Quotes, Poems, & Sayings...

[Genesis]

“Each moment you are alive is a gem, shining through and containing earth and sky, water and clouds."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

[Genesis]

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”

- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

[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]

“When the person you love can't see your love for them beneath the painful things you say when they reject you,
remember this: Love is blind.”

― Shannon L. Alder

[Genesis]

“He started to estrange her...
And they became strangers
Who knew each other's heart,
So broken as they drifted apart.”

― Ana Claudia Antunes, Pierrot & Columbine

[Genesis]

“True love is many things and can survive the strongest and most painful of times.
When love comes out the other side of a fire,
it may be scarred forever, but this bruised love is somehow only greater for having survived the pain.”

― John Carter Cash, House of Cash: The Legacies of my Father, Johnny Cash

[Genesis]

“Among my stillness was a pounding heart.”

― Shannon A. Thompson, Seconds Before Sunrise

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

“As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished.
No reality fits an ideology.
Life is beyond that. …
That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life…
Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning.
Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.”

- Anthony de Mello

[Genesis]

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[Orema]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/be/8b/77/be8b775c3afc5602e9f4a28ffea996b6.jpg

[CherryWine]

Stars should not be seen alone. That's why there are so many. Two people should stand together and look at them. One person alone will surely miss the good ones.

- Augusten Burroughs

[kittygrrl]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6P97mkqF1TU/TwQd9I1tFZI/AAAAAAAACbI/kyMMnGHtNc0/s1600/fantasy-eyes-lips-nice-beautiful-Love-photo-kiss-electro-Effect-animations-fantasy_large.jpg
Remember death is the great equalizer-the goddess

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills."

- Chinese proverb

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands -
a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream.

There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and, above all,
the assurance that you are not alone in the world."

- Sidney Lovett

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

“My first memory is of light - the brightness of light - light all around.”

- Georgia O'Keeffe

[Orema]

You can't be nobody but who you are because that's the only thing you've got to measure yourself against the world. —August Wilson

[Genesis]

“Whatever can be threatened,
whatever can be shaken,
whatever you fear cannot stand, is destined to crash.
Do not go down with the ship.
Let that which is destined to become the past slip away.
Believe that the real you is that which beckons from the future.
If it is a sadder you, it will be a wiser one. And dawn will follow the darkness sooner or later.
Rebirth can never come without death.”

- Robert M. Price

[Genesis]

As you grow older,
you will discover that you have two hands,
one for helping yourself,
the other for helping others.

- Audrey Hepburn

[Genesis]

Not to live for the day,
that would be materialistic — but to treasure the day.
I realize that most of us live on the skin — on the surface —
without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.

- Audrey Hepburn

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

A healthy BDSM relationship is not something that just pops out of the box (or your computer) readymade.
It takes time, trust, trial and error, failure and victory, love, laughter, and joy.

~E.Cramer

[Kobi]

'You'll find out how strong you are when being strong is the only option you have.'

[BullDog]

I don't always destroy Cheeto-faced bigots while accepting a lifetime achievement award, but when I do, I don't even have to say his name.

Meryl Streep

[Orema]

All y'all looking CRAZY right now!!! Be aware, be alert, or be bamboozled.

—Rapper, T.I.

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Orema]

The following is the text of Jerry Brown’s State of the State Address: ‘When California hurts, America hurts’
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/24/text-of-jerry-browns-state-of-the-state-when-california-hurts-america-hurts/

==============

Edmund G. Brown Jr.
State of the State Address
Remarks as Prepared
January 24, 2017

Thank you. Thank you for all that energy and enthusiasm. It is just what we need for the battle ahead. So keep it up and don’t ever falter.

This is California, the sixth most powerful economy in the world. One out of every eight Americans lives right here and 27 percent – almost eleven million – were born in a foreign land.

When California does well, America does well. And when California hurts, America hurts.

As the English poet, John Donne, said almost 400 years ago:

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

A few moments ago, I swore into office our new attorney general. Like so many others, he is the son of immigrants who saw California as a place where, through grit and determination, they could realize their dreams. And they are not alone, millions of Californians have come here from Mexico and a hundred other countries, making our state what it is today: vibrant, even turbulent, and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

We don’t have a Statue of Liberty with its inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” But we do have the Golden Gate and a spirit of adventure and openness that has welcomed – since the Gold Rush of 1848 – one wave of immigration after another.

For myself, I feel privileged to stand before you as your governor, as did my father almost sixty years ago. His mother, Ida, the youngest of eight children, was born in very modest circumstances, not very far from where we are gathered today. Her father arrived in California in 1852, having left from the Port of Hamburg, aboard a ship named “Perseverance.”

It is that spirit of perseverance and courage which built our state from the beginning. And it is that spirit which will get us through the great uncertainty and the difficulties ahead.

It is customary on an occasion like this to lay out a specific agenda for the year ahead. Six times before from this rostrum, I have done that, and in some detail. And, as I reread those proposals set forth in previous State of the State speeches, I was amazed to see how much we have accomplished together.

We have:

Increased – by tens of billions – support for our public schools and universities.
Provided health insurance to over five million more Californians.
Raised the minimum wage.
Reduced prison overcrowding and reformed our system of crime and punishment.
Made California a world leader in the fight against climate change.
Passed a water bond.
Built up a rainy day fund.
And closed a huge $27 billion deficit.

And during the last seven years, California has reduced the unemployment rate from 12.1 percent to 5.2 percent and created almost 2.5 million jobs. And that’s not all.

But this morning it is hard for me to keep my thoughts just on California. The recent election and inauguration of a new President have shown deep divisions across America.

While no one knows what the new leaders will actually do, there are signs that are disturbing. We have seen the bald assertion of “alternative facts.” We have heard the blatant attacks on science. Familiar signposts of our democracy –truth, civility, working together – have been obscured or swept aside.

But on Saturday, in cities across the country, we also witnessed a vast and inspiring fervor that is stirring in the land. Democracy doesn’t come from the top; it starts and spreads in the hearts of the people. And in the hearts of Americans, our core principles are as strong as ever.

So as we reflect on the state of our state, we should do so in the broader context of our country and its challenges. We must prepare for uncertain times and reaffirm the basic principles that have made California the Great Exception that it is.

First, in California, immigrants are an integral part of who we are and what we’ve become. They have helped create the wealth and dynamism of this state from the very beginning.

I recognize that under the Constitution, federal law is supreme and that Washington determines immigration policy. But as a state we can and have had a role to play. California has enacted several protective measures for the undocumented: the Trust Act, lawful driver’s licenses, basic employment rights and non-discriminatory access to higher education.

We may be called upon to defend those laws and defend them we will. And let me be clear: we will defend everybody – every man, woman and child – who has come here for a better life and has contributed to the well-being of our state.

My second point relates to health care. More than any other state, California embraced the Affordable Care Act and over five million people now enjoy its benefits. But that coverage has come with tens of billions of federal dollars. Were any of that to be taken away, our state budget would be directly affected, possibly devastated. That is why I intend to join with other governors – and with you – to do everything we can to protect the health care of our people.

Third, our state is known the world over for the actions we have taken to encourage renewable energy and combat climate change.

Whatever they do in Washington, they can’t change the facts. And these are the facts: the climate is changing, the temperatures are rising and so are the oceans. Natural habitats everywhere are under increasing stress. The world knows this.

One hundred and ninety-four countries signed the Paris Agreement to control greenhouse gases. Our own voluntary agreement to accomplish the same goal – the “Under Two M.O.U.” – has 165 signatories, representing a billion people.

We cannot fall back and give in to the climate deniers. The science is clear. The danger is real.

We can do much on our own and we can join with others – other states and provinces and even countries, to stop the dangerous rise in climate pollution. And we will.

Fourth is infrastructure. This is a topic where the President has stated his firm intention to build and build big.

In his inaugural address, he said: “We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.”

And in this, we can all work together – here in Sacramento and in Washington as well. We have roads and tunnels and railroads and even a dam that the President could help us with. And that will create good-paying American jobs.

As we face the hard journey ahead, we will have to summon, as Abraham Lincoln said, “the better angels of our nature.” Above all else, we have to live in the truth.

We all have our opinions but for democracy to work, we have to trust each other. We have to strive to understand the facts and state them clearly as we argue our points of view. As Hugo Grotius, the famous Dutch jurist, said long ago, “even God cannot cause two times two not to make four.”

When the science is clear or when our own eyes tell us that the seats in this chamber are filled or that the sun is shining, we must say so, not construct some alternate universe of non-facts that we find more pleasing.

Along with truth, we must practice civility. Although we have disagreed – often along party lines – we have generally been civil to one another and avoided the rancor of Washington. I urge you to go even further and look for new ways to work beyond party and act as Californians first.

Democrats are in the majority, but Republicans represent real Californians too. We went beyond party when we reformed workers’ compensation, when we created a rainy day fund and when we passed the water bond.

Let’s do that again and set an example for the rest of the country. And, in the process, we will earn the trust of the people of California.

And then there is perseverance. It is not an accident that the sailing ship that brought my great-grandfather to America was named “Perseverance.” That is exactly what it took to endure the dangerous and uncertain months at sea, sailing from Germany to America.

While we now face different challenges, make no mistake: the future is uncertain and dangers abound. Whether it’s the threat to our budget, or to undocumented Californians, or to our efforts to combat climate change – or even more global threats such as a financial meltdown or a nuclear incident or terrorist attack – this is a time which calls out for courage and for perseverance. I promise you both.

But let’s remember as well that after the perilous voyage, those who made it to America found boundless opportunity. And so will we.

Let me end in the immortal words of Woody Guthrie:

“This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me…

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.”

California is not turning back. Not now, not ever.

[Genesis]

When love is not accepted move on;
when love is not appreciated walk away;
hopefully time will teach what real, true love is.

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

Never lose hope, my heart, miracles dwell in the invisible.
If the whole world turns against you keep your eyes on the Friend...

-Rumi

[Genesis]

What comes, will go.
What is found, will be lost again.
But what you are is beyond coming and going and beyond description.

You are It...

- Rumi

[Genesis]

Strive to be intuitive,
spontaneous,
and simple.
Travel lighter,
journey farther,
survive longer...

- Lao Tzu

[Kenna]

A relationship without trust is like a car without gas...
You can stay in it all you want but it won't go anywhere.

[Orema]

http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-how-far-you-go-in-life-depends-on-your-being-tender-with-the-young-compassionate-with-the-aged-george-washington-carver-33114.jpg

[Medusa]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c6/54/c4/c654c4ff0f9f6630cb459349aa5e867f.jpg

[Jesse]

"Tell me the truth, Frank, remember that? We used to live by it. And you know what’s so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is however long they’ve lived without it. No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying."

April Wheeler (Kate Winslet)
Revolutionary Road

[Orema]

"It's a sad day in America when the words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow are not allowed on the floor of the United States Senate. Let Elizabeth Warren speak." —Democratic National Committee Interim Chairwoman, Donna Brazile, in response to Republicans voting to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren for citing a letter by the late Corvette Scott King during a debate on the nomination of Jeff Sessions as Donald Trump's attorney general.

[Orema]

http://www.undp.org.fj/ro/wp-content/poze/2012/02/valentines-day-intre-iubire-si-singuratate1-450x236.jpg

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
—Helen Keller

[Orema]

"As every other court to address the question has concluded, public accommodations laws do not simply guarantee access to goods or services. Instead, they serve a broader societal purpose: eradicating barriers to the equal treatment of all citizens in the commercial marketplace." —Washington State Supreme Court Judges in their unanimous ruling in favor of Curt Freed and Robert Ingersoll who sued a Washington florist for violating the state's anti-discrimination law when she denied Freed and Ingersoll wedding services on the basis of her faith. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, February 16, 2017.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/us/washington-florist-same-sex-wedding-discrimination-lawsuit/index.html

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Genesis]

"With love and patience, nothing is impossible."

- Daisaku Ikeda

[Genesis]

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[Medusa]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fb/22/7c/fb227c5e1ae4ba291cde6156bc37ff0c.jpg

[Orema]

On Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, justified revoking the transgender school guidance by saying Mr. Trump is a “firm believer in states’ rights.” This inglorious justification has been deployed repeatedly by those on the wrong side of history in earlier civil rights battles. It was used to fight abolitionists, the women’s suffrage movement, the repeal of Jim Crow laws and, most recently, same-sex marriage.

As the federal government turns its back on transgender students, there is much that local officials, school administrators and parents can do to foster inclusive and safe learning environments. The federal government’s shift is no reason to abandon a set of common-sense guidelines that were informed by years of research by medical professionals.

This should be a clarifying moment for the L.G.B.T. movement. Mr. Trump has offered no evidence that he is committed to advancing L.G.B.T. rights. Unless and until that changes, safeguarding the remarkable progress this community has made over the past decade will fall on ordinary Americans.

—New York Times Editorial Board, Opinion Page, from President Trump Breaks a Promise on Transgender Rights (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/opinion/president-trump-breaks-a-promise-on-transgender-rights.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region)

[Genesis]

"Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew,
With rust is covered. -Pain
Rusts into beauty too....

- Mary Caroline Davies

Our pain is ours. Some of it we have earned, the
rest not, and it is still our own. When we fight our pain,
we fight the experience of our humanness, and we
lose ourselves in the process. A life without pain is
a life of nonliving. Our pain lets us know and come
to understand the full meaning of being human. If
we fight the normal experience of our pain, we lose
the possibility of experiencing the process of its
rusting "into beauty too."

We don't need to seek pain, but when it is inevitably
there, we have the possibility of something
new entering our lives.

MY PAIN is a possibility. It is not a liability or a punishment.

- Anne Wilson Schaef

[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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[Orema]

Follow the money.

–Mark Felt, former FBI Associate Director, aka Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal.

[Jesse]

Whatever you do, try your best to keep a big perspective. Don't let the worries and concerns of the day dominate your thoughts and weigh you down.

https://uk.linkedin.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_400_400/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAvQAAAAJDQ3NDhhNDM5LTUyMzctNDRhMy1hZT YyLTE5YmM2NWZmZTU3OQ.jpg

[Jesse]

It is important to understand that you get what you think about, whether you want it or not. And chronic thoughts about unwanted things invite, or ask for, matching experiences. - Esther Hicks

[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]

http://indepthconference.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/rupi-kaur.jpg?w=720

[Genesis]

http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/71/9c/bd/719cbdb7ad9786f02462b16daeb3ead1.jpg

[Genesis]

Knowledge was inherent in all things.
The world was a library and its books
Were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks...
We learned to do what only the students
of nature ever learn, that was to feel beauty.

~ Luther Standing Bear

[Genesis]

Happiness is strange;
it comes when you are not seeking it.
When you are not making an effort to be happy,
then unexpectedly,
mysteriously,
happiness is there,
born of purity,
of a loveliness of being...

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

[Genesis]

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures..
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed...

~ Kahlil Gibrani

[Genesis]

Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,
I am given unimaginable gifts;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.

Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed…

~ Jennifer Welwood

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

- By Lord Byron (George Gordon)

[Genesis]

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

When we slow down and become more present,
our hearts open in new and magical ways,
as we begin to tune into and become more aware of the deeper mysteries,
beauties and wonders of life.

- Mary Ann Byrne

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.
His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him,
and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

- Niccolo Machiavelli

[Genesis]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/k/kimcollins/234073/kimcollins1.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

3BiEbOwanPk

[Genesis]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/l/leobuscaglia/121067/leobuscaglia1.jpg

[Genesis]

http://www.theholidayspot.com/friendship/images/quotes/friendship-quotes-03.jpg

[Genesis]

Sorrow prepares you for joy.
It violently sweeps everything out of your house,
so that new joy can find space to enter.
It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart,
so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place.
It pulls up the rotten roots,
so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow.
Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart,
far better things will take their place.

~ Rumi

[girl_dee]

http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/images/quotes/some-people-are-like-clouds.jpg

[Genesis]

http://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-01/9/17/enhanced/webdr01/enhanced-buzz-wide-699-1420843288-14.jpg?no-auto

[Genesis]

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

[Genesis]

“Never be bullied into silence.
Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

—Harvey Fierstein

[Genesis]

“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd.
The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has been before.”

—Albert Einstein

[Genesis]

“There isn’t a way things should be.
There’s just what happens, and what we do.”

—Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"You are more than your thoughts, your body or your feelings.
You are a swirling vortex of limitless potential who is here to shake things up
and create something new that the universe has never seen."

- Dr. Richard Bartlett

[Genesis]

QUEST

Take me past
the guarded place
in you
where confusion
covers itself
in unrelenting confidence
then marches on
In lively steps
Take off the façade
let it fall away
into nowhere
Turn around and face me
I search the infinite depth
where beyond all entrenchments
I find your thirst
to be met
and understood
the sadness in your bones,
the want of your silent cries
to be heard
and be known—
abiding within those
unseen landscapes
is a world of precious
dreams
Let me touch where
the battle wounds
lie quietly healing—
Buried beneath
an armored sheath
rests a lifetime of love
and loneliness,
blame and triumph,
honor and defeat
Within this blended web
of scars and treasures,
glistening with honesty,
there you are—
I found you,
beneath the soldier’s plated heart
So loosen the knots around my own
see all its agony bared and mending
and in between each open space
we’ll breathe upon the frailty
All the wishful longings to be had
bring to me yours
as I meet you there with mine.

~by Susan Frybort.

[Genesis]

“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.” ― Mo Willems.

You’re allowed to leave any story you don’t find yourself in.
You’re allowed to leave any story you don’t love yourself in.

You’re allowed to leave a city that has dimmed your light instead of making you shine brighter,
you’re allowed to pack all your bags and start over somewhere else and you’re allowed to redefine the meaning of your life.

You’re allowed to quit the job you hate even if the world tells you not to and
you’re allowed to search for something that makes you look forward to tomorrow and to the rest of your life.

You’re allowed to leave someone you love if they’re treating you poorly,
you’re allowed to put yourself first if you’re settling and
you’re allowed to walk away when you’ve tried over and over again but nothing has changed.

You’re allowed to let toxic friends go, you’re allowed to surround yourself with love, and people who encourage and nurture you.
You’re allowed to pick the kind of energy you need in your life.

You’re allowed to forgive yourself for your biggest and smallest mistakes and you’re allowed to be kind to yourself,
you’re allowed to look in the mirror and actually like the person you see.
You’re allowed to set yourself free from your own expectations.

We sometimes look at leaving as a bad thing or associate it with giving up or quitting,
but sometimes leaving is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Leaving allows you to change directions, to start over, to rediscover yourself and the world.
Leaving sometimes saves you from staying stuck in the wrong place with the wrong people.

Leaving opens a new door for change, growth, opportunities and redemption.

You always have the choice to leave until you find where you belong and what makes you happy.

You’re even allowed to leave the old you behind and reinvent yourself...

By Rania Naim

[Genesis]

Just living is not enough...
one must have sunshine,
freedom,
and a little flower...
-Anderson

[Genesis]

“Listen to the inner light; it will guide you.
Listen to inner peace; it will feed you.
Listen to inner love; it will transform you, it will divinise you, it will immortalise you.”

- Sri Chinmoy

[kittygrrl]

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1c/bc/cb/1cbccbe9f33985fb23dbbb4842f908c2.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"Through your awakening, you awaken others."

- Solara An-Ra

[Genesis]

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

[Genesis]

“I take a deep breath and sidestep my fear and begin speaking from the place where beauty and bravery meet--within the chambers of a quivering heart.”

- Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[Genesis]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos/w/williamarthurward110212.jpg

[Genesis]

There are thousands of inspirational stories waiting to be told about young women who yearn for a great education.
They are stories of struggle and stories of success, and they will inspire others to take action and work to change lives.

- Soledad O'Brien

[gotoseagrl]

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[Genesis]

Love is cure.
Love is power.
Love is the magic of change.
Love is the mirror of divine beauty...

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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I love the rawness of this poem...

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

she has absinthe in her skin,
that which intoxicates my sins.
she is the healing of a goddess,
that cauterizes these grievous wounds which bleed.
she is the grave i have begged for,
she is the death that i need.

there are roses in her blood and thorns surround her heart,
there is chaos in her eyes, and her lips breath new art.
as my souls swan dives from new heights ,
she will be the glorious ending to this lonely life,
i will be her darkness and she will be my light.

Poetry by: { C.w.V }

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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~Unknown

[Genesis]

If you only knew
how much those little moments
with you mattered to me...

~Unknown

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"“Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy;
every child, every person, needs to be celebrated.
Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative,
broken self-images be transformed.”

Jean Vanier

[Genesis]

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

- Carl G. Jung

[Genesis]

“You have it in your power to make your days on Earth a path of flowers, instead of a path of thorns.”

- Sri Sathya Sai Baba

[Genesis]

“When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms.”

- Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, The 11 Karmic Spaces: Choosing Freedom from the Patterns That Bind You

[Genesis]

In spring all secrets are revealed, whatever the earth has hidden is exposed.

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

Those who don't feel this Love pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn like a cup of spring water or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change, let them sleep.

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

When I run after what I think I want,
my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;
if I sit in my own place of patience,
what I need flows to me, and without pain.
From this I understand that
what I want also wants me,
is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here
for anyone who can grasp it.

~ Shams Tabrizi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Orema]

Smiling doesn't win you gold medals.
—Vault and Floor Gold Medalist, Simone Biles.

[Genesis]

In every loss there is a gain, as in every gain there is a loss, and with each ending comes a new beginning.

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

A heart filled with love is like a phoenix that no cage can imprison.

~ Rumi

[Genesis]

To such a one I say:

I love you
a love sublime
a love beyond mortality
a kind of love among the Gods
pure, effervescent
self-less and kind
ebbing and flowing
beyond the edges of
space and time...

[Genesis]

Everything remembers something.
The rock, its fiery bed, cooling and fissuring into cracked pieces, the rub of watery fingers along its edge.
The cloud remembers being elephant, camel, giraffe, remembers being a veil over the face of the sun,gathering itself together for the fall.
The turtle remembers the sea, sliding over and under its belly, remembers legs like wings, escaping down the sand under the beaks of savage birds.
The tree remembers the story of each ring; the years of drought, the floods, the way things came walking slowly towards it long ago.
And the skin remembers its scars, and the bone aches where it was broken.
The feet remember the dance, and the arms remember lifting up the child.
The heart remembers everything it loved and gave away, everything it lost and found again, and everyone it loved, the heart cannot forget.

- Joyce Sutphen

[Genesis]

"To be beautiful means to be yourself.
You don’t need to be accepted by others.
You need to accept yourself."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

[Genesis]

"To be great, be whole;
Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you.
Be whole in everything. Put all you are
Into the smallest thing you do.
So, in each lake, the moon shines with splendor
Because it blooms up above."

- Fernando Pessoa

[Genesis]

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain
or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

- Rabindranath Tagore

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"The feelings we live through in love and in loneliness are simply, for us, what high tide and low tide are to the sea.”

- Kahlil Gibran, Letters in the Sand, The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran

[Genesis]

"There is a presence, a silence, a stillness which is here by itself ... It is simply here in you, with you.
It is the fragrance of your own self ... it is naturally present.
This fragrance of peace, this spaciousness, it is the fragrance of your own being."

- Mooji

[Genesis]

“It takes courage to push yourself
to places you have never been before...
to test your limits...
to break through barriers.
And the day came when the risk it
took to stay tight inside the bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom.”

- Anaïs Nin

[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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[introverted1]

"There are places in the heart that do not yet exist, so into them enters suffering, in order that they may have existence."

Leon Bloy

[purepisces]

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."

~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

[purepisces]

"Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself."
~ Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

[purepisces]

"Do they sense it, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so." ~ Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

[purepisces]

“i am a museum full of art
but you had your eyes shut”

~ Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey

[purepisces]

“Poets are damned… but see with the eyes of angels.”
~ Allen Ginsberg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic,
imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

- Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

[Genesis]

I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that
thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.
But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought
it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,
it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,
it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.
And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,
this is the black day
someone close
to you could die.
This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next
and I found myself
sitting up
in the quiet pathway
of light,
the tawny
close grained cedar
burning round
me like fire
and all the angels of this housely
heaven ascending
through the first
roof of light
the sun has made.
This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.
This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.
There is no house
like the house of belonging.

- David Whyte

[Genesis]

"When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us.
Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things.
When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us.
The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”

- John O'Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren’t contracts
and presents aren’t promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman,
not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow’s ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn…

- Veronica A. Shoffstall

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[gotoseagrl]

I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life. Leni Riefenstahl

[Glenn]

We were lowered into this bondage of vanity, NOT willingly. We didn't want to lay down our lives and die for You. And what was once said was no greater love? So, we agreed to lay our life down here, as a means to return to You, and the place we were before, with the experience of what that means.- My Rabbi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"Once you are able to look at another being and see no difference at all, there is no need for harmony.
For here there is only Oneness.
This is the place the story began.
And this is the end toward which all consciousness strives to return …
for in truth, there is only One of us here."

- Buddha

[gotoseagrl]

Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps… perhaps…love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath. Lucy Maud Montgomery

[akiza]

scalded cat fears cold water

[Genesis]

Tender words we spoke
to one another
are sealed in the secret vaults of heaven.
One day like rain,
they will fall to earth
and grow green
all over the world.

- Rumi

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person.
You can call it compassionate listening.
You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

You say that you love the rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains.
You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines.
You say that you love the wind, but you close your windows when wind blows.
This is why I am afraid; you say that you love me too.
~ Qyazzirah Syeikh Ariffin, I am Afraid


If you have never stood in the pouring rain commanding lightning, thrilled by the electric charge that makes the hairs on your arm stand up, joyously welcoming the mix of ether and ozone that shortens your breath and quickens your pulse—you cannot say you have ever loved a storm.

If you have never stood bare, arms out in grateful reception of the sun’s life-giving and life-taking energy until your skin burned and your sight dimmed and you became the raging fury and heat of a star—you cannot say you have ever loved the sun.

If you have never stood on the highest point you could find, exposed to the howling wind that threatened to carry you as it screamed its furious emotions in a voice so loud it deafens and numbs as it tears through your very soul—you cannot say you have ever loved the wind.

If you have never stood in complete and total awe and wonder of the one who receives and returns your affection and attention,
and yes,
your worship,
with heart and soul open and inviting,
ready to face the storm,
willing to burn,
able to withstand the wind
with unfettered courage and faith and joy and gratitude,
or have never
been fierce enough
to be
as gentle
as a warm rain
on a cool,
windless day,
then you cannot say you have ever truly loved at all.

I will do all of this and more.
So much more.
My love is the blazing sun,
the howling wind,
the freezing blizzard,
the devouring sands,
the falling mountains,
the raging sea,
the gentle breeze,
the cool pond,
the warm rain,
the spring day,

My love is the storm.
Do not be afraid.

- J.M. Greff

[Genesis]

Don’t ever tell her she’s not the stuff of heroes and warriors simply because she’s a girl.
Don’t ever imply she’s weak or too delicate to overcome.
She is a resilient being of flesh and light, the epitome of beauty—made up of thoughts and intellect,
endurance and courage, her essence as unique as her dreams.
She’ll tear away thorny vines and scale walls to climb her way through adversity.
She’ll arise to challenge and will eat all the what ifs before they ever have a chance to consume her.
She will go places. And everywhere she goes, the stars will be suffused by her shine.

(~an excerpt from Susan Frybort's new book, 'Open Passages')

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

[Genesis]

"She never seemed shattered; to me,
she was a breathtaking mosaic of the battles she’s won."

- Matt Baker, via they-called-her-sunshine

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement ...
get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.
Begin each day with a grateful Heart...

- Abraham Heschel

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Orema]

Trump's Obama Obsession (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/opinion/trumps-obama-obsession.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region), Charles M. Blow, New York Times

Donald Trump has a thing about Barack Obama. Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump’s dreams. One of Trump’s primary motivators is the absolute erasure of Obama — were it possible — not only from the political landscape but also from the history books.

Trump is president because of Obama, or more precisely, because of his hostility to Obama. Trump came onto the political scene by attacking Obama.

Trump has questioned not only Obama’s birthplace but also his academic and literary pedigree. He was head cheerleader of the racial “birther” lie and also cast doubt on whether Obama attended the schools he attended or even whether he wrote his acclaimed books.

Trump has lied often about Obama: saying his inauguration crowd size exceeded Obama’s, saying that Obama tapped his phones and, just this week, saying that Obama colluded with the Russians.

It’s like a 71-year-old male version of Jan from what I would call the Bratty Bunch: Obama, Obama, Obama.

Trump wants to be Obama — held in high esteem. But, alas, Trump is Trump, and that is now and has always been trashy. Trump accrued financial wealth, but he never accrued cultural capital, at least not among the people from whom he most wanted it.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/06/29/opinion/29blowWEB/29blowWEB-master675.jpg
(President Trump heading to the White House Rose Garden on June 1, when he announced that he would pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.)

Therefore, Trump is constantly whining about not being sufficiently applauded, commended, thanked, liked. His emotional injury is measured in his mind against Obama. How could Obama have been so celebrated while he is so reviled?

The whole world seemed to love Obama — and by extension, held America in high regard — but the world loathes Trump. A Pew Research Center report issued this week found:

“Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22 percent has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64 percent expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.”

Obama was a phenomenon. He was elegant and cerebral. He was devoid of personal scandal and drenched in personal erudition. He was a walking, talking rebuttal to white supremacy and the myths of black pathology and inferiority. He was the personification of the possible — a possible future in which legacy power and advantages are redistributed more broadly to all with the gift of talent and the discipline to excel.

It is not a stretch here to link people’s feelings about Obama to their feelings about his blackness. Trump himself has more than once linked the two.

Just two months before Trump announced his candidacy, he weighed in on the unrest in Baltimore in the wake of the police killing of Freddie Gray, tweeting:

“Our great African American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore!”

Months earlier, following the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after the police killing of Michael Brown, Trump complained:

“President Obama has absolutely no control (or respect) over the African American community—they have fared so poorly under his presidency.”

Trump also tweeted:

“Sadly, because president Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!”

Clearly, not only was Obama’s blackness in the front of Trump’s mind, but Trump also appears to subscribe to the racist theory that success or failure of a member of a racial group redounds to all in that group. This is a burden under which most minorities in this country labor.

Trump’s racial ideas were apparently a selling point among his supporters. Recent research has dispensed with the myth of “economic anxiety” and shone a light instead on the central importance race played in Trump’s march to the White House. As the researchers Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel reported in The Nation in March:

“In short, our analysis indicates that Donald Trump successfully leveraged existing resentment towards African Americans in combination with emerging fears of increased racial diversity in America to reshape the presidential electorate, strongly attracting nativists towards Trump and pushing some more affluent and highly educated people with more cosmopolitan views to support Hillary Clinton. Racial identity and attitudes have further displaced class as the central battleground of American politics.”

Trump was sent to Washington to strip it of all traces of Obama, to treat the Obama legacy as a historical oddity. Trump’s entire campaign was about undoing what Obama had done.

Indeed, much of what Trump has accomplished — and it hasn’t been much — has been to undo Obama’s accomplishments, like pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate agreement and reversing an Obama-era rule that helped prevent guns from being purchased by certain mentally ill people.

For Trump, even plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act aren’t so much about creating better policy as they are about dismantling Obama’s legacy. The problem with Obamacare isn’t that it hasn’t borne fruit, but rather that it bears Obama’s name.

For Trump, the mark of being a successful president is the degree to which he can expunge Obama’s presidency.

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

“What we do for ourselves dies with us.
What we do for others remains and is immortal.”
-Albert Pike

[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]

"When we slow down and become more present,
our hearts open in new and magical ways,
as we begin to tune into and become more aware of the deeper mysteries,
beauties and wonders of life."

- Mary Ann Byrne

[2qt]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4d/4d/93/4d4d9368c633892a70e48a40981ebf3b--lost-love-love-is.jpg

[Genesis]

"Real Intimacy is a meeting between two souls,
an invitation to meet each other exactly where they are,
without expectation or agenda.

It doesn’t demand gifts and benefits, sexual prowess, conditional offerings.
It merely asks you to show up as you are, fully revealed and present.
It invites you to shed your masks and disguises,
to surrender to whatever is real for you in the moment.

Real intimacy meets you right where you live,
not where you or anyone else wants you to live.
It’s the big sigh of relief that arises when you finally know
that you don’t have to put on a show to feel seen or accepted.
Here we are, just as we are."

~ Jeff Brown

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

http://lovetofeelgoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LoveAndHonor.jpg

[Genesis]

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[gotoseagrl]

"...act when the feeling of inspiration is so compelling that nothing else will do." Abraham Hicks

[kittygrrl]

http://www.thequotepedia.com/images/29/my-only-love-sprung-from-my-only-hate-too-early-seen-unknown-and-known-too-late.jpg

[Genesis]

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean.
Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”

- David Mitchell

[Genesis]

http://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/f/felixmendelssohn/257544/felixmendelssohn1.jpg

[Genesis]

Ever since I began to compose,
I have remained true to my starting principle:
not to write a page because no matter what public,
or what pretty girl wanted it to be thus or thus;
but to write solely as I myself thought best, and as it gave me pleasure.


- Felix Mendelssohn

[Genesis]

While traveling around the world,
I've had the opportunity to work with every living beauty icon.
I've learned to appreciate idiosyncrasy.

The fact is, there is really no such thing as 'normal' - everybody's different,
and that is the essence of their beauty.

- Kevyn Aucoin

[Genesis]

The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown: Absolute Essence.

- Helena Blavatsky

[Genesis]

It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.

Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
comver your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.

Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.

Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out.

[Genesis]

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[knight]

"Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere"

--Martin Luther King Jr.

[Genesis]

http://www.goodmorningquote.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/grief-quotes-bible.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]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[LOQUI]

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

-Theodore Roosevelt-

[Genesis]

http://files.planetofsuccess.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/sky.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

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[LOQUI]

"One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You’re bored. You’re depressed. You’re shy. You’re stuck up. You’re judgemental. When others can’t read us, they write their own story—not always one we choose or that’s true to who we are.”

Sophia Dembling

:eyebrow:

[Genesis]

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding.
But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.
As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft,
and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard.

This is another paradox: what is soft is strong."

- Lao Tzu

[Genesis]

“Nature is woman's best friend,' She often said.
'If you're having troubles,
you just swim in the water,
stretch out in a field,
or look up at the stars.

That's how a woman cures her fears'.”

―Fatema Mernissi

[Orema]

... There is an enduring expectation, particularly among American liberals, that progress in this society should move inexorably toward more openness, honesty and equality. But even the historical record doesn’t support that expectation.

In reality, America regularly experiences bouts of regression, but fortunately, it is in those regressive periods that some of our greatest movements and greatest voices had found their footing.

President Andrew Jackson’s atrocious American Indian removal program gave us the powerful Cherokee memorial letters. The standoff at Standing Rock gave us what the BBC called “the largest gathering of Native Americans in more than 100 years.”

Crackdowns on gay bars gave us the Stonewall uprising. America’s inept response to the AIDS epidemic gave us Act Up and Larry Kramer. California’s Proposition 8 breathed new life into the fight for marriage equality and led to a victory in the Supreme Court.

The racial terror that followed the Emancipation Proclamation gave us the anti-lynching movement, the N.A.A.C.P., W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and James Weldon Johnson.

Jim Crow gave us the civil rights movement, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Congressman John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer and James Baldwin.

The latest rash of extrajudicial killing of black people gave us Black Lives Matter.

The financial crisis and the government’s completely inadequate response to it gave us Occupy Wall Street and the 99 percent.

A renewed assault on women’s rights, particularly a woman’s right to choose, gave us, at least in part, the Women’s March, likely the largest march in American history.

This is not an exhaustive list, but just some notable examples.

It is a way of illustrating that the fiery crucible is where the weapons of resistance are forged; it is where the mettle of those crusading for justice, equality and progress are tested.

Unlike the examples listed above, Trump’s assault is intersectional and nearly universal. Multiple populations are being assaulted at once, across race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual identity.

So, in this moment of regression, all the targets of Trump’s ire must push back with a united front, before it is too late.

As Martin Niemöller so famously put it:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

Charles M. Blow (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/opinion/donald-trump-scouts-tradition.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region), New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

[LOQUI]

"I stopped explaining myself
when I realized people only understand
from their level of perception"
-Unknown- (at least for me) :)

[Genesis]

http://www.loveradio.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PAPA-JACK-LOVE-RADIO-WIRELESS-CONNECTIVITY.jpg

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

http://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20620957_1533763203312943_4426942737621556755_n.jp g?oh=263e060c82b1aee6d75a82bd770c29c7&oe=5A023371

[Genesis]

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[Genesis]

Treasure is stored in the ruined places.
Do not break the hearts of the poor and heartbroken people.

~ Rumi

[Orema]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/38/b4/25/38b425beff2fb0142d465d582a701ae5--inspirational-thoughts-inspiring-quotes.jpg