" People talk about old age as the sunset of your life. Maybe in terms of the cycle of life- sure, you only get one sunrise. But. For all the blue skies and cotton wool clouds of the afternoons that you experience, how glorious is the unpredictable spread of purples and pinks that comes in the end? Something to look forward to.
Risks are just that. An actuary or statistician can analyse and predict based on probability, but can they predict the variables that seem to drop in on situations that make things seem worthwhile. OK- they probably can and do, but you get the point. Being paralysed by fear of maybes and what ifs is no way to live life. Unless they are the kind of maybes and what ifs that goad you into experiencing more, stepping out of yourself, being stretched. It can be a little painful, disorientating, but when you look back and see the winding path you have taken, you can start to understand that for all your lack of control over consequences, life can be amazing.
It doesn’t happen every day, but sometimes I feel like taking an Acapulco plunge off a cliff face and feeling the rush of the cool sea air as I hurtle towards an ocean of new experience."
Scott Dunlop
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Dreams
"A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep."
Walt Disney Company (Cinderella)
"You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams."
L.M. Montgomery (The Road to Yesterday)
"Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you."
Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
"So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them… That’s what happens, like it or not. And because that’s what happens, this is what we need: we need a good, smart bear… Coach Bob knew it all along: you’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows."
John Irving (The Hotel New Hampshire)
"…I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more."
Franz Kafka (The Castle)
Walt Disney Company (Cinderella)
"You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams."
L.M. Montgomery (The Road to Yesterday)
"Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you."
Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
"So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them… That’s what happens, like it or not. And because that’s what happens, this is what we need: we need a good, smart bear… Coach Bob knew it all along: you’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows."
John Irving (The Hotel New Hampshire)
"…I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more."
Franz Kafka (The Castle)
Albert Einstein
"We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams."
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Laurell K. Hamilton
"What is love? Sometimes it's just letting yourself be who and what you are, and letting the person you're supposed to love be who and what he is too. Or maybe what and who they are."
Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell K. Hamilton
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Sarah Dessen
"What is family other than the people who have claimed you? In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they are the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. Friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers, none perfect, but you shouldn't expect them to be. You can't make any one person your world. The trick is to... take what each can give you and build your world from it."
Sarah Dessen
Sarah Dessen
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Jodi Picoult
"I have only known her for two years. But if you took every memory, every moment, if you stretched them end to end-they'd reach forever."
"Just because you keep something a secret doesn't mean it never happened, no matter how much you want that to be true."
"You don't have to say I love you to say I love you," you said with a shrug. "All you have to do is say my name and I know."
"Can't you hear it?" you said. "When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.""
"Sometimes I think my whole life has been about holding on to you."
"Words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder."
"When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself- is that what [love is]?"
"They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again."
"... Remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help. "
"... People think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong. "
"What she hadn't realized was that sometimes when your vision was that sharp and true, it could cut you. That only if you'd felt such fullness could you really understand the ache of being empty."
"The Inuit say that the stars are holes in heaven. And every time we see the people we loved shining through, we know they're happy. "
"There should be a statue of limitation on grief. A rule book that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after forty-two days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. that there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass- if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it is okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays. "
"I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names."
'I also get mad too quickly, and I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one. My hair has its own zip code. Plus, I get certifiably crazy when I've got PMS. You don't love someone because they're perfect,' she says. 'You love them in spite of the fact that they're not.' "
"If you focus on sandbagging the beachhead, you can ignore the tsunami that's approaching. Try it any other way and you'll go crazy.""
"You signed no contract to become a parent, but the responsibilities were written in invisible ink. There was a point when you had to support your child, even if no one else would. It was your job to rebuild the bridge, even if your child was the one who burned it in the first place. "
"Well I talk a little about that, but I don't admit that from the beginning I knew we were not meant to be together."
"There are some dreams that get stuck between your teeth when you sleep, so that when you open your mouth to yawn awake they fly right out of you."
Jodi Picoult
"Just because you keep something a secret doesn't mean it never happened, no matter how much you want that to be true."
"You don't have to say I love you to say I love you," you said with a shrug. "All you have to do is say my name and I know."
"Can't you hear it?" you said. "When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.""
"Sometimes I think my whole life has been about holding on to you."
"Words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder."
"When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself- is that what [love is]?"
"They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again."
"... Remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help. "
"... People think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong. "
"What she hadn't realized was that sometimes when your vision was that sharp and true, it could cut you. That only if you'd felt such fullness could you really understand the ache of being empty."
"The Inuit say that the stars are holes in heaven. And every time we see the people we loved shining through, we know they're happy. "
"There should be a statue of limitation on grief. A rule book that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after forty-two days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. that there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass- if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it is okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays. "
"I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names."
'I also get mad too quickly, and I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one. My hair has its own zip code. Plus, I get certifiably crazy when I've got PMS. You don't love someone because they're perfect,' she says. 'You love them in spite of the fact that they're not.' "
"If you focus on sandbagging the beachhead, you can ignore the tsunami that's approaching. Try it any other way and you'll go crazy.""
"You signed no contract to become a parent, but the responsibilities were written in invisible ink. There was a point when you had to support your child, even if no one else would. It was your job to rebuild the bridge, even if your child was the one who burned it in the first place. "
"Well I talk a little about that, but I don't admit that from the beginning I knew we were not meant to be together."
"There are some dreams that get stuck between your teeth when you sleep, so that when you open your mouth to yawn awake they fly right out of you."
Jodi Picoult
Monday, January 11, 2010
Shel Silverstein
"Are wild strawberries really wild? Will they scratch an adult, will they snap at a child? Should you pet them, or let them run free where they roam? Could they ever relax in a steam-heated home? Can they be trained to not growl at the guests? Will a litterbox work or would they make a mess? Can we make them a Cowberry, herding the cows, or maybe a Mulberry pulling the plows, or maybe a Huntberry chasing the grouse, or maybe a Watchberry guarding the house, and though they may curl up at your feet oh so sweetly can you ever feel that you trust them completely? Or should we make a pet out of something less scary, like the Domestic Prune or the imported Cherry. Anyhow, you've been warned and I will not be blamed if your wild strawberries cannot be tamed."
Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein
Wallace Stevens
"Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers."
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Ray Bradbury
"Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers."
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Stephen R. Lawhead
"Tell me the word that will win you, and I will speak it. I will speak the stars of heaven into a crown for your head; I will speak the flowers of the field into a cloak; I will speak the racing stream into a melody for your ears and the voices of a thousand larks to sing it; I will speak the softness of night for your bed and the warmth of summer for your coverlet; I will speak the brightness of flame to light your way and the luster of gold to shine in your smile; I will speak until the hardness in you melts away and your heart is free...""
Stephen R. Lawhead
Stephen R. Lawhead
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"In those days, I didn't understand anything. I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my planet and lit up my life. I should never have run away! I ought to have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions. Flowers are so contradictory! But I was too young to know how to love her."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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