xDg:www.thetreemaker.com/coats/Wheeler-Ireland.jpg (http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=wheeler+crest&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetreemaker.com%2Fcoats%2FWh eeler-Ireland.jpg&v_t=keyword_rollover&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetreemaker.com%2Ffamily-coat-w%2Fwheeler%2Fireland.html&width=94&height=117&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcQSm3DJs8 xFN1BO2yAbXp4cqmSozz8t-EUpbWgvzAnKRWzQhBIq02D-xDg%3Awww.thetreemaker.com%2Fcoats%2FWheeler-Ireland.jpg&b=image%3Fq%3Dwheeler%2Bcrest%26v_t%3Dkeyword_roll over%26oreq%3Db38e1f6815c44b9ab2c736f39dd9d347&imgHeight=310&imgWidth=250&imgTitle=Wheeler+Family+Coat+of+Arms&imgSize=18725&hostName=www.thetreemaker.com)

[The_Lady_Snow]

Love me or hate me, both are in my favor.
If you love me, I'll always be in your heart.
If you hate me, I'll always be in your mind.

[Diva]

Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy.

~Fiona Shaw

[Diva]

An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth.

~Irish Saying

[Kätzchen]

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.


~Anäis Nin

[FeminineAllure]

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.”
Paulo Coelho quote

[FeminineAllure]

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

- William Shedd

[Ms. Meander]

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength.
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

[Ms. Meander]

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.
- Paulo Coelho

[Diva]

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.

~Toni Morrison, Beloved

[Fancy]

I've seen this many times, and still smile each time:

"The Earth Laughs in Flowers"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Fancy]

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.”
Paulo Coelho quote

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.
- Paulo Coelho


Great minds? Great quote!

[always2late]

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~ A. Einstein

[Fancy]

“Life would be a perpetual flea hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, and insinuations and misrepresentations which are uttered against him.”

Henry Ward Beecher

[Ms. Meander]

Great minds? Great quote!

Haha! I should really look before I post!

[WolfyOne]

He has not known life, he who has not known love; and his destiny he is yet to find.
~ Phumza Mafela ~

[Spirit Dancer]

When you ignore your soul's destiny, when you get caught up in
your own self-interests and forget to care for others, you will not
feel "right." Instead, you will feel empty and unfulfilled.
During these times, you are neglecting your soul--
you are depriving it of nourishment. . . .
seek something outside your nine-to-five job as an additional source
of fulfillment and as a way to feel the joy of helping others. You can do
any number of things to fulfill this goal--volunteer at a community
hotline, coach a Little League team, donate your time to a public school,
visit the sick. Whatever you choose, you will gain a sense that you
are giving of yourself, that you are sharing yourself
with the world, that you are fulfilling the destiny of your soul.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

[hpychick]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

[miss entycing]

"If you’re one in a million, there will be one more person exactly like you-
just give it three weeks."
- anon.

“Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.”

- Ambrose Bierce

[Diva]

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.

~Tay Hohoff

[Kätzchen]

"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible," ~ Harry

from the movie,
When Harry Met Sally
(1989)

[justkim]

- Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. -
- Robert H. Schuller -

[StillettoDoll]

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning



http://lovetoknit.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/lamb-21.jpg?w=321&h=220

[StillettoDoll]

Spring is not the best of seasons.
Cold and flu are two good reasons;
wind and rain and other sorrow,
warm today and cold tomorrow.
~Author Unknown

http://texana.texascooking.com/gifs/blue/blue2.jpg Texas bluebonnets

[Diva]

I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.

~Tony Robbins

[Diva]

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

~Henry David Thoreau, "Solitude," Walden, 1854

[afixer]

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”
- Ashley Smith

[Janstevie]

When the world tells you to "give up" Hope whispers " try one more time"

[CrankyOldGuy]

"The measure of a society can be how well its people treat its animals." ~Gandhi

[Miss Scarlett]

From a very wise and dear friend:

I know that Spirit is guiding me at all times.
I feel this Divine Flow within me right now.

I stay aware of the fact that I am being guided
and led in exactly the right way.
I follow what I know is my path.

I stay calm and serene regardless of what is happening
on the outside of me.
I view these events as exactly what they are: Events.

They really have nothing to do with me.
What is important is my inner state.

Today I feed my inner self the soul food that I need to live
and breathe from a mode of peace and harmony.
I can do this because I completely trust my inner guidance.

And so it is...
Peace



:ohm:

[hpychick]

"My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?"
— Virginia Woolf

[Kätzchen]

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it,"

- Toni Morrison

[Diva]

Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

~Albert Einstein

[Miss Scarlett]

From my friend:

SELF-FORGIVENESS

Today I practice self-forgiveness.
I realize that I am human being and that I will have human experiences.
As I forgive myself I release any and all negative thoughts
and feelings that I may be harboring about me,
about you or really about anything.

As I do this I create a vacuum within myself
that is quickly within myself
that is filled with love, peace and joy.
This is where I want to be
and this is where I go
and this is where I remain.

The most important thing for me
is to have my life filled with
love, peace and understanding.
Today this is this most important thing for me to remember
and I do so.

And so it is.


:ohm:

[girl_dee]

~ You are responsible for your life. You can't keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on. ~

Oprah Winfrey

[2myladyblue]

Buddha: To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." -- Pythagoras (circa 582-507 B.C.)Greek philosopher, mathematician, mystic"Father of Vegetarianism"

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men. ~Leonardo da Vinci

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." ~Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize 1921

"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." ~Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

"My refusing to eat meat occasioned an inconveniency, and I have been frequently chided for my singularity. But my light repast allows for greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension."~BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)American statesman, inventor and author

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other.... ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

-Blue
:blueheels:

[Spirit Dancer]

I am not bound to win but I am bound to be true. I am
not bound to succeed but I am bound to live up to what
light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right;
stand with them while they are right and part
with them when they go wrong.

Abraham Lincoln

[Spirit Dancer]

As I experience it, appreciation of beauty is access to the
soul. With beauty in our lives, we walk and carry ourselves
more lightly and with a different look in our eyes. To look
into the eyes of someone beholding beauty is to look
through the windows of the soul. Anytime we catch a
glimpse of soul, beauty is there; anytime we catch our
breath and feel "How beautiful!," the soul is present.

Jean Shinoda Bolen

[Miss Scarlett]

I Am Not I
I am not I
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times I forget;
Who remains calm and silent while I talk,
And forgives, gently, when I hate,
Who walks where I am not,
Who will remain standing when I die.

From Lorca and Jimenez: Selected Poems by
Juan Ramon Jimenez, translated by Robert Bly

[Janstevie]

Friends are like bra's, close to your heart and there for support.

[Ms. Meander]

“That’s the night I slept on a cheese sandwich to keep my dignity.”
- Liz Tuccillo: Unpopular In Jail, The Moth podcast

[Fancy]

No one as yet had approached the management of New York in a proper spirit; that is to say, regarding it as the shiftless outcome of squalid barbarism and reckless extravagance. No one is likely to do so, because reflections on the long narrow pig-trough are construed as malevolent attacks against the spirit and majesty of the American people, and lead to angry comparisons.

-Rudyard Kipling

[Diva]

The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

~Fran Lebowitz

[Diva]

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

~Paulo Coelho

[Janstevie]

God bless you Elizabeth Taylor.

[wolfbittenpoet]

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”

Thank you Jack Kerouac. Forever your ghost gives me a feeling of not being alone amongst the shelves.

[Miss Scarlett]

My Mom's favourite poem.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


Dylan Thomas

[Spirit Dancer]

Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

Part One: Life

XXXIII


DARE you see a soul at the white heat?
Then crouch within the door.
Red is the fire’s common tint;
But when the vivid ore

Has sated flame’s conditions,
Its quivering substance plays
Without a color but the light
Of unanointed blaze.

Least village boasts its blacksmith,
Whose anvil’s even din
Stands symbol for the finer forge
That soundless tugs within,

Refining these impatient ores
With hammer and with blaze,
Until the designated light
Repudiate the forge.

[Diva]

Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.

~Jack Kerouac

[Spirit Dancer]

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”
Maureen Dowd



“Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.”
Barbara De Angelis


“If you don't set a baseline standard for what you'll accept in life, you'll find it's easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that's far below what you deserve.”
Anthony Robbins


“The eyes shout what the lips fear to say.”
William Henry

[miss entycing]

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”
Maureen Dowd



“Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.”
Barbara De Angelis


“If you don't set a baseline standard for what you'll accept in life, you'll find it's easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that's far below what you deserve.”
Anthony Robbins


“The eyes shout what the lips fear to say.”
William Henry


indeed.
i flippin <3 you my sistah.
xo

[Jesse]

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
C. S. Lewis (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cslewis151465.html)

[Jesse]

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
Maya Angelou (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mayaangelo389346.html)

[Jesse]

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
Maya Angelou (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mayaangelo148652.html)

[Diva]

Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.

~Alex Tan

[Diva]

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.

~G.B. Stern

[Arwen]

If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

[Kätzchen]

"Boxing is the only sport you can get your head shook, your money took, and your name in the undertaker book,"

- Joe Frazier

[Diva]

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

~Jack Kerouac

[wolfbittenpoet]

"Avoid the world. It's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end." Jack Kerouac

[DamselFly]

thirty spokes unite in one hub
it is precisely where there is nothing
that we find the usefulness of the wheel
we fire clay and make vessels
it is precisely where there is no substance
that we find the usefulness of clay pots
we chisel out doors and windows
it is precisely in these empty spaces
that we find the usefulness of the room
therefore, we regard having something as
beneficial
but having nothing as useful

Lao Zi

[DamselFly]

form does not differ from emptiness
emptiness does not differ from form
that which is form is emptiness
that which is emptiness form

[DamselFly]

"An intelligent person will never be bored."
namaste,
DamselFly

[I'mOneToo]

"I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum. I am incapable of determining ultimate worth or worthlessness; I have no judgment about myself and my life. There is nothing I am quite sure about. I have no definite convictions -- not about anything, really. I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidarity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being."

- C. G. Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", p. 392, published 2 years after his death

[Mister Bent]

"I guess I just wanted them all to see it, the thing that makes them special. I guess that's all anybody wants, to be seen, to be recognized."

- Hank Moody, Californication, se3ep8.

[moonfemme]

You don’t have to make a choice to achieve your dreams.
Just live the possibilities and watch the them open before your eyes.

Moonfemme

[Glenn]

"Where is Obama?"- The Freedom Fighters screamed in Libya as they lay dying.

[Semantics]

"Where is Obama?"- The Freedom Fighters screamed in Libya as they lay dying.

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

The favorite proverb of Libyan Mohammed Nabous.

I've been following him since early February. He was shot and killed seven days ago by Gadhafi's forces. He was a 27 year old man armed with nothing but an iPhone and a laptop and was working tirelessly to get the plight of the freedom fighters on film and broadcast it to the world.



For God's sake, ask him to stop killing us. We just want to live free. We want our human rights, our basic human rights.

-Mohammed Nabous

[Diva]

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

~Judy Garland

[Diva]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~Maryanne Williamson

[Kätzchen]

"Love is always open arms," ~ Leo Buscaglia

[afixer]

“Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live”

Charles Bukowski

[girl_dee]

Life sucks, Get a straw.


Facebook

[little_ms_sunshyne]

It was a million tiny little things that,
when you added them all up,
they meant we were supposed to be together ... and I knew it.
I knew it the very first time I touched her.
It was like coming home. ..
only to no home I'd ever known ...

~ Sleepless in Seattle

[Kobi]

When one is freshly informed,
has a serendipitous experience,
one's mood is changed, one's heart is changed,

That is why taking the time to see, hear,
be present to new images and language that
arise from new experiences, have the power
to change one from one way to another.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Women Who Run With The Wolves

[sylvie]

“If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever”

Winnie the Pooh
♥

[Liam]

Hokusai Says

Hokusai says look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing ...

He says everything is alive—
Shells, buildings, people, fish
Mountains, trees. Wood is alive.
Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you...

It matters that you care.
It matters that you feel.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives through you...

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.

—Roger Keyes

[DamselFly]

If you can break the wall of the self,
you will become infinite in time and space.
Zen Master Sahn

[DamselFly]

those who pursue learning
acquire something day after day
those who pursue the Tao
lose something day after day
Lao Zi
we must study but not to the point that emphasis upon experience and meditation is lost. if we can combine intellect and direct experience with our meditative mind, then there will be no barrier to the wordless experience of reality.

[Diva]

So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.

~Gaston Bachelard

[Diva]

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

~Jack Kerouac

[wolfbittenpoet]

A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.
-Lana Turner

[Mister Bent]

“We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be,
whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced
and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4am of a bad night and demand
to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.
We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”

- Joan Didion

[Diva]

Children ask better questions than adults. "May I have a cookie?" "Why is the sky blue?" and "What does a cow say?" are far more likely to elicit a cheerful response than "Where's your manuscript?" Why haven't you called?" and "Who's your lawyer?"

~Fran Lebowitz

[girl_dee]

Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. ~Irene Peter

[MrSunshine]

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

[WolfyOne]

The best proof of love is trust.
~ Dr. Joyce Brothers ~

[WolfyOne]

Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary,
yet no one agrees on just what it is.
~ Diane Ackerman ~

[Diva]

Dream on it. Let your mind take you to places you would like to go, and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities. And don't listen to anyone who doesn't know how to dream.

~Liza Minnelli

[Diva]

I am never wrong when it comes to my possibilities.

~Placido Domingo

[always2late]

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde

[WolfyOne]

There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud. ~Carol Shields

[Janstevie]

It takes a long time to make an old friend.

[Fancy]

Lessons from a dog’s life: Live simply, love generously, play and nap daily

[Arwen]

“Take only the treatments that rally your spirits and nourish your soul.” Gillian Bagwell, The Darling Strumpet

[Ms. Meander]

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

[afixer]

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.
It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.
What more can one want?
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[Mister Bent]

The sky was the only constant factor in my life, which kept changing with the speed of light and lightening.

- Yoko Ono

[Jesse]

It is not surprising that we need to do more. I mean, this is child abuse. There is always more to be done.
--Andrea Ingram


Child abuse is a problem no one really talks about. Abuse and neglect is the number 1 cause of injury to children in the country. More children die of abuse or neglect than of natural causes.
--Donna Miller

[Jesse]

"In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present." -Tao Te Ching

[Corkey]

Sometimes when you hit the wall, the wall hits back.
~Me

[Fancy]

Live now.
Start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
Go to more dances.
Ride merry-go-rounds.
Pick daisies.

[prettylilgrrl]

Friends will keep you sane, Love can fill your heart, A lover can warm your bed, But lonely is the soul without a mate.

[Arwen]

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)

[Fancy]

‎"If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die." - Maya Angelou

[Mr.Nobody]

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Gibran

[Mister Bent]

"... I cruised along doing my thing, acting the fool, not really understanding how being a parent changes you. I don't remember the exact moment everything changed, I just know that it did. One minute I was impenetrable, nothing could touch me, the next my heart was somehow beating outside my chest exposed to the elements. Loving you has been the most profound, intense, painful experience of my life. In fact, it's been almost too much to bear. As your father I made a silent vow to protect you from the world, never realizing I was the one who would end up hurting you the most."

- Hank Moody, Californication se4, ep2

[Ms. Meander]

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust

[Mr.Nobody]

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

[StillettoDoll]

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. -- Mark Twain

[Jesse]

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/whether_the_weather_be_fine-whether_the_weather/189195.html)” - Anon

[Jesse]

Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other. ~Henry David Thoreau

[Jesse]

“Writing is my time machine, takes me to the precise time and place I belong.” Jeb Dickerson

[Miss Scarlett]

Received yesterday from a dear and wise old friend:

I AM MY OWN PERSON

Today I know that I am not at anybody else’s mercy.
Nobody has power over me unless I give it to them.
And today I absolutely chose not to allow that to happen.
This goes for people, places, organizations and things.
Nobody can control me unless I say so.
Nobody determines what I do or where I go unless I willing to let that happen.
In order to become a victim one first must assume the position.

Today I take pride that I am my own person.
This does not mean that I do not consult with people or even depend on them on certain things in certain ways.
What this does mean is that I am my own person and I do tap into my own personal Power and exercise my right to do so.
It is not only my right - it is my Spiritual responsibility.
And So It Is.

[Miss Scarlett]

This morning from the same friend:

I LOVE MY BODY

Today I embrace the health that I have.
I know that my body is “picture perfect”.
I embody all the qualities that God is therefore,
I AM the same as GOD IS.
I know that I AM all that GOD IS.
My expressions are pure and perfect.
I praise the health that I have.
I embrace the wholeness that I am.
God is good, so am I
and so it is.

[Mister Bent]

Our dead skin is flaking away and leaving us, our cells dying and vanishing. More silver in my hair daily.
Dust of our lives, eye grit, detritus - we are too lost in its swirl to notice how many worlds there are within
two people. And how, when those worlds touch, the whole web lights up, every strand. And it was dust
we fought about so bitterly: dust on the piano keys, under the coffee table, insinuating itself into the
computer keyboard. Dust that may be vanquished for a day or two but always returns, creeping,
seeping, too humble to be humiliated and thus invincible. Dust of our own bodies, their seat and longing,
illuminated in a stream of sunlight just for a moment.


Alison Luterman

[Andrew, Jr.]

I wonder'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales & hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.


This is from William Wordsworth's "Daffodils".

[foxyshaman]

Luck is what happens when Fate gets tired of waiting.

[Jesse]

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved

[Jesse]

Yes we are [friends] and I do like to pass the day with you in serious and inconsequential chatter. I wouldn't mind washing up beside you, dusting beside you, reading the back half of the paper while you read the front. We are friends and I would miss you, do miss you and think of you very often. I don't want to lose this happy space where I have found someone who is smart and easy and doesn't bother to check her diary when we arrange to meet. ~Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body, 1992

[Jesse]

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.
~Eustache Deschamps

[Mister Bent]

There is a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint.
You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.

- Orson Welles

[Sparkle]

True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.

Tom Robbins

[Diva]

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

~Anne Sexton

[violaine]

"'come to the edge', he said.
they said, 'We are afraid'.
'come to the edge', he said.
they came.
he pushed them...
and they flew."
- - Guillaume Apollinaire

[DamselFly]

words are energy
gather, store, and offer them
with utmost care

(Taoist saying)

[girl_dee]

Why try to be someone you're not? Life is hard enough without adding impersonation to the skills required. ~Robert Brault

[DamselFly]

holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal to throw at someone-only you get burned.
(Buddhist saying)

[DamselFly]

your work is to discover your work
and to pursue it with all your heart.
(Buddha)

[DamselFly]

blessings are not enough
they must come from within
else they are not blessings at all
(H.H.The Dalai Lama)

[wolfbittenpoet]

A picture is a poem without words. ~Horace

[wolfbittenpoet]

A poet can survive everything put a misprint.~Oscar Wilde

[Mr.Nobody]

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Andrew, Jr.]

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be a stronger man."

JFK

[MysticOceansFL]

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. -aka Melody Beattie

[Ms. Meander]

"You have plenty of courage, I am sure," answered Oz. "All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty."

- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

[CrankyOldGuy]

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something. Anton Chekhov

[Diva]

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."

-- William Feather

[Diva]

The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

~ Gooderham Acheson

[Miss Scarlett]

More words of wisdom from my friend:

I Am Moved By Spirit.

Today I know that I am moved by Spirit.
I center myself with this Powerful Source.
I stay connected and centered with It.
I know that I am being led by Spirit.
I surrender anything and anybody
that does not enhance my life
and does not reflect
the same Good Stuff that I do.
I am grateful that I am centered
with this Divine Flow.
It is wonderful
to feel this power emerge
in my life.
And so it is

[Fancy]

"In the spring, at the end of the day, your hands should smell like dirt." (Margaret Atwood)

[prettylilgrrl]

A beauty is a woman you notice; A charmer is one who notices you. Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)

[turasultana]

“The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.”

Terry Pratchett

[prettylilgrrl]

Writers of novels and romance in general bring a double loss to their readers; robbing them of their time and money; representing men, manners, and things, that never have been, or are likely to be.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

[Mr.Nobody]

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

Gibran

[Mr.Nobody]

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.

again....Gibran

[prettylilgrrl]

Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
Elizabeth Browning

[prettylilgrrl]

Boys are like stars, there are millions of them out there, but only one can make your dreams come true
Courtney Conner

[girl_dee]

Who's to say that love needs to be soft and gentle?" -Dr. Twardon in Secretary

[wolfbittenpoet]

I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit.
P. G. Wodehouse

[wolfbittenpoet]

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Ernest Hemingway

[Kätzchen]

Cause it's a bitter sweet symphony this life...
Trying to make ends meet, you're a slave to the money then you die.
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down...
You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah.

No change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change,
but I'm here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
But I'm a million different people from one day to the next...
I can't change my mold, no,no,no,no,no,no,no

Well I've never prayed,
But tonight I'm on my knees, yeah.
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah.
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now.
But the airwaves are clean and there's nobody singing to me now.

No change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change,
but I'm here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
And I'm a million different people from one day to the next
I can't change my mold, no,no,no,no,no

Have you ever been down?
I can't change, I can't change...

Cause it's a bittersweet symphony this life.
Trying to make ends meet, trying to find somebody then you die.

You know I can't change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change
but I'm here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
And I'm a million different people from one day to the next.
///I can't change my mold, no,no,no,no,no///

(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down)
(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down)
(Been down)
(Ever been down)
(Ever been down)(Lalalalalalaaaaaaaa...)
(Ever been down)
(Ever been down)
(Have you ever been down?)
(Have you ever been down?)
(Have you ever been down?)

[Butterbean]

Enduring habits I hate.... Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.

~Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

[dixie]

"Multi-task? Why yes, I can screw up multiple things at one time!"

[turasultana]

"I don't really identify with the label 'bisexual,' nor does it feel like it accurately describes me...I see myself as queer, since queer to me is not just about who I love or lust, but it's about my culture, my community, and my politics. The truth is, even if I were with a heterosexual guy, I'd be a queer dyke."

Tristan Taormino

[justkim]

~ If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you,
fill her above the brim with love of herself;
all that runs over will be yours. ~

~ Charles Caleb Colton ~

[Diva]

Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

~Confucius

[Diva]

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

~Robert Frost

[Diva]

Decide that You want it more than You're afraid of it.

~Bill Cosby

[Jesse]

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. ~Samuel Ullman

[Jesse]

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? ~Satchel Paige

[Jesse]

The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. ~Quoted by Alexandra Penney in Self

[weatherboi]

How to Make Love to a Trans Person

Forget the images you've learned to attach
To words like cock and clit,
Chest and breasts.
Break those words open
Like a paramedic cracking ribs
To pump blood through a failing heart.
Push your hands inside.
Get them messy.
Scratch new definitions on the bones.

Get rid of the old words altogether.
Make up new words.
Call it a click or a ditto.
Call it the sound he makes
When you brush your hand against it through his jeans,
When you can hear his heart knocking on the back of his teeth
And every cell in his body is breathing.
Make the arch of her back a language
Name the hollows of each of her vertebrae
When they catch pools of sweat
Like rainwater in a row of paper cups
Align your teeth with this alphabet of her spine
So every word is weighted with the salt of her.

When you peel layers of clothing from his skin
Do not act as though you are changing dressings on a trauma patient
Even though it's highly likely that you are.
Do not ask if she's "had the surgery."
Do not tell him that the needlepoint bruises on his thighs look like they hurt
If you are being offered a body
That has already been laid upon an altar of surgical steel
A sacrifice to whatever gods govern bodies
That come with some assembly required
Whatever you do,
Do not say that the carefully sculpted landscape
Bordered by rocky ridges of scar tissue
Looks almost natural.

If she offers you breastbone
Aching to carve soft fruit from its branches
Though there may be more tissue in the lining of her bra
Than the flesh that rises to meet it, Let her ripen in your hands.
Imagine if she'd lost those swells to cancer,
Diabetes,
A car accident instead of an accident of genetics
Would you think of her as less a woman then?
Then think of her as no less one now.

If he offers you a thumb-sized sprout of muscle
Reaching toward you when you kiss him
Like it wants to go deep enough inside you
To scratch his name on the bottom of your heart
Hold it as if it can-
In your hand, in your mouth
Inside the nest of your pelvic bones.
Though his skin may hardly do more than brush yours,
You will feel him deeper than you think.

Realize that bodies are only a fraction of who we are
They're just oddly-shaped vessels for hearts
And honestly, they can barely contain us
We strain at their seams with every breath we take
We are all pulse and sweat,
Tissue and nerve ending
We are programmed to grope and fumble until we get it right.
Bodies have been learning each other forever.
It's what bodies do.
They are grab bags of parts
And half the fun is figuring out
All the different ways we can fit them together;
All the different uses for hipbones and hands,
Tongues and teeth;
All the ways to car-crash our bodies beautiful.
But we could never forget how to use our hearts
Even if we tried.
That's the important part.
Don't worry about the bodies.
They've got this.

[Janstevie]

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

[dixie]

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit...but the highest form of intelligence."

[dixie]

You know that when I hate you, it is because I love you to a point of passion that unhinges my soul ~ Julie de Lespinasse

[dixie]

Life is fury, he'd thought. Fury — sexual, Oedipal, political, magical, brutal — drives us to our finest heights and coarsest depths. Out of furia comes creation, inspiration, originality, passion, but also violence, pain, pure unafraid destruction, the giving and receiving of blows from which we never recover. The Furies pursue us; Shiva dances his furious dance to create and also to destroy. But never mind about gods! Sara ranting at him represented the human spirit in its purest, least socialized form. This is what we are, what we civilize ourselves to disguise — the terrifying human animal in us, the exalted, transcendent, self-destructive, untramelled lord of creation. ~ Salman Rushdie

[Jesse]

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught. ~J.C. Watts

[Jesse]

Do not repeat anything you will not sign your name to. ~Author Unknown

[Jesse]

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed. ~Matthew Henry

[Arwen]

An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

[justkim]

~ We are most alive when we are in love. ~

~ John Updike ~

[Miss Scarlett]

From a friend

I Am A Mirror Reflection.Today I know that life reflects back to me that which I am.
I am a mirror image of you and you are a mirror image of me.
Today I know that the Infinite in me is reflecting perfection on every level.
As I continue to surrender ideas that no longer work for me,
I continue to experience more expansion in my life.
This is an on going thing for I am always growing and expanding.
I stay centered.
I embrace the good in my life.
I praise the good in my life and watch it grow.
This is how it is for me and I love it.
And so it is.

[Tcountry]

"I've heard it said
that people come into our lives
for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
and we are lead to those
who help us most to grow
if we let them and we help them in return
Well i dont know if i believe that's true
But i know i'm who i am today
because i knew you."

--Wicked, For Good

[StillettoDoll]

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'."
-Paul Tergat, Kenyan professional marathoner

[StillettoDoll]

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
-William Faulkner

[StillettoDoll]

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
-John Bingham (http://running.about.com/od/runninghumor/a/johnbingham.htm), running speaker and writer

[Ms. Meander]

"Misery is easy. Happiness, you have to work at."

- Ondine

[Mister Bent]

A man's most open actions have a secret side to them.

-Joseph Conrad

[Janstevie]

The Recipe
by janstevie


Your my touch of class
piece of heaven
cup of joy
sprinkle of happiness

Your my heart full of love
limitless passion
endless daydream
final destiny.

When you mix these all together
YOU make my world.

[Mister Bent]

"There's a point in horsemanship when horse and horseman know enough about each other that a third thing, another dimension, begins to be part of the relationship. It's upon this element that the real ride takes place..."

- Tom McGuane

[Fancy]

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. ~Greek proverb

[violaine]

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.


~Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Silent Noon

[Kätzchen]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_scfe5YzN958/RmFrdvmnGnI/AAAAAAAAAJo/EgLDELxvOz8/s400/Larson%25252B-%25252BHay%25252BBar.gif

[Diva]

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

~Samuel Johnson

[Diva]

Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.

~Mason Cooley

[JakeTulane]

"There are things for which animals are to be envied: They know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them." - Voltaire

[JakeTulane]

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or more correctly, being loved in spite of yourself." - Victor Hugo

[JakeTulane]

"Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions." - Gustave Flaubert

[Andrew, Jr.]

Edward M. Kennedy, "True Compass":

"Some people make mistakes and try to learn from them and do better. Our sins don't define the whole picture of who we are."

[Charming Texan]

The word
was born in the blood,
grew in the dark body, beating,
and took flight through the lips and the mouth.
Farther away and nearer
still, still it came
from dead fathers and from wondering races,
from lands which had turned to stone,
lands weary of their poor tribes,
for when grief took to the roads
the people set out and arrived
and married new land and water
to grow their words again.
And so this is the inheritance;
this is the wavelength which connects us
with dead men and the dawning
of new beings not yet come to light.

- Neruda

[StillettoDoll]

"No one ever drowned in sweat."
-Author Unknown

[StillettoDoll]

"Life is short... running makes it seem longer."
- Baron Hansen

[JakeTulane]

"The strength of criticism lies only in the weakness of the thing criticized." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[JakeTulane]

"True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is the guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is." - R.D. Laing

[JakeTulane]

"If you are sitting in that audience ready to fight me from the very beginning, I am going to have a hard time getting to you. But if you have got a heart at all, I am going to get it." - Betty Carter

[Jesse]

Your true character is revealed by the clarity of your convictions, the choices you make, and the promises you keep.

Hold strongly to your principles and refuse to follow the currents of convenience.

What you say and do defines who you are, and who you are...you are forever. -Anon

[UofMfan]

"Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos."

xDgSj-hNzFU

[JustJo]

"Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe."
~ Euripides ~

[scootebaby]

"Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe."
~ Euripides ~

baby are you trying to say we(general) should be able to spot liars??? lol

"to raise our success rate we must double our failure rate"

[KatieStar]

I came across this poem about a month ago with intentions of sharing it, but it slipped my mind until just now. I find it to be incredibly deep and quite powerful.

How To Make Love to a Trans Person
by Gabe Moses

Forget the images you've learned to attach
To words like cock and clit,
Chest and breasts.
Break those words open
Like a paramedic cracking ribs
To pump blood through a failing heart.
Push your hands inside.
Get them messy.
Scratch new definitions on the bones.

Get rid of the old words altogether.
Make up new words.
Call it a click or a ditto.
Call it the sound he makes
When you brush your hand against it through his jeans,
When you can hear his heart knocking on the back of his teeth
And every cell in his body is breathing.
Make the arch of her back a language
Name the hollows of each of her vertebrae
When they catch pools of sweat
Like rainwater in a row of paper cups
Align your teeth with this alphabet of her spine
So every word is weighted with the salt of her.

When you peel layers of clothing from his skin
Do not act as though you are changing dressings on a trauma patient
Even though it's highly likely that you are.
Do not ask if she's "had the surgery."
Do not tell him that the needlepoint bruises on his thighs look like they hurt
If you are being offered a body
That has already been laid upon an altar of surgical steel
A sacrifice to whatever gods govern bodies
That come with some assembly required
Whatever you do,
Do not say that the carefully sculpted landscape
Bordered by rocky ridges of scar tissue
Looks almost natural.

If she offers you breastbone
Aching to carve soft fruit from its branches
Though there may be more tissue in the lining of her bra
Than the flesh that rises to meet itLet her ripen in your hands.
Imagine if she'd lost those swells to cancer,
Diabetes,
A car accident instead of an accident of genetics
Would you think of her as less a woman then?
Then think of her as no less one now.

If he offers you a thumb-sized sprout of muscle
Reaching toward you when you kiss him
Like it wants to go deep enough inside you
To scratch his name on the bottom of your heart
Hold it as if it can-
In your hand, in your mouth
Inside the nest of your pelvic bones.
Though his skin may hardly do more than brush yours,
You will feel him deeper than you think.

Realize that bodies are only a fraction of who we are
They're just oddly-shaped vessels for hearts
And honestly, they can barely contain us
We strain at their seams with every breath we take
We are all pulse and sweat,
Tissue and nerve ending
We are programmed to grope and fumble until we get it right.
Bodies have been learning each other forever.
It's what bodies do.
They are grab bags of parts
And half the fun is figuring out
All the different ways we can fit them together;
All the different uses for hipbones and hands,
Tongues and teeth;
All the ways to car-crash our bodies beautiful.
But we could never forget how to use our hearts
Even if we tried.
That's the important part.
Don't worry about the bodies.
They've got this.

[JakeTulane]

"The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized - never knowing." - Jim Rohn

[JakeTulane]

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possible not yet born until they arrive, and it is only by meeting that a new world is born." - Anais Nin

[JakeTulane]

"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses." ~Colette

[JustJo]

baby are you trying to say we(general) should be able to spot liars??? lol



Yes dear *head pat*

:giggle:

[StillettoDoll]

Other people may not have high expectations of me, but I have high expectations for myself.
-- Shannon Miller

[StillettoDoll]

“When I first started running, I was so embarrassed I'd walk when cars passed me. I'd pretend I was looking at the flowers.”

http://thinkexist.com/i/sq/as0.gif Joan Benoit Samuelson quotes (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/joan_benoit_samuelson/) (American (http://thinkexist.com/nationality/american_authors/) Marathon Runner (http://thinkexist.com/occupation/famous_runners/) Olympic medalist (1984), b.1957 (http://thinkexist.com/birthday/may_16/))

[wolfbittenpoet]

Poets are Damned but see with the eyes of Angels.

~Allen Ginsberg

[always2late]

When people say, 'She's got everything', I've got one answer - I haven't had tomorrow. ~ Elizabeth Taylor

[moxie]

"If your life had lyrics, would they be any good?" - Douglas Coupland

[Diva]

Passion surprises. One doesn't search for it. It can happen to you tomorrow.

~Isabelle Adjani

[Diva]

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.

~Ashley Montagu

[MrSunshine]

Know how to live the time that is given you.
~Dario Fo

[JakeTulane]

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." ~Alan Alda

[JakeTulane]

"The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart." ~Julien Green

[JakeTulane]

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer." ~Rainer Maria Rilke

[Janstevie]

Missing you could turn from pain to pleasure, if i knew you were missing me too.

[violaine]

"resistance does not mean walls and fences, nonresistance does not mean open space. if you can understand in this way, mind and matter are fundamentally the same."

-Tsu-hsin

[JAGG]

"We are not punished for our sins, but by them." - Proverb

[JAGG]

"Telling the truth takes moral courage."

" Alot of people mistake a short memory, for a clear conscience."

[JAGG]

" One doesn't just wake up one morning, sad and fearful without reason. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of integrity and self-respect. "

[scootebaby]

" There can be no happiness, if the things that we believe in are different from the things we do. "

[Mister Bent]

"Say something like you want him to fuck you behind a McDonald's. Guys secretly love weird shit like that."

- (678)/Texts From Last Night

[Jesse]

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge."
— Thomas Carlyle (http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/29951.Thomas_Carlyle)

[JAGG]

" Don't try to be different, just be good. To be good is different enough." -Authur Freed

[StillettoDoll]

"Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious."
~David Williams, an Ashtanga yoga teacher in Maui, Hawaii, quoted from yoga.com


Yoga is the fountain of youth. You're only as young as your spine is flexible. ~Bob Harper

[JakeTulane]

"Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope." - Corazon Aquino