one step at a time ^_^
 

We’ve all heard a version of this saying,
something to the effect of each cloud has a silver lining,
but when you hear from a renowned genius that each difficulty has an opportunity within it, you take notice.
Just because you’re facing a difficulty is no reason to give up or get down on yourself.
Find that opportunity that’s hidden within whatever difficulty you’re facing,
and see how you can make the most out of it.
What a difference that will make when instead of setting you back, difficulties only serve to move you forward...

Food for thought...
 

Often we lose sight of how important today can be,
and if things have gotten tough for you it may be because you didn’t properly use your yesterdays, and now you’re dealing with the consequences.
So instead of ruing that you should have done more in the past,
use the opportunity you have today to make a better tomorrow.
It’s so hard to wrap your head around the idea that your future will be better because of what you’re doing right now, today,
and that you’re living the sum of all of your previous todays.
But once you do the sky’s the limit...

-Anonymous

Do what you/I can <3
 

It’s easy to look at the abilities you lack and start to feel bad that you don’t know enough, or can’t do enough.
This alone can be the start of a bad day,
because once you start thinking like that it’s hard for anything else to go your way that day.
But once you shift the focus to your long list of abilities,
to all of the things you do know, and all of the things you can do, you start getting inspired rather than discouraged,
and more things start to go your way.
You’ll start playing to your strengths instead of wallowing in your weaknesses.

- Anonymous

Persistence and Commitment...
 

Most would consider Michael Jordan a giant success when it comes to the game of basketball,
but he was humble enough to realize that even more than is innate greatness it was the attempts and the many failures that led to that success.
He didn’t make 100% of his shots, but he wasn’t afraid to shoot the ball when the game was on the line,
or to take plenty of shots knowing that some would go in.
If failures have been piling up in your life just remember that it’s part of playing the game,
and at least you’re in the game taking shots...

-Anonymous

Give light and people will find the way. —Ella Baker

(I am) We are made of star stuff --- Carl Sagan.
 

Onward...
 

This is a quote that you can use each day to remind yourself that the best way to go is forward.
There’s no going back and there’s no standing still, onward we go.
So many times we get lulled into a sense of comfort of complacency,
but you have to keep the fires stoked and the engine moving.
This is a great way to sum up that you always want to be making progress and having fun things happen in your life.
When you choose the direction you want to go, many times you get there...

-Anonymous

Waves!
 

So many times it seems that people will try to control things that they just have no control over.
The waves are going to come to shore no matter what,
so instead of trying to stop them we need to learn how to use them to our advantage and have as much fun as we can on them.
This is a great quote that even those that don’t surf can appreciate.
This quote is left to interpretation because everyone will have a different idea of what the waves represent. Hang ten!

-Anonymous

Roses <3
 

It’s so true that most people describe the thorn as being the
prickly part of the rose instead of the rose being the beautiful and sweet smell part of the thorn.
It’s really a matter of how you look at it, so why not always take the positive side of things and
give it the most magical spin you can.
It is what it is, a plant that has both positive and negative to it, much like life, so which part do you want to focus on?

-Anonymous

As long as I have breath in my lungs...
 

It’s easy to think that the time has passed us by to set a new goal or have a new dream.
Maybe we’ve reached some of our goals and now we seem like we’re just coasting along.
Or maybe you think you’re too old to get started on some great work.
This is a quote for those that feel they’re past the point of starting up anything new.
It should spark a new fire and get you dreaming and goal setting again.
Always have a goal and a dream to pursue as this is when you’re at your happiest...

-Anonymous

Woo hoo!
 

Just be...
 

" ... on her worst day, Hillary Clinton will be an infinitely better candidate and President than the Republican candidate on his best day." —Bernie Sanders

Source: talkingpointsmemo.com (November 8, 2015)

Invest and dig deeper <3
 

<3
 

"Nina Simone's Face"
 

We are being told that Nina Simone’s face bears no real import on the new eponymous movie about her life, starring Zoe Saldana. “The most important thing,” said Robert Johnson, whose studio is releasing Nina, “is that creativity or quality of performance should never be judged on the basis of color, or ethnicity, or physical likeness.” This is obviously false. Saldana could be the greatest thespian of her time, but no one would consider casting her as Marilyn Monroe. Indeed Nina’s producers have gone to great ends—tragicomic ends—to invoke Nina Simone’s face, darkening Saldana’s skin, adorning her with prosthetics. Neither the term blackface nor brownface is entirely appropriate here. We are not so much talking about deliberate mockery as something much more insidious.
There is something deeply shameful in the fact that even today a young Nina Simone would have a hard time being cast in her own biopic.

It’s difficult to subtract the choice to cast Saldana from the economics of Hollywood—Saldana is seen as bankable in a way that other black women in her field are not. It’s equally difficult to ignore the fact that, while it is hard for all women in Hollywood, it is particularly hard for black women, and even harder for black women who share the dark skin, broad nose and full lips of Nina Simone. This fact is not separable from this country’s racist history, nor is the notion of “darkening up” a lighter skinned black person. Producers did it to Fredi Washington in Emperor Jones. They did it to Carmen de Lavallade in Lydia Bailey. (The make-up was called “Negro Number Two.”) They did it because they wanted to use the aura of blackness while evading the social realities of blackness. It’s possible that the producers were not, themselves, personally racist. This has no bearing whatsoever on anything. In America, racism is a default setting. To do nothing, to go along with the market, to claim innocence or neutrality, is to inevitably be a cog in the machine of racist hierarchy.

The producers of Nina are the heirs of this history—not personal racists, but cogs. Jezebel’s Kara Brown researched the team behind Nina. It is almost entirely white. Doubtless, these are good, non-racist people—but not good enough. No one on the team seems to understand the absurdity at hand—making a movie about Nina Simone while operating within the very same machinery that caused Simone so much agony in the first place. I do not mean to be personally harsh here. I am not trying to hurt people. But there is something deeply shameful—and hurtful—in the fact that even today a young Nina Simone would have a hard time being cast in her own biopic. In this sense, the creation of Nina is not a neutral act. It is part of the problem. —Ta-Nehisi Coates

Source: Nina Simone's Face


(I am so over biopics of Black artists and vow not to watch this nor any others.)