Be Brave

“…spend time doing whatever it is that makes you feel like there are sparks bouncing around your sternum..."

- Nora Jane Struthers

Small is big

“Sometimes someone says something really small and it just fits into this empty place in your heart.”

- Angela, My So-Called Life 

Easier

“The person you’re meant to be with will never have to be chased, begged or given an ultimatum.”

- Mandy Hale  

You're never ready

“Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it is not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready.”

- Amy Poehler, “Yes Please” 

Where is it

"Everything interests me, but nothing holds me."

- Fernando Pessoa 

Still, being able

“Still, being able to feel pain was good, he thought. It’s when you can’t even feel pain anymore that you’re in real trouble.”

- Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage 

Feel it

“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.”

- Roald Dahl 

Still thinking

“One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, it’s your home, and you must decorate it.”

- 

Unknown 

:: And life has been wonderful ever since

Lightness

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

- Madeleine L’Engle 

You can leave and I'll be fine

“Do you know what your problem is? You can’t live with the idea that someone might leave.”

- John Green 

How to love

“the way you love yourself sets the example for how everyone else will love you.”

- cleo wade

How to love

“the way you love yourself sets the example for how everyone else will love you.”

- cleo wade

Heart stops

“Someone will tell you that she’s seeing someone someday and that she’s happy and your hands will stop working. You’ll have to work hard to hold onto whatever you’re holding. I hope it’s not glass, I hope it’s not breakable. Suddenly you’ll remember everything that you ever loved about her. Everything that ever moved you to tears, made your insides feel like they were tying themselves into knots. That she was loyal, that she was open for you, that she smiled against your mouth when you kissed. That it felt easy, like God had put the two of you together deliberately, like it had been the plan all along. But for whatever reason, you let her go and you thought that it was the right thing and for a little while, it felt like you knew exactly what you were doing. Except now all the parts of you that touched her knows that you’re never going to be able to touch her again and that hurts. Even your fingers are sad, even your stomach is aching from the loss of it all. You’re never going to get that again and that’s why your regret looks like artwork that would have been masterpiece if you’d finished it. Your regret looks like plucking a flower before it’s bloomed. So maybe you’ll call her and you’ll tell her that you miss her and she’ll sound gentle on the phone but not in love with you anymore. She’ll say ‘we happened and we were important but you let me go, I’m sorry, but you let me go’ and that’s how you’ll know.”

- Azra.T 

Solitary

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

- Bell Hooks

Patriarchy

“Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. Yet most men do not use the word “patriarchy” in everyday life. Most men never think about patriarchy—what it means, how it is created and sustained. Many men in our nation would not be able to spell the word or pronounce it correctly. The word “patriarchy” just is not a part of their normal everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to 
their own experiences.”

- Bell Hooks

Tricks with Rhymes

"I am not interested in doing tricks with rhymes, I'm interested in reproducing the human soul."

-Langston Hughes

Looking Glass

"Good prose is like a window pane."

-George Orwell

The opposite shore is adulthood

“When you become a teenager, you step onto a bridge. You may already be on it. The opposite shore is adulthood. Childhood lies behind. The bridge is made of wood. As you cross, it burns behind you."

-Gail Carson Levine

How's your heart doing

"In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e shomaa chetoreh? How is your haal?

What is this haal that you inquire about? It is the transient state of one’s heart. In reality, we ask, “How is your heart doing at this very moment, at this breath?” When I ask, “How are you?” that is really what I want to know. 

I am not asking how many items are on your to-do list, nor asking how many items are in your inbox. I want to know how your heart is doing, at this very moment. Tell me. Tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is aching, tell me your heart is sad, tell me your heart craves a human touch. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul."

-Kristen Tippits, On Being

Slow Starts

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

-Oscar Wilde