The Journey - Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
What you had to do, and began,
Though the voices around you
Kept shouting
their bad advice,
Though the whole house
Began to tremble
And you felt the old tug
At your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
Each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
Though the wind pried
With its stiff fingers
At the very foundations,
Though their melancholy
Was terrible.
It was already late
Enough, and a wilde night,
And the road full of fallen
Branches and stones.
But little by little,
As you left their voices behind,
The starts began to burn
Through the sheets of clouds,
And there was a new voice,
Which you slowly Recognized as you won,
That kept you company
As you Strode deeper and deeper
Into the world,
Determined to do
The only thing you could do,
Determined to save
The only life you could save.

Mary Oliver

You are

"You are what you settle for."

-Janis Joplin

Write your Own Part

"...write your won part. It is the only way I've gotten anywhere. It is much harder work, but sometimes you have to take destiny into your own hands. It forces you to think about what your strengths really are, and once you find them, you can showcase them, and no one can stop you."

-Mindy Kaling

Keep Dreaming. Love, Anne

"It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?"

LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

The pearl is the oyster's autobiography - Federico Fellini

"You guys know how pearls are made, right? The most valuable ones are called 'wild pearls,' created spontaneously in the sea and are extremely rare. A pearl is the byproduct of an unwanted irritant (typically something sharp, dangerous or painful like a parasite, a grain of sand or a piece of shell) that has lodged itself inside the walls of the shell, where it becomes impossible to abandon. The oyster then reacts with a defense mechanism that coats the irritant, over time turning it into a thing of lateral iridescent beauty. I love this. We don't get to choose the irritants that invade our beings, the things that make it past the shell. But the story doesn't end there: the pearl is the oyster's art, it's her novel, her paining, her song. In the same way it is possible for our wounds and our pain, our grit, to be our gift of transformation and transcendence as well. Slowly and surely, layer by beautiful layer, we are growing something of high worth and deep, incontestable beauty inside us."

-Ali Makes Things

They change your cells

"When you interact with someone repeatedly over time, it changes you. That's why what you watch on TV or read or see in a magazine is so critical. So watch what you watch. Be careful with whom or what you are interacting. These recurrent interactions change your cells. They change your soul. They change your countenance."

-Truman G. Madsen