Ecstatic Experience

"I am convinced that life in a physical body is meant to be an ecstatic experience."
--Shakti Gawain

Enjoyment

"Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity."
--Paul Goodman

Pleasure

"Take your pleasure seriously."
--Charles Eames

New Day

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Befriending Self

"Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Giving up on Perfect

"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
--Anna Quindlen

Women in Adversity

"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity."
--Washington Irving

Life

"Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it."
--Maya Angelou

Laugh

"Laugh at yourself, and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously."
--Og Mandino

The Friend Who Cares

"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in a moment of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face us with the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares."
--Henri Nouwen

Fear is a Teacher

"Living fearlessly is not the same thing as never being afraid. It's good to be afraid occasionally. Fear is a great teacher."
--Michael Ignatieff

Relationships

"Relationships are difficult, time-consuming, baffling and sometimes heartbreaking. They're also what make life worth living."
--Martha Beck

Faith and Light

"All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light."
--James Joyce

Lines I Love: When You Love Someone, by Kid Rock

"I tell you it will shake the earth beneath your feet.

The light that shines will redefine your old beliefs.

What you reap is what you sew and so it goes.

Where you plant your needs is where your garden grows.

Before you think about yourself, think of someone else,

It'll make you feel.

Each day ain't wine and roses, I doubt it's meant to be.

Always a cross to bear, salvation don't come free.

A heart that beats is a heart that bleeds and you know that's true.

So don't deny yourself of something good for you.

Before you do it for yourself, do it for someone else,

That makes it real.

Cause when you love someone, it don't matter what you say.

When you love someone, you will dance the night away.

When you love someone, there ain't nothin' you can't do.

Ain't that right? Yeah, I wanna love someone tonight.

Will you believe in love or just sit around and judge?

Can you forgive someone or will you hold a grudge?

Because above selfishness there lies a bright blue sky;

And wealth and happiness can be a long and lonesome ride.

Yes it's hard to steer yourself without that someone else to take the wheel.

Cause when you love someone, it don't matter what they say.

When you love someone, you will dance the night away.

When you love someone, there ain't nothin' you can't do.

Ain't that right? Yeah, I wanna love someone tonight.

Do you believe in the art of growing old?

Do you believe that rock 'n' roll can save your soul?

Do you believe in everything you do?

Cause when you do that's when it all comes back to you.

Before you think about yourself, think of someone else;

Do it for yourself and do it for someone else.

When you love someone, you won't care what people say.

When you love someone, you will dance the night away.

When you love someone, there ain't nothin' you won't do.

When you love someone..."

Grace

"Grace is not the property of youth or talent. We find the necessary measure where we need it most: in our own good humor, in the love of family, or in the kind act of a friend."
--Claire Davis

Fear

"There's no shame in being afraid. Hell, we're all afraid. What you gotta do is figure out what you're afraid of because when you do put a face on it you can beat it. Better yet, you can use it."
--Coach Whitey Durham, One Tree Hill

Crisis

"You get to know who you really are in a crisis."
--Oprah Winfrey

Miracles

"Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing; it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur."
--Henry Miller

Strength, Courage and Confidence

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

It's Life

"Tragedies happen. What are you gonna do? Give up? Quit? No. I realize now that when your heart breaks, you gotta fight like hell to make sure you're still alive. Because you are, and that pain you feel, it's life. The confusion and fear, that's there to remind you that somewhere out there is something better and that something is worth fighting for."
--Nathan Scott, One Tree Hill

Storms

"The storm starts
when the drops start dropping.
When the drops stop dropping
then the storm starts stopping."
--Dr. Seuss

Resilience

"People never cease to amaze me. They face the unimaginable with a shot of grace and a rush of adrenaline; they steel their nerves; they summon their cool or anger or faith or whatever it takes to pull them through, and they go on another day."
--Oprah Winfrey

Faith as Courage

"Faith can give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Comfort in Self

"It's surprising how many persons go through their life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable with yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."
--Sydney J. Harris

Greatest Sin

"The greatest sin is judgement without knowledge."
--Kelsey Grammar

Character

"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything in the World

"I have everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith, good friends and all the work I can possibly do."
--Anna Howard Shaw

Disposition

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
--Martha Washington