When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. Laozi



It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty. Mahatma Gandhi



This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him. William Lyon Phelps

I myself am entirely made of flaws, stitched together with good intentions~ Author unknown

First Love ~John Clare

I ne'er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale as deadly pale.
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.

And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start --
They spoke as chords do from the string,
And blood burnt round my heart.

Are flowers the winter's choice?
Is love's bed always snow?
She seemed to hear my silent voice,
Not love's appeals to know.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more

“Be careful whom you choose to love. This decision will impact your future life and happiness in ways you cannot yet imagine.” ― Toni Coleman

“I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” ― Steve Maraboli

A relationship without disagreement is probably too brittle to last. Some of the best human bonds are forged in the fire of disagreement.”
― Jerry Spinelli

‎"Neither a promotion, losing weight, finding a soul mate, writing a book, nor becoming a billionaire will ensure happiness.

Nothing ensures happiness. No destination is great enough. No dream come true will do.

Because happiness, dear one, that's not present at the start of a journey will not be present at its end."

I loved him as a woman loves-reckless of sorrows, sin, or scorn.

~Letitia Landon

Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations. (f)

~Jane Austen

“The greatest love stories are not those in which love is only spoken, but those in which it is acted upon.”― Steve Maraboli

“Everyone disliked their partners at some time or another, she knew that. But she’d spent her hours in the dark wondering whether she’d ever liked him. Would it really have been so much worse to spend those years alone? Why did there have to be someone else in the room while she was eating, watching TV, sleeping?” ― Nick Hornby


“I believe in the immeasurable power of love; that true love can endure any circumstance and reach across any distance.” ― Steve Maraboli

old but good
 

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Audrey Hepburn

I'm one of those people that when I go over a bridge, I want to jump.
It's like this intense tickle in the pit of my stomach.
It's like I'm on the verge the whole time I'm walking over that bridge.
And I'm not going to get that release until I jump.

~My Love~Sharing some of my poetry...
 

~My Love~

My Love,
You have stirred deep inside of me
A place so oddly familiar...
A place where the light in me shone so brightly
Through your boldness at times...
I can see with a clarity so clearly
Your pure intentions...
Like the moon sits upon the backdrop
Of an Indigo sky so peacefully.

I comprehend the many volumes you speak in silences
And each meaning conveyed in your need to withdrawal...
From your musings thoughtfully abstracted the truth is always surrendered.

My love,
I stand right before you
Though miles from your shore.
And yet my soul knows exactly where to look
and how to decipher
the many truths and secrets you have buried
upon the shoreline
deep within each grain of sand
on so many of your solitary walks
Along the beach...
Feeling the breeze
Wisping softly against your face.
Know you do not walk alone
For these are kisses from me.

I am strong enough to look into the depths of your soul
I see past just your eyes...
I remember the times I spent deciphering
Your blank stares.
For what lies past that is the story of the truth today.

I cherish the memories so foreign to you now.
I long to compliment and complete you.
Like the color of Manganese
One must risk it's toxicity
To truly be able to see and appreciate it's awe. Like the risk in loving what we can't see
We still share the same moon, sun, stars...
Look no further to also find me.

My love,
Try to remember the promise I made to you
for each time we had to depart from here
from one another
I vowed to always return to meet you
At our safe haven.

But only once we learned
How to recognize
And where to look for and find the truth.
The key lies in being ready to hear the truth.

Hidden somewhere between the twilight's gleam
and the early morning dawn
Sparkles so many flickers of light
All vying for your undivided attention.
But only one tiny flicker will endure
Choosing the right one
Finding it...
One must go through many tries first
Many trials. But none were in vain.

Yes, you are bright, bold, and a rarity.
Do you even remember where to look for me?
What to do once you find my slumbering soul?

No matter if you do or not
One thing is certain. No matter how far apart
We are in mere miles physically.
We share the same indigo sky...
Under the same full moon in June
Seek the beauty of it's simplicity in its complexity.

I hear a symphony speak to me in your silences.
Love...
Feel the purity in my burning passion for you
And with nothing more to test...
Nothing more to question...
Simply feel my beauty as you trust the
feeling of the gentle breeze running through your
Hair, body and being.
For under this Moon and Indigo sky
know that it is I that has kissed your face
Like the wind, like that breeze.
You can't see it...until its a tornado
But you can always feel its stirrings.
__________________

There are some experiences in life they haven't invented the right words for.”
― Lisa Kleypas

“It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.” ― J.K. Rowling

“Love is too precious to be ashamed of.”― Laurell K. Hamilton

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.(f)

~Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld

“We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don't even matter, while all that time we waste and the people who do love us have to stand on the sidewalk and watch us beg in the streets! It's time to put an end to this. It's time for us to let ourselves be loved.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”
― Haruki Murakami

“This is an important lesson to remember when you're having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year. Things will change: you won't feel this way forever. And anyway, sometimes the hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most. I believe you can't feel real joy unless you've felt heartache. You can't have a sense of victory unless you know what it means to fail. You can't know what it's like to feel holy until you know what it's like to feel really fucking evil. And you can't be birthed again until you've died.”
― Kelly Cutrone, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

Great quotes, Electrocell!
I especially love the one by the fabulous Kelly Cutrone...She's pro-women..strong..successful..and wise. She's such a great role model for women. She's a hot habanero w/ a vanilla yogurt heart.

~`T

The wind blows cold
And the wind comes down to the dawn
And we ride silently
And we kiss as we ride down
In the dusty heat
Licking the tears from your eyes

The day I first saw you, my eyes observed you
My heart approved you
I fled from my father with you
Far from my home with you

I never repented it
You darkened a parlour for me, painted rooms for me
Slaughtered beasts for me
I slept upon duck's feathers
Until mid-day milking time
Or more if it pleased me

Your heart's blood was still flowing,
I did not stay to wipe it..
but filled my hands and drank it...my warm-hearted rider..

My thousand sorrows.

"We lie in each other's arms eyes shut and fingers open and all the colors of the world pass through our bodies like strings of fire."
- Marge Piercy

"Don't you think I was made for you? I feel like you had me ordered — and I was delivered to you — to be worn. I want you to wear me, like a watch..."
- Zelda Fitzgerald

"I want to do things so wild with you that I don't know how to say them."
- Anais Nin

"I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again. My life seems to stop there, I see no further. You have absorbed me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving. I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion... I have shuddered at it... I shudder no more. I could be martyred for my religion: Love is my religion. I could die for that. I could die for you. My creed is love, and you are its only tenet. You have ravished me away by a power I cannot resist."
- John Keats

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.” ― Ayn Rand

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ” ― William James

“She leaned into me, and when I closed my eyes, I knew I wanted nothing more than to hold her this way forever.” ― Nicholas Sparks

"Love without judgment
Forgive without fear
Stand your ground with integrity
Leave behind what does not matter
Reach for who you truly are ..."

"I just never understood why someone else's love life and who they love and who they choose to be with affects so many other people's lives. I never understood the whole point of opposing or hating someone else's happiness."

-- Seimone Augustus

Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men,
we didn't have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents.
Without a prison, there can be no delinquents.
We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves.
When someone was so poor that he couldn't afford a horse, a tent or a blanket,
he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift.
We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property.
We didn't know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being
was not determined by his wealth.
We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians,
therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.
We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don't know
how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things
that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.

John (Fire) Lame Deer
Sioux Lakota - 1903-1976

What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth. (f)

~Jewish Proverb

Power to those who care not what mere humans think of them,
but follow true their own unique visions and identities with great courage, fire, depth of soul, and unrelinquishable passion.

Several quotes by ~>> Princess Diana
 

Carry out a random act of kindness with no expectaton of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.

Family is the most important thing in the world.

I live for my sons, I would be lost without them.

If you find someone you love in your life, then hang onto that love.

Only do what your heart tells you.

Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life-
a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running to wherever they are.

Every one of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M2UlOwiv-W...encerTiara.jpg

“More exists among human beings than can be answered by the simplistic question I'm hit with every day of my life: "Are you a man or a woman?”
― Leslie Feinberg

“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.” ~Tom Robbins

A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point. That's basic spelling that every woman ought to know.(f)

~Mistinguett (Jeanne Bourgeois), Theatre Arts, December 1955

quote from Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
 

“I know exactly how that is. To love somebody who doesn’t deserve it. Because they are all you have. Because any attention is better than no attention. For exactly the same reason, it is sometimes satisfying to cut yourself and bleed. On those gray days where eight in the morning looks no different from noon and nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen and you are washing a glass in the sink and it breaks-accidentally-and punctures your skin. And then there is this shocking red, the brightest thing in the day, so vibrant it buzzes, this blood of yours. That is okay sometimes because at least you know you’re alive.”

Longfellow, "Eliot's Oak"
 

Thou ancient oak! whose myriad leaves are loud
With sounds of unintelligible speech,
Sounds as of surges on a shingly beach,
Or multitudinous murmurs of a crowd;
With some mysterious gift of tongues endowed,
Thou speakest a different dialect to each;
To me a language that no man can teach,
Of a lost race, long vanished like a cloud.
For underneath thy shade, in days remote,
Seated like Abraham at eventide
Beneath the oaks of Mamre, the unknown
Apostle of the Indians, Eliot, wrote
His Bible in a language that hath died
And is forgotten, save by thee alone.

“This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, somg go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And babve, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up becuase if you give up, you'll never find your soul mate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”
― Mother Teresa

There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats. (f)

~Elton John

This is actually an excerpt from one of my favorite stories in How Beautiful The Ordinary, coming from David Levithan's story, A Word From The Nearly Distant Past:

You will miss the taste of Fruit Loops
You will the sound of traffic
You will miss your back against his
You will even miss him stealing the sheets.
Do not ignore these things.

Powerful truth
 

We all have people in our lives who anger or annoy us, who rub us the wrong way. We can usually see the faults of others very clearly. Everyone comes into our lives to mirror back to us some part of ourselves we cannot or will not see.

~Iyanla Vanzant

“There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way. So be careful who your surround yourself with.”
― Leo Tolstoy

“If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough.” ― Ann Landers

“The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions.” ― Ellen Glasgow

" Same merry-go-round different horse." - Unknown

"I'd rather face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous."- Ani DiFranco
"In the end, everything is a gag."- Charlie Chaplin
"Love is like war, easy to begin, but very hard to stop."- H.L. Meckner

The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him.(f)

~William McGill

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.(f)

~William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693