Sunday, December 28, 2014

Forge

“How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back.”

J.R.R. Tolkien 

Grow

“No one warns you about the amount of mourning in growth.”

Té V. Smith Releasing & Recieving 

Fly Again

“One day, your heart will learn to fly again, and you will see such beautiful things. I hope you have the patience to wait for that day, to know that the lonely hours are not spent in vain, but that you are just slowly gaining the strength and courage to use your wings again.”

T.B. LaBerge // Unwritten Letters to You 

Iceland Eve

"In Iceland, books are exchanged on Christmas Eve, and you spend the rest of the night reading. People generally take their books to bed along with some chocolate. How cozy and wonderful does that sound?

(More fun facts: Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country, and new books are typically published only during the Christmas season—the frenzy is called Jólabókaflóð, or the Christmas Book Flood.)"


Work it out

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”

C.S. Lewis (a grief observed)

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

This is not a breakdown

"I promise you. 

The way you feel right now? This is where the magic happens.

When finally the tears come, that is your genesis. You gotta smash a few things to let the light in, you know? And in the ruins, in the discarded shards of what you thought you wanted, something will glimmer. It will catch your eye and you’ll focus on that: the tiny bit of beautiful in the mess that you’ve made. It will be enough to make you think, okay. One more shot. You’ll rebuild, focusing on that one thing that made you believe you could. It will be a new focal point. A new reason. And what you make the second time around will be stronger, better, more you than ever before.
The same goes for the third, fourth, and ninety-ninth time too.
When you’re face down in the dirt, at the bottom of the proverbial hole, you cannot believe that it will ever be better. But I promise: this has an end point. This will not last forever.
It might, though, go on a little longer than you’d like....

Call your best friend, dress a little fancier than usual, and be brave. 

Know that you might not have the answers, but that you’re prepared to listen: to the people who love you, to the people you respect, to your own heart. Listen.
Slow down, cancel some plans, be with yourself. When you’re at the very bottom, when you can’t see where you should put your next step, stand still. Take stock of what you’ve got, how far you’ve come, if this thing that eludes you – do you actually, really, genuinely want it? Or is desiring it habit from the old you who you no longer are, now that you know this pain?
Complete a task. It doesn’t matter what it is – pick something from your list that can be executed now. You’ll feel better for doing something, even if it is simply collecting your prescription or getting a food shop done. Keep breathing. Go to bed early after a hot bath and tomorrow will be – no matter how imperceptibly – better.

Imagine how you’ll feel in another six months. Will you even remember this?

Use this hurt, this frustration, to inform your next decisions. Focus on what feels good, and lean, unapologetically, into that. 

Wrestle for your happiness, but know that the best people aren’t happy, they’re whole

That means fighting the good fight, knowing what you can change and what you can’t – and having the good grace to know the difference.

This is your becoming. If flowers can teach themselves how to bloom after winter passes, says Noor Shirazie, then so can you."



Unknown Known

"Making your unknown known is the important thing."

-Georgia O'Keeffe

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Things are never just one thing

"Things are never one thing. Life is like the organs of the human body: it all connects, it all serves a purpose... The thing about life is that every aspect of it runs together. Each tangent is like a river but eventually it all pools together into the same body of water. There’s no separating out one thing from another. You can’t compartmentalize no matter how hard you try to. How you feel about yourself is how you will show up in your life. That’s just how it goes. And how one part of your life is faring informs how another part is faring. Job stress leaks into relationship dissatisfaction leaks into snips at friends leaks into frustrated conversations with parents leaks into judgments of others on social media leaks into... You see? It all leaks. It all pools."

-Jamie Varon via Thought Catalog

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Life is about seasons

"You are strong. Even though it feels like you’ve lost the right words, you have stuff to say. You have a voice, and you were meant to use it. We don't always get to see the next step, but TRUST that it is there. Life is about seasons, and you will have new ones soon. Trust your discernment. It’s going to be hard, so hard for a while, but you are resilient and you will emerge with a boldness and vibrancy, a clarity and life like you've never known it. There is a hope and a future greater than you could ever ask for or imagine."

Ali Nelson via the Everygirl

Things I had no words for

"Georgia O’Keeffe has this stunning quote that just nails it. She says, 'I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way…things I had no words for." '

#thingsihadnowordsfor

-Ali Nelson via Everygirl

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Emptiness

"Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness."

-Simon Weil, Gravity and Grace, via 1000 Gifts by Ann VanKamp

Love is a Fruit

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of all hands."

-Mother Teresa

Fields of Uncertainty

"I believe my own voice continues to be found wherever I am being present and responding from my heart, moment by moment. My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty."

-Terry Tempest Williams

I open every door

"Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door...."

Emily Dickinson (from #89)

Something that you are

"True happiness resides within you. Most people are searching for happiness outside of themselves. That's a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way that you think."

-Wayne Dyer

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Seeds for Dreams

"Dreams are born when God breathes on our hearts in a place of intimacy. However, if we do not understand the journey of a dream as a seed to a tree of life, we may get disheartened and stop pursuing them. The reality is that if we were to step into the fullness of God's plan for our life all at once, it would crush us. God mercifully takes us through a maturing process so that we will develop the kind of character necessary to fulfill those dreams..."

-Marisa Albrecht

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

A Small God of Miracles

"Perhaps the good that can come from this terrifying experience is a more complex understanding of what God means to you so the next time you need spiritual solace you’ll have something sturdier to lean on than the rickety I’ll-believe-he-exists-only-if-he-gives-me-what-I-want fence. What you learned is that your idea of God as a possibly non-existent spirit man who may or may not hear your prayers and may or may not swoop in to save your ass when the going gets rough is a losing prospect.

So It’s up to you to create a better one. A bigger one. Which is really, almost always, something smaller.

What if you allowed your God to exist in the simple words of compassion others offer to you? What if faith is the way it feels to lay your hand on your daughter’s sacred body? What if the greatest beauty of the day is the shaft of sunlight through your window? What if the worst thing happened and you rose anyway? What if you trusted in the human scale? What if you listened harder to the story of the man on the cross who found a way to endure his suffering than to the one about the impossible magic of the Messiah? Would you see the miracle in that?"

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Geography of Your Soul

"Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, ti will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey."

-John O'Donohue