Branches

“If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches of the same tree.” ― WB Yeats

Optimism

"The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser — in case you thought optimism was dead."

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  Robert Brault 

You are not a tree

“If you don’t like where you are, move on. You are not a tree."
 
— Unknown 

Antidote

"Action is the antidote to despair."

-Joan Baez

Attachment and Faith

"So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future. That, apparently, was at least part of her sin...I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been...we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind." 

 -Elder Holland 2009 referring to Lot's wife  

Never Too Late

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. " - Benjamin Button

Been There

"Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing or, more often, nothing at all."

— Julia Quinn