Quotes, Poems, & Sayings...

[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

MXc8Ct7qezY

[Genesis]

“Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be.”

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Orema]

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. —Oscar Ameringer

[Angeltoes]

JqOqo50LSZ0

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f9/1b/61/f91b619bfc8e4226880ec3117bef6bfa.jpg

[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ae/9f/c8/ae9fc86fc279b1adfc0aaeddb8f82928.jpg

[LOQUI]

"Don't lose a diamond while chasing glitter"
-unknown-

[Electrocell]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos/j/jamesmbarrie149345.jpg

[Electrocell]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos/h/henrydavidthoreau106041.jpg

[Orema]

No more fiendish punishment could be devised,
were such a thing physically possible,
than that one should be turned loose in society
and remain absolutely unnoticed.

—William James

[Kätzchen]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/53/05/ae/5305aee8f1c6264a3a93f86d5ef44e0a.jpg

[Angeltoes]

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[homoe]

you will do foolish things but do them with enthusiasm (Colette)

[Angeltoes]

https://36.media.tumblr.com/c69ca95b827aa9d12670ebfcb9ab6abc/tumblr_njdvtjoKbc1qkv5xlo1_500.jpg

[homoe]

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel (Maya Angelou)

[Genesis]

“You become.
It takes a long time.
That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off,
and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby.
But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
~ The Velveteen Rabbit

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Talon]

Cher Horowitz: You see how picky I am about my shoes, and they only go on my feet.





~From the movie 'Clueless'

[angelface]

http://www.elikamahony.com/wp-content/uploads/Invictus.jpg

[CherryWine]

I don't need anyone to rectify my existence. The most profound relationship we will ever have is the one with ourselves.

- Shirley MacLaine

[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Angeltoes]

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[Talon]

You truly are.....quite out of your depth...~Anonymous (f)



"My God, just please.....don't be another walking clee-shay"......*smirk*


~J.T.

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

I know you want to be a good person and be helpful to people in need, but it's impossible to give to others if your energy has already been used-up.
Being a good person has nothing to do with allowing people to destroy you.
There are limits. You can best help others from a position of strength, not weakness. So, don't forget to be good to yourself first.
Don't forget to take care of you! It is never cruel to want to save yourself from being swamped by fools.
You cannot save everyone. Some people are going to destroy themselves no matter how much you try to help them.
Their lives are full of emptiness, chaos, and dysfunction, and they will bring their misery and pain into your life with full-force if you allow it.
Then there are others who have the outward appearance of success and are seemingly not self-destructive in nature.
These people do not destroy themselves, but instead survive through the destruction of others — these are the users.
Either of these types of people will latch-on to you in a death-spiral and take you down to the depths of hell with them — if you allow it.
This is your life, and you have the right and responsibility to make good decisions for yourself.
— Bryant McGill

[Genesis]

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[TheHinduPose]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/0b/75/a40b756d1b71748de559ed41fcc722d5.jpg

[kittygrrl]

http://www.trans4mind.com/quotes/drop.jpg

[Nat]

"You've mentioned at a certain point, beekeepers can get to a place where the bees actually choose the keeper. What is that about and what do you attribute it to?"

"Bees see the humble being in everything. The honeybee smells fear like a shark fears a drop of blood in the ocean - miles away. When you're scared and when you're upset, the bees feel it. I truly believe that there's a little bit of everything in everybody, that there's some of me in the trees around me, that there's some of me in you, that there's a little bit of you in all of us, that all of us make one supreme being if we all could come together, that would be all of us - but we are all broken apart - to make everything in this universe.
I believe that the bees sense the beekeeper in you, that when you see the older beekeepers working, that's because they have let their inner beekeeper completely out: they have no fear, they know what the bees like, they know what the bees don't like, they know how to work with the bees, the bees know how to work with those beekeepers. Old men in white rubbing their mustaches across the frames of bees is just amazing. When you're watching it, you're scared crapless because you see what their doing, but those guys have found their inner bee. You know, their inner freedom. They are no longer scared of anything. They are the jedi knight. You can throw anything at them, and they just deal with it. And it's okay to be that way. I think the bees see that.

I think that bees see the inner child. You know, my son is very young, and he plays with the bees, he catches them, he puts his eye up to the hive to see inside, they crawl over him. I truly believe that working with the bees you become a true humanitarian. You're working with the deadliest thing that mother nature could have put out there that kills man, it kills man, and we've even made it more deadly where it swarms faster, breeds faster, stings harder. It's the most deadly thing you're gonna play with, and these guys are out there without without any shirts or shoes on ripping the hives apart, pulling out honeycomb and eating it fresh, thanking the bees. You have to be one with yourself. I truly believe that the bees pick those out, because I know that they don't pick me because I get the crap stung out of me some days.

I know, I've worked with some guys - 20 beehives it takes me three hours to work through. I've watched these guys work 50 beehives and in an hour they're done. They check for mites, dysentery, hive beetles. I mean, they're going through a hive, they're checking queens, they're marking queens, they're singing along and they're having a great day outside, and as a beekeeper I think those are some things that you want to get into is to be humanitarian, to find your inner bee, to find your inner love for being outside. And I'm working with the most dangerous thing Mother Nature could throw at me, and we're working together, and they're pollinating my food, and I'm making sure they have a good clean home to live in. Those are some of the aspects I think of when I see beekeepers and that's why some of them are so good."

------------

"My grandfather told me - he says, "You know, you can do anything you want in this world. You can be anything you want. You may just not be as good as everybody else doing it. And I think that's what people who do that procrastination thing are doing - I think that they are scared and I think that they over-analyze everything because they want it to be perfect. And let's face it, if it was perfect, Mother Nature would have done it and none of us would have gotten involved in it. It's not that they are scared to get involved, it's just that they are afraid to fail.

You know, I built my raised beds, and guess what? I forgot to put stakes on the side of it it and it blew out. Totally blew out three yards of my dirt. No one wants to tell their neighbor that. They wanna say, "Yeah man, I was growing great squash this year, it was awesome in my raised beds." No one wants to hear about how they had to spend an extra day putting the sides on. You know? How do I know that? Because I spent an extra day putting the sides on.

I mean, I'm prone to fail...And sometimes you have to be the junkyard warrior. You have to go out to the pick-n-pull. You have to pull your own starter out of a car. And you have to go home and put it in, because taking it to the garage is gonna cost you $500 and removing it from this car is gonna cost you 50 bucks and three hours of your time. What have you got? I think people are afraid to fail. Nobody wants to be labeled a loser. No one likes to be called fat and no one likes to be called slow, but let's face it - there's only 10% of us in the world that have IQs over 187 and the rest of us are ditch-diggers baby. And I think that's what people are afraid of. The world needs ditch-diggers, man. I work as a custodian, and if I don't show up to work one day, the trash piles up, it starts to stink, the rats come and before you know it you got the plague. I'm the lowest guy on the food chain, and without me you guys get plague. Everybody's got a duty, and you just got to jump in there and get stung, you gotta get in there and get your feet dirty, and sometimes you're stretching wire and it does snap and it cuts your arm. I mean, you learn. That's how you learn. People procrastinate because they are afraid to fail, and failure is the biggest learning moment you'll ever get."

---------------

"Someone had gotten to the point where they had learned enough to have constructed a hive, they had captured wild bees, put them in the box, and the next day they were gone. What would you think that was attributed to? I know that's not a lot of information..."

"Girls are picky. Let's face it. Girls are, you know, I'm married to one. She's picky. Girls like pretty things. And they like things aesthetically looking cool. They like good smells. If you're you're gonna get bees, you should start out with a small box to let them populate really good, and if the bees are leaving - I've had bees leave some of my hives too - they just don't feel like the housing is good for them. We're not moving into this craphole man. Bees do not like brand-new things all the time either. They like buying a used home that's been well taken care of. A brand new box, you're gonna have to add some lemon grass oil into it to give them that smell that there's been a queen in there before. Sometimes you put in some frames that already have some foundation built into them from another beekeeper so it looks like there's been something here before so it must have been a home that was good. Just dumping a wild swarm of bees - they're already used to a semi-dirty floor where the wood chips have fallen down out of the trunk of the tree down to the bottom of the trunk of the tree, so the bottom of the floor isn't a flat bottom board - it's a little rocky, it's got some bugs maybe crawling through it. They're kinda picky, but they're girls. So lemon grass oil. Put it inside the beehive. Some people put it in a cotton ball. I say melt some wax down and just add it to the wax so the wax has a permeating smell all the time. Those are things that make it more hospitable - make it clean, make it nice, but make it so it looks like you live in it, and they'll come and they'll live there."

------------------

"If you wanna help beekeepers, don't use pesticides, don't use fertilizers, try to do as much natural planting as you can... Plant bee balm, plant sour wood, plant as much as you can everywhere you can. Feed the bees. Bees fly up to two miles for food production and have been known to fly up to five miles eating some of their nectar to get home again. So they'll go far. Just plant as much as you can and be as nice as you can. Right? no pesticides."

- Interview with Michael Jordan, Beekeeping with the Bee Whisperer, In the Rabbit Hole Urban Survival podcast

[Orema]

“I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself and I believe in the goodness of others.” —Muhammad Ali

[Genesis]

http://baddestmotherever.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/journey.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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Caviat: We all need someone sometimes...

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

http://lessonslearnedinlife.com/wp-content/uploads/Be-strong-for-yourself.1.jpg

[Talon]

If you are worthy of mediocrity.... It shall come to you.

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[CherryWine]

No matter your spiritual beliefs, if you hold any, the answer is the same: sometimes, why is not knowable. If you open the refrigerator door and a tub of Kozy Shack tapioca pudding tumbles out and splats open onto the floor, you clean it. You don’t stand there and question why it happened, how it was possible. Why doesn’t matter now.

- Augusten Burroughs

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/10405536_10152738252928707_8480723612113042036_n.j pg?oh=f3d88c976a9542aa3d1d76f5fef91cb1&oe=56CEBE6F

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/11140119_10153114864582371_244345812709244215_n.jp g?oh=7825ab09eac36d0c79908d9739cd4124&oe=56B4687A

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/12188914_10205548977712429_7495191668560261974_n.j pg?oh=9ea71eca8d54ad371b0fa94badb8cc8a&oe=56CF143E

[Jesse]

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young people to die in."

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12065549_10154016596404523_8744962447652089913_n.p ng?oh=15da113ba72fe88e7ac64722962fbfd7&oe=56ADE5EF

[Genesis]

With love you don’t bargain.
There, the choice is not yours.
Love is a mirror, it reflects only your essence, if you have the courage to look in its face.

~ Rumi

[JDeere]

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind, than in the one where they sprung up.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Genesis]

http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/12193282_1088349677856514_2406005902813149951_n.jp g?oh=6593b5c24e1b525191ea9daa3cf41b6d&oe=56BFF242

[LOQUI]

"I noticed everything. I just acted as I didn't"
-Unknown-

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f1/02/1e/f1021e1a4490d8160948c6a9b7792d28.jpg

[Angeltoes]

http://www.teamthumann.com/uploads/2/3/9/1/23916969/8234893_orig.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a9/da/42/a9da42f7874571a3f7e378d1dcc46528.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f4/95/2b/f4952bdfbd68eb5b370e6e48673dd4a4.jpg

[LOQUI]

"There is some comfort in the emptiness of the sea, no past, no future."
Last Samurai

[Jesse]

“If

"If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie,
Life would be delight,--
But things couldn't go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn't be I.

If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I'd be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn't be you.

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,--
Yet they'd all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn't be we.”
― E.E. Cummings

[Jesse]

“Raise your words, not your voice.
It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
― Rumi

[AmazonDC]

The pain is what will dwell within
kinda like when the drugs cry please let me in.
\Your inner soul says let me go
The drugs reply you have no control.
\The control you think,you thought you had
Face it baby you've got it bad.
\You've been in here for many months
So do it now for who can you trust.
\The drugs you took,the lines,the needles,
believe me now you will not need them.
\For he is your power,love,and soul
For you are the one with all the control.

[Orema]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dd/b0/da/ddb0da9d51a204b35c994799b97c021f.jpg

[Orema]

To be a woman who loves hip hop at times is to be in love with your abuser. Because the music was and is that. And yet the culture is ours.—Ava Duvernay

[Angeltoes]

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/e15/11287903_1395705590757768_1939155380_n.jpg

[LOQUI]

"She's engaged but not in love. I've discovered there are so many. They're dreamers, those who've waited for their prince charming and not seeing him arrive, started to think they had been wrong. They started to think that their prince charming fell from his horse and is now in the local hospital's recovery ward.
Taken by the fear of being left alone and by the need of some tenderness, they hooked up with the white horse."
Fabio Volo

[Jesse]

If it doesn't work horizontally as prose...
it
probably
won't
work
any
better
vertically
pretending
to
be
poetry.
~Robert Brault

[Jesse]

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu

[Orema]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a7/ec/6e/a7ec6ef1fa77aef25d17a9982ed353fb.jpg

[Jesse]

"Taking care of yourself makes you stronger for everyone in your life … including you." - Kelly Rudolph

[Orema]

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. —Audre Lorde

[CherryWine]

Happiness must be a jealous pet. When you try seeking yours out, it tends to keep hidden. But as soon as you turn to help a friend find his, your own happiness comes bounding out of the darkness like some crazed animal.

- Richelle Goodrich

[deathbypoem]

"No human relation gives one possession in another—every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone."
— Kahlil Gibran

[deathbypoem]

Look To this Day


Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.

The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

- Kalidasa
Hindu Poet

[deathbypoem]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/86/95/06/869506e6f82ad73f26dc8f743e10293d.jpg

[deathbypoem]

https://40.media.tumblr.com/1b5284fdfb018e8e32f25fbaea991a4f/tumblr_n70zgaLoML1te0m9ro1_400.png

[deathbypoem]

https://41.media.tumblr.com/e54960027d71da7fe7deafd25a5e27ea/tumblr_nxoqrlnMrD1s3e46do1_500.jpg

[deathbypoem]

atlas limbs
you have broken them
and all you are is what you've
washed yourself in
a blood bank past of
hurricane hearts
stolen from highway eyes

-Jardine©copyright2015

[Glenn]

YOUR EYES ARE MY SUNRISE THE SUNSET
DISAPPEARING INTO THE SPARKLING OCEAN YOU ARE THE OCEAN I WILL SWIM
FOREVER TO BE WITH YOU YOU ARE
EVERY BIRD AND EVERY TIGER AND EVE
RY CLOUD YOU ARE THE RAIN FALLING AL
L OVER ME THE TEARS OF MY LIFE DISA
PPEAR WITH YOUR PRESENCE MY BLOOD
MY BREATH MY LOVE IS YOURS IT HAS
ALWAYS BEEN YOURS PATIENTLY WAITING FOR YOU TO FIND ME
TO NOTICE ME AS YOU HAVE NOW MY EY
ES WATCHING YOU AND YOUR EYES WATCH
ING ME FINIALLY TOGETHER WE ARE ONE
THE SETTING SUN DISAPPEARING INTO
THE SPARKLING OCEAN THE SUBTLE
MOON AND EVERY STAR TOGETHER WE
ARE TOMORROWS SUNRISE

[Jesse]

. . . “Paper is poverty. It is the ghost of money and not money itself.”– Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/12243532_1095186033839545_4090796127744531328_n.jp g?oh=d4a4851e0e30905b6a2c0fb3ee8990c6&oe=56BF2B05

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/12239760_919084331517542_5268356079755408995_n.jpg ?oh=00b44d2822f9df932872e234cfc423e2&oe=56EF4050

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12239635_935180026517855_1353492348011804233_n.jpg ?oh=432af4894cd610bb16bed3c05073b38f&oe=56F1F67E

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xal1/v/t1.0-9/q88/p720x720/12195968_1185681444805676_3761503627686178316_n.jp g?oh=19b34955b7223e6b1d22b6ff0d162db0&oe=56F46E65

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12235046_995002497208500_4470443562967215286_n.jpg ?oh=f2e9d0e751e16d6a376434840099c94e&oe=56B8BDC7

[Genesis]

http://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12219354_10153739216287556_3170911781603900850_n.j pg?oh=e91c961004b10ae0c9ca514ebb2ba158&oe=56F0712F

[Nat]

It's a wise thing to keep your heart open. To see and to feel, and then to understand in some deep way. And then to act, and be changed. If we're not changed by what happens around us, we do a kind of disservice to ourselves.

Buddhist practice kind of expects that there's going to be all kinds of loss and tragedy. They've been expecting it for 2500 years, and there's a good track record of predicting it. These things will happen and they're gonna continue to happen. It's not exactly a surprise. Not like an offense to our sense of life that these things happen. It doesn't mean that these things are right or that they should happen. It's more like, yes, how terrible, there it is again.

And then Buddhist practice has taught me how important it is not to close down, not to turn away. Because to close down closes some part of ourselves. We shut down, we become numb. And I've seen people in these kinds of tragedies begin to shut down and not be willing to let their hearts break, and sometimes it takes the form of railing against life, where is the justice in society and the world, what good is karma, something is wrong, where's god in this picture, kind of an abstracted philosophical way and looking outside.

Buddhism tends not to want to philosophize about these things, tends not to want to make the grand conclusions about the nature of life and justice and all these things, but rather to allow ourselves to feel these things and notice where we get hung up, to notice where we get caught and closed down and contracted. And then Buddhism has practices for releasing the contraction, to open up when the heart is all fisted up, and to release it. But not just so we can go whistling down the street happily as if it has nothing to do with us, but so that our heartbreaks can be pure, so our heartbreaks can be open, so our heartbreaks can have a sort of freedom in them, a willingness in them, a rightness to them. Then we can understand and meet each other in real ways. And then we can act. How do we want to act? How do we want to change? What do we want to do that's different?

How do we let this stuff come in, and how do we do it so we don't get weighed down by it, how do we do it so we don't get closed down, how do we do it so we don't get caught up in the sorrow of it? That's really the art and the essence of it. I really hope that the Buddhist practice we do, the mindfullness practice that we do, is preparing us to be ready for these things, to be prepared, to be witnesses, to be responders, to be a compassionate presence for this world, because we've learned to take it in, we've learned not to let it get stuck, not to close down, not to get angry, not to get hostile, because it's going to keep happening. And as it gets closer to us, if it gets closer to us, we need people who are prepared and ready, who are not gonna put their head in the sand like an ostrich or not run away or freeze or also not quickly get into the fight.

So, finally the response. One of the things I've learned from Buddhist practice is that so much hinges in a wise life on how we respond. The past is only important to the degree in which we learn from the past. Learning from our mistakes, learning from what goes on, learning from what happens, but not to be weighed down by the past but to look into the future and see how we can do better in the future, how we can act. And to have the freedom to respond, and to respond with wisdom and compassion and friendship and goodwill, and to keep coming back from that. Because, Buddhism understands that the world begins with you and the world begins anew each time you wake up, each time you blink your eyes, each time you breathe in and you breathe out. There's a whole cycle of life and death that goes on. And there's really a fresh beginning that goes on every moment. And we don't have to be weighed down by what happened, or contract because of it, but rather we can be motivated by it, it can fuel our freedom, it can fuel us in our practice, fuel us in our desire to create a better world. And we can be forward-looking. And the courage and the inspiration and the dedication, devotion, to create a better world for ourselves, for our neighbors, and people all over the world - this forward-looking movement starts with us, starts here. What difference are you gonna make, how are you gonna be a better person, how are you gonna make a difference in this world, how are you gonna improve it for the people around you. So when bad things happen, because of your freedom and because of your not being caught in the past, not being caught in concepts and caught in self, to have the ability and motivation to respond, to let the hope, let the goodness that exists in this world begin with you. Maybe it means that you can live in such a way that you make a difference to the people around you that you wouldn't do if you closed down because of it.

So, to see, to be willing to be a witness, to feel it and let your heart break while still having a lot of respect and care for yourself, to be present, to understand more deeply and then to figure out what your response is - it's very important for all of us to try to improve the lives of others and support each other. And in doing so, we become ready for the next time and the next time and the next time. And in doing so, we also prepare ourselves for those times when our hearts don't break, but when our hearts can sing. And our very capacity to really have our hearts break in a clean way, in a full way, is also the same capacity that allows our hearts to sing fully, glow fully when the circumstances call for that. To be really free is to be able to respond fully to the circumstances of the time you're in. Freedom does not mean in Buddhism that we end up sitting in a cloud of bliss, unconcerned, unconnected, to the dust of the world that happens somewhere else. It's to become fully human so we can live in this world with all of what it is in a wise and caring way.

- Gil Fronsdahl

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/24/ae/46/24ae460575088d7cc41818ad5f2db5b5.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/df/af/57/dfaf575a986bfa5bb60f96513dc47184.jpg

[afrcnqueen]

"If I ever let you down, it's not because I don't/didn't love you. It's because I didn't love myself."

[homoe]

normal is just a setting on a washing machine Whoopie Goldberg

[afrcnqueen]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DGRSuNQjslc/Uf83_cCunyI/AAAAAAAADZ4/SuZS649dHFo/s1600/pizap.com13756793331421.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3d/44/87/3d4487fe671a6d71bfdb9e3e1e66b93a.jpg

[Angeltoes]

I am tired, beloved,
of chafing my heart against the want of you;
of squeezing it into little ink drops, and posting it.
And I scald alone, here, under the fire of the great moon.


This is cool (to me, the history nerd) because by 'posting' it she meant writing it. This poem sounds like it could have been written recently..

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a3/cb/7d/a3cb7dbb44dafdd46aa98ff15644e500.jpg

[Angeltoes]

I found this this quote in the opening of 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' which is supposedly a kid's book though it seems too dark. It's a really good book though...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/75/ee/4c/75ee4c36047f399fb8541d00efbda83c.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/7b/13/bd7b13bec0d024c1b7df44e294f61fa7.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f0/ba/36/f0ba36425083e0706ecf12430918f0f5.jpg

[Genesis]

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12239580_938718732830651_5872778505300876024_n.jpg ?oh=6a2ba412b58c94f3c07d17e22c98b76e&oe=56E49D09

[Genesis]

When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!
~ Rumi

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12239991_998522013523215_7607439182052671462_n.jpg ?oh=22c64d027b0610fa68441b97e657f6a0&oe=56EA3CAB

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12249783_922856064473702_5679269591147901637_n.jpg ?oh=c90b00fee083ab6fd4f5d38ba78904ff&oe=56ACA73C

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12246632_1653627521561433_5568482967875952850_n.jp g?oh=92de7717a1c71e6513e2b2211057cdca&oe=56B291C5

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/12249821_1652491468341705_5388348675857172944_n.jp g?oh=1ad23a5f58cdebb87c7192c8dc47e9db&oe=56DEEABF

[Genesis]

I am the poet of the Body and the poet of the Soul.
The pleasures of heaven are with me and pains of hell are with me.
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men...

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/12295438_10153085573576637_8288020253947716833_n.j pg?oh=82ee0f45e0583c4796e89a73a956ba8f&oe=56E8EC8E

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/12279054_1073831742628416_3150793502230228773_n.jp g?oh=c0401789c4bebcb462df9f32a066dd4f&oe=56DD2AC9

[Genesis]

​Rule #40 11/24/15
There Is Value In The Struggle
Although, obstacles are truly inevitable in all of our lives, they are not without purpose. I believe there is a grand design behind everything that happens and those very obstacles are put in place to be the tools to aid us in our own personal and spiritual conscious evolution.

The most important fact to remember when dealing with some of the lowest, darkest, saddest, most hurtful and emotional wreck of a time in our lives, is that we are not free from the pain of a situation, but we are free to transform that painful situation into an opportunity for our growth - should we choose to open our hearts accept it. Difficult roads are only treacherous when we fail to see the opportunity, everything that we experience serves to expand our growth and ultimately align us with who we truly are deep within, that's the greatest of all, to be fully aligned with our true self during every moment of every day. Every time we accept a challenge, we are summoning the courage, faith and the means of overcoming it – all of which dwells within us, we tap into the energy of our highest self, We reach in and tap into the powers of our highest self and serve to remind us that we are NOT helpless, hopeless, and lost.

All our strength, all our courage, all our answers lay dormant within us; nothing will be able to us hold us back for too long, choosing to have confidence in ourselves is the key to this process, think of it this way, the more we trust ourselves the less we will perceive anything as an issue or a painful situation - everything that happens to us has potential to transform into some of our greatest opportunities for growth - Giving up is no longer an option!
~Will "Story" Rivera

[Jesse]

“You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/v/t1.0-9/12308623_1654596708131181_8149851883879234424_n.jp g?oh=d343d35289aa8e470dd2fea06176f388&oe=56EC5BBD

[AmazonDC]

Torn Torn between thoughts
famished in doubt
I hold in my hand
my soul bleading out
\Torn in confusion
famished in pain I look around
as my life feels so plain
\Torn between worlds
famished in guilt
I hold in my hand
your soul to rebuild
\Torn between lives
famished in sleeplessness
I hold in my hand
my soul for which to rebuild
\Torn between love
famished from thought
we hold in our hands
each others hearts.

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12247021_1654594778131374_5561058942097928792_n.jp g?oh=9cebe4cadb3b6c5c0320a8cc86efa952&oe=56DCAEDF

[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/12112473_574929232654318_2937027549421671136_n.jpg ?oh=e4b35c4c3d082c2a723890d856da9936&oe=56F6625E

[Genesis]

Remembering your scent,
wherever I saw a flower
I smelled it and tears began to pour
wherever I saw a cypress in the meadow,
I kissed its feet in memory of you.
~ Rumi

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/4c/fb/bd4cfb7394abbb7499937ef39733fdaf.jpg

[Angeltoes]

I love this poem and it bugs me that when I see it online it almost always has the first two stanzas missing. I think some people don't get it.

Bukowski is not referring to a literal knife. He's expressing his grief over the end of a relationship and saying that he won't blame her for hurting him. When he calls her 'little dark girl' he's referring to her mood/personality not her coloring, but she is probably much younger than him...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/39/ea/eb/39eaeb0cb65f474a52a8c253bb1a9064.jpg

[Orema]

http://static2.quoteswave.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/If-the-concept-of-God-has.jpg?31a535

[kittygrrl]

https://lyndedegala.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/gfht.jpg?w=1036&h=870

[kittygrrl]

http://blog.yourstrulyweddingalbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Love-Is-Sweeter-The-Second-Time-Around-Blog-Posts.jpg

[TheHinduPose]

http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-to-feel-envy-is-human-to-savour-schadenfreude-is-devilish-arthur-schopenhauer-35-98-62.jpg

[angelface]

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/twelvepoemsaboutlife-141206094312-conversion-gate02/95/twelve-poems-about-life-5-638.jpg?cb=1417859787

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2f/3d/05/2f3d0521f7b9c9b87bc50c18530b3a64.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xft1/t51.2885-15/e15/11189212_439981119504287_2104064891_n.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/96/87/34/9687341d46a3d57de07c8bbac6b275e2.jpg

[Jesse]

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Jesse]

http://thevirtuousgirl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/christmas-image-03.jpg

[Orema]

https://img1.etsystatic.com/036/0/7702016/il_340x270.644630303_e1x0.jpg

[puddin']

https://img1.etsystatic.com/036/0/7702016/il_340x270.644630303_e1x0.jpg


okey dokey then...

[Orema]

okey dokey then...

You have me mixed up with someone who gives a damn about what you think.

[Orema]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m92go5rkVV1rr7aiho1_500.jpg

[Electrocell]

“I thought of all the others who had tried to tie her to the ground and failed. So I resisted showing her the songs and poems I had written, knowing that too much truth can ruin a thing. And if that meant she wasn't entirely mine, what of it? I would be the one she could always return to without fear of recrimination or question. So I did not try to win her and contented myself with playing a beautiful game. But there was always a part of me that hoped for more, and so there was a part of me that was always a fool.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

Cassandra Clare
“I didn't call you because I'm tired of you only wanting me around when you need something. I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else - someone, incidentally, who will never love you back. Not the way I do.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass



“Never fall in love with someone that won't fight for you because when the real battles begin they won't pull your heart to safety, but they will their own.”
― Shannon L. Alder

[Genesis]

Listen my love, illumination is eternal.
Now is always evolving.
As there are billions of stars, there are billions of steps.
As there are billions of souls, there are billions of ways to grow.

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

To you, love was about multitudes.
To me, love was inordinate.

I love you, I would say.
How much? You would ask.

I couldn’t find the words to answer you then.

But they have found their way to me since. And this is what I
would tell you.

I would blanket the world in utter darkness; I would pull back
the veil of light and reveal to you, a blinding crescendo of stars.

I would drain all the seven seas and ask you to count–one by
one–every grain of sand that clings to the ocean floor.

I would tally the beat of every human heart that has echoed
since the dawn of our becoming.

And as you look in awe at the sheer magnitude of my admission,
I would take your hand in mine and tell you; if only you had let
me, this is how much I could have loved you....

~Lang Leav

[Genesis]

Good morning, on 7 July

Even in bed my ideas yearn towards you, my Immortal Beloved, here and there joyfully, then again sadly, awaiting from Fate, whether it will listen to us. I can only live, either altogether with you or not at all. Yes, I have determined to wander about for so long far away, until I can fly into your arms and call myself quite at home with you, can send my soul enveloped by yours into the realm of spirits — yes, I regret, it must be. You will get over it all the more as you know my faithfulness to you; never another one can own my heart, never — never! O God, why must one go away from what one loves so, and yet my life in W. as it is now is a miserable life. Your love made me the happiest and unhappiest at the same time. At my actual age I should need some continuity, sameness of life — can that exist under our circumstances? Angel, I just hear that the post goes out every day — and must close therefore, so that you get the L. at once. Be calm — love me — today — yesterday.

What longing in tears for you — You — my Life — my All — farewell. Oh, go on loving me — never doubt the faithfullest heart

Of your beloved

L

Ever thine.
Ever mine.
Ever ours...

[Genesis]

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

[Genesis]

'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.

by Edgar Allan Poe

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[angelface]

http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/inspirational-quotes-4.jpg

[angelface]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/81/6a/cb/816acba68b2efe35801ad3dac8112fe0.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest.
~ Rumi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Angeltoes]

https://emynow.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/rblog.jpg?w=608&h=608

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/99/0a/a7/990aa747f3ed05145eb05efdf12cec2e.jpg

[Orema]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/8e/e5/58/8ee558469de6a87501f4afa1c0cfa9c2.jpg

[angelface]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/1c/82/49/1c8249c89c5cbbe094aebad64d971ffa.jpg

[angelface]

http://36.media.tumblr.com/9d227e5599c1eb1ff76672a9b4aeddd0/tumblr_nl0kldUAE91sz8z7wo1_400.jpg

[newdaynow]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/df/35/42/df354210795fe0a3299047a8cd9ebfd5.jpg

[Angeltoes]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

I know you’ve lost someone and it hurts. You may have
lost them suddenly, unexpectedly. Or perhaps you
began losing pieces of them until one day, there was
nothing left. You may have known them all your life or
you may have barely known them at all. Either way,
it is irrelevant–you cannot control the depth of a
wound another soul inflicts upon you.

Which is why I am not here to tell you tomorrow is
another day. That the sun will go on shining. Or there
are plenty of fish in the sea. What I will tell you is this;
it’s okay to be hurting as much as you are. What you
are feeling is not only completely valid but
necessary–because it makes you so much more
human. And though I can’t promise it will get better
any time soon, I can tell you that it will–eventually.
For now, all you can do is take your time. Take all the
time you need...

[Genesis]

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[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/93/c9/bd93c901aa030ad566926748c3dcea24.jpg

[Angeltoes]

http://img.picturequotes.com/2/39/38951/life-beats-down-and-crushes-the-soul-and-art-reminds-you-that-you-have-one-quote-1.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

Life is a tapestry of seasons, a
kaleidoscope of memories, a dance
between holding on and letting go.
It is the entwining of all experience
with the wisdom of all we know.
It is the poignancy of living in this
body we've been given, before we
once again merge with eternal flow...
~ Julie Parker

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[angelface]

http://addicted2success.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/positive-life-picture-quote.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[angelface]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

I will be waiting here.
For your silence to break
For your soul to shake
For your love to wake.
~ Rumi

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0c/b4/36/0cb436b8d75ddb8afbaca1380505353f.jpg

[Angeltoes]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f8/bb/30/f8bb30af299bed2e5097ec6194b1e0c7.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

What do you measure yourself by? Your bank account? Your job? Your “stuff”? The number of people you know and/or know you? Your accomplishments? Whether you’re meeting and checking the timeline and timetable of society’s social requirements for who you should be? All of the above?

It’s hard not to feel like life is some sort of race. After all, if there is one thing all of us can agree is a limited resource, it’s time. And because of our uncertain relationship with how much time we have, we can feel that what we want, what we aspire to do or own or be, can only be achieved within the frame of this limited resource – time.

There’s a pressure in being cognizant of time. A pressure that causes us to look at ourselves and compare our lives to others’ – even with limited information. A pressure that at times makes us resent our circumstances, present or past. A pressure that can feel crippling and infuriating and unjust. And sometimes it can feel that no matter how hard we try, how hard we fight, how much we work, and how badly we want it – we’re just not there.

And sometimes it can feel that no matter how hard we try, how hard we fight, how much we work, and how badly we want it – we’re just not there.
There is a place, that though mostly is a figment of our imagination, it feels as real as anything tangible. There is the place that we dream of, the place we tell ourselves that our happiness and desires can finally be realized. There is the place, we think, we will be satisfied and full and accomplished.

The reality of there, however, is that it always seems to change. The more success you have, the more you’ll likely want. The closer you are to the life of your fantasies, the greater those fantasies become. It’s human nature but it’s also simple economics: human wants are insatiable. And especially when you’re young and privileged and bright and have been told the world is at your feet, you work for and hope for and want all those things the world said you could be.

But experience hits you. The reality of what it takes to be those things in spite of your talent or hard work or circumstance, hits you. And it hits you over and over again, each time chipping away at those dreams and desires. But you resist, after all you’re young, and you’re resilient. Still, no matter how much hope you hold onto, you question: can I really do this? Is it really worth it? Am I just not good enough?

That question can be crippling – “Am I just not good enough?” But I wonder, good enough for what? Good enough for the societal standards we are all meant to live by? Good enough for the aspirations you have set your heart on? Good enough to be the person that you’d always said you were meant to become?

That question can be crippling – “Am I just not good enough?”
The truth is maybe you are and maybe you aren’t. Especially when it comes to society’s arbitrary rules on who you should be and what you should want, and how your dreams fit into all of this. It’s difficult to know whether to call it quits and find a new dream, or whether to keep fighting the good fight. It’s difficult when you know the odds are against you, or that “the rules” are designed to make winners and losers, or that luck exists, or that life is unfair and unevenly cruel. It’s difficult, in spite of the words of poets and artists and intellectuals, to believe that your dreams can really come true. Instead it feels more than anything else, that all dreams have done, is made you crippled with anxiety and dissatisfied with life. What does one do in these moments?

One thing that helps me in such moments is to focus on the task at hand. I’ve learned to focus on what I can do today every time I feel crippled by fear and anxiety and the unrelenting desire to be more than I am. Because the truth is that we must put in the work, but we must never be so pompous as to believe that the work in and of itself is enough to get us where we want to be. We are not in charge of it all, and that’s not superstition, that’s fact. We might need someone to take a chance on us, someone to believe in us, a stroke of luck, or the intervention of divine providence. And knowing this can be freeing, it can be the liberty you need to do your very best, while knowing that the world too must do its part.

Above all, the thing I find the most helpful when I feel defeated is to remember the previous time I felt like this. The last time I thought I wasn’t good enough, the last time I felt crippled by fear and anxiety of not being good enough – did I not survive it? Is it just not a temporary feeling like anything else? Indeed it was, indeed it is.

Chances are, as I realized in those times, when you think of time and there and experience, and the reality of how much is in your hands, and how much is not, you need to remember that even in those moments of what feels like crippling defeat or failure or the feeling that you are not enough – you’re probably doing much better than you think. And should you ever forget that, close your eyes, and listen to the sound of yourself breathing; that reminder of your life force. My dear friend, that is hope, and as long as that remains, you are enough.

- Kovie Biakolo

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

As we collectively express and experience love and kindness in every aspect of our lives, we will create immense healing and positive change in the world.

When kindness becomes pandemic to humanity, the world and our entire existence will experience both subtle and extreme changes on all levels. Kindness is not a ‘cloak’ to be put on and taken off at will…but our true nature that yearns to be shared. In our fast-paced and competitive world, we have become so used to ‘dressing up’ and changing ‘face’ to suit the situation and circumstance, that we have forgotten who we really are.

To receive and share kindness is the birthright of every person and creature on the planet and real change in the world comes with relating from the heart and teaching children and each other by example. We need to slip into the habit of being kind in all areas of our lives and watch for opportunities as we go about our day, where a meaningful smile and ‘hello’ or offering a helping hand to a stranger, can lift a mood and possibly save a life.

This time of year heralds for many people, thoughts of distant friends and relatives and perhaps the sending and receiving of that ‘once a year’ communication with ‘best wishes and an update on life’. For some, it’s a time of sadness, loneliness and longing for people and situations passed. The jovial ‘season’s greetings’ and ‘holiday wishes’ made in passing, may cheer a dreary day but when the ‘cloaks of festive kindness’ have been put away for another year, those lives still go on, sad and alone, in need of love and support.

Deep down we know that the true expression of who we are is not in seasonal or spasmodic acts of kindness but in constant care and concern for all living beings. Once we recognise and acknowledge our instinctive, authentic nature and begin to truly relate and interact from the heart, our thoughts and behavior will become consistently kind. When we each live by example in all we say and do, the loving nature of humanity will continue to expand and permeate all corners of the globe and as we collectively express and experience love and kindness in every aspect of our lives, we will create immense healing and positive change in the world.

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

You have no idea how hard I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.
It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.
So I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.
~ Rumi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

I have been having dreams about sleeping through my alarms lately. The dreams always end the same way – in them, I wake up startled, realizing what has happened, but by then it is already too late.

In my waking life, I hear alarms all the time.

I study climate change. I am a budding scientist. I am a community organizer. I am a twenty-two year old who is all too aware of what greenhouse gases mean for my generation: we will be living the consequences of a problem so monumental, it will affect every aspect of our future.

Most of my research has been in the Arctic. I remember the first time I saw glaciers calving in Greenland.

It was 2AM. The sun was out – as it always was in summer – and low on the horizon. I was hiking with other research assistants, walking along treeless tundra. I could see for miles. Every step I took left a deep imprint in the grasses. I felt the weight of my feet – knowing the Arctic landscape, I was acutely aware that those footprints would last for years, at least.

We perched on a mountain ridge and sat facing the ice sheet.

We waited.

And, then, it came – immense thunder in a cloudless sky. Then, a piercing crack.

Before it could even register, five skyscrapers tore off and turned into icebergs. Never in my life have I felt more like a speck of dust.

Most of us know all too well what climate change means for our generation. We are told by the most respected, serious, and intellectual people that we will have no future to live for unless society comes together as one common humanity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then, we are told by decision makers, adults, this same society, that our youth renders us powerless. How can we live with the grief of knowing we have no lives to look forward to? Should we even consider bringing children into this world when we know the world is betraying their own right to live?


Today, world leaders gathered in Paris to kick off the COP 21 United Nations climate talks – the biggest climate change conference of this decade. More Heads of State were in one place today than any other time in history.

I sat with other young people in these same halls. We collectively held our breath as we watched Barack Obama, François Hollande, Vladimir Putin, and Justin Trudeau speak.

“I believe, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that there is such a thing as being too late,” President Obama said. “And when it comes to climate change, that hour is almost upon us. But if we act here, if we act now, if we place our own short-term interests behind the air that our young people will breathe, and the food that they will eat, and the water that they will drink, and the hopes and dreams that sustain their lives, then we won’t be too late for them.”
All the while, the United States is still a country deliberately undermining the U.N. climate process.

We are young, and terrified.

Our fear is rooted in the immense love we have for this world.

My biggest fear in life is to see our world leaders act on climate change – to see our governments acknowledge what it means to be human and to feel the suffering of others, to show compassion – to cry happy tears, and then to wake up.

We are all young and seeking meaning – we have barely established our own identities.

How can we love ourselves, love each other, in such a broken world?

How can we love this world if it is so broken? How can we hope when, as we speak, world leaders are holding hands as they walk into oblivion? They are negotiating our futures away.

Love this world till it hurts. Foster an aching love for everything around us – clear skies, dandelions, untouched snow, sunshine, the feeling of bouncy grass against our bare soles.

Find it within you to love this world in spite of its brokenness. Love it because it is broken.

In the face of climate change, love is all we have left. There is hope at the heart of this all – we are young, but we know what the future can look like, and our love for the world pushes us to continue working on making it better.

The alarm bells are ringing...

[Electrocell]

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu


“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
― Lao Tzu


“If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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