Next Steps...

"Today’s the day my life begins. Today I become a citizen of the world. Today I become a grown up. Today I become accountable to someone other than myself and my parents. Accountable for more than my grades. Today, I become accountable to the world. To the future. To all the possibilities that life has to offer. Starting today, my job is to show up wide eyed and willing and ready. For what, I don’t know. For anything. For everything. To take on life. To take on love. To take on the responsibility and possibility. Today, my friends, our lives begin. And, I for one can’t wait." -Grey's Anatomy

Dear Self,

Forgive yourself. Love yourself. Be yourself.

You are not perfect. No one is perfect. We say the wrong things, and do the wrong things. Yet we find people who love us anyway. It’s hard but stop overthinking, it does no good. Stop believing that life is a movie. It’s not – it’s much better. It’s okay to be afraid but don’t let that stop you. Be your own cheerleader and when you can’t, lean on other people. Live the way you want live. Experience the world and love with all your heart. It will be awesome. It will be okay.

Keep being you.

Love,

Self

Steps and Choices

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step..."

Are.

You.

Happy?

"It is never too late to be what you might of been." -George Elliot

Whatever You Do, Wherever You Go, Be You!

"I'm quirky, silly, blunt, and broken. My days are sometimes too dark, and my nights are sometimes too long. I often trip over my own insecurities. I require attention, long for passion, and wish to be desired. I use music to speak when words fail me, even though words are as important to me as the air I breathe. I love hard and with all that I have and even with my faults, I am worth loving." 

-Danu Grayson

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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. & 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 courage to start all over again." 

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

"‎No matter how many plans we make or steps we follow we never know how our day is going to end up. We'd prefer to know, of course, what curve balls will be thrown our way. It's the accidents that always turn out to be the most interesting parts of our day. Of life. The people we never expected to show up. The turn of events we never would've chosen for ourselves. All of a sudden, you find yourself somewhere you never expected to be. And it's nice or it takes some getting used to. Still, you know you'll find yourself appreciating it somewhere down the line. So you go to sleep each night thinking about tomorrow. Going over your plans, preparing the lists, and hoping that whatever accidents come your way will be happy ones." 

-Grey's Anatomy

"Be strong when you are weak, be brave when you are scared, be humble when you are victorious, be badass everyday." 

-Unknown

People, People, People

"Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with." -Juno

"You're the strangest person I ever met, she said, and I said you too, and we decided we'd know each other a long time" -Brian Andreas

"You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place." -Miriam Adeney

"They are my people. People keep you going. People are better than... no people." -Grey's Anatomy

"You'll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things."  -To Write Love on Her Arms

Fear vs Everything Else

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." -Marianne Williamson

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. From now on you'll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The key is to allow yourself to make the journey.” -Meg Cabot

"Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it." -Bill Cosby

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” -John Lennon

"Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.” -Paulo Coelho

Moments & Words

"You never know the biggest day of your life is the biggest day. Not until it's happening. You don't recognize the biggest day of your life, not until you're right in the middle of it. The day you commit to something or someone. The day you get your heart broken. The day you meet your soul mate. The day you realize there's not enough time, because you wanna live forever. Those are the biggest days. The perfect days." -Grey's Anatomy

"There came a moment in the middle of the song when she suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that she never forgot she was part of something much bigger." -Brian Andreas

“In this Church Pew or Bar Stool Kinda Town” : Taking Stands & Making Decisions

When I started this blog it was my intention to try and make the world a little brighter by some really awesome, thought-provoking quotes. Recently however, a friend of mind mentioned that I should actually write something, you know, from my brain. And, up until recently, I didn’t have the time to consider what to write about, or any ideas of where to start thinking of a topic. 

And then, Chick-Fil-A decided to have a ‘National Eat At Chick-Fil-A Day’ in support of traditional marriage. Of course, at first, this had little bearing on this blog. But the more I’ve thought about this and the more I’ve seen on Facebook and the news I decided this was an interesting and pretty thought-provoking topic.

It should be noted here that this will not be the place where I word-vomit all my thoughts and feelings about the whole thing. Nor will it be left against right; conservative versus liberal; he said, she said; you’re wrong, I’m right entry. What it will be is a glimpse at what this event and the many others on both sides, means for making decisions and taking a stand.

Somebody once told me that when it comes to controversial topics you have to pick a side if you want anyone to pay attention to you. If you know anything about me, and I am assuming if you are reading this, you know a great deal about me, you’ll know that my question in response to this statement was something along the lines of, uhm, why?! 

So here I am, days after the president of Chick-Fil-A,  who is a well-known Christian, decides that he should use his fast food restaurant to finally voice his opinion about marriage, and I am wondering how to make sense of it because there are a lot of things that are going through my mind.


First, I believe in and respect the First Amendment. In case you need a refresher course it reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” And, thanks to the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment, Dan Cathy have every right to say and do as he pleases(within reason, of course :)). In this case, Cathy decided to use his First Amendment rights to express his views through his company. Still okay in my book.


Naturally, since this is all about sides, it makes sense that I have other thoughts going through my brain and that’s where it gets complicated. The other side of this is that I support gay rights. I mean, really, how can I live in this world and believe that any human being should be treated differently because they happen to live a different lifestyle than I do? I can’t do it, so I don’t. 

And we come to the question, is it okay to be on both sides? I say yes. Some may say no. Even more people will probably say they don’t know. If you say no, your decision making is probably 10 times easier than mine will ever be. If you say you don’t know, good luck on the search to figuring it out, let me know how it goes. If you say yes, like me, you’re in for a hell of a ride that I’m still trying to navigate.

Decision making is much easier when things are clean cut and straight to the point. But, what fun would that be? Here is the heart of the issue: how do we pick a side? How can we take a stand when we are straddling the state line? How do we support people, organizations, businesses, and even, as crazy as this sounds, religious institutions if all our eggs aren’t in one basket?

How do we: the universal, left, right, straight, gay, black, white, female, male, young, old, pro-life, pro-choice, pro-war, anti-death penalty, pro-healthcare, anti-socialism, religious, atheist, spiritual, employed, working-poor, NRA supporting, ONE Campaign supporting, north, south, east, west, or any of the other combinations of people, how do we make decisions and take stands in the gray world we are living in?


Chick-Fil-A will eventually just be a blimp on the radar in the land of controversial topics like Susan G Komen and Kony 2012 and there will certainly be more like it. To some, this might just be a matter of deciding how much you like chicken. But for others, it is something deeper. Now the question for people in any place, on any side of the fence, is in the face of being on both sides, which wins out: one or the other, or both?


Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you decide: be okay with it.

This vs This...

So, there's this...

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou

"Don't make someone a priority in your life when you're only an option in theirs"

"You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter." -Nicholas Sparks

But then, there's this...

"Scars remind us of where we've been; they don't have to dictate where we're going." -Criminal Minds

 "In the end, no matter how your plans turn out, no matter how others treat you, you get to choose what your life looks like." -To Write Love On Her Arms

"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."-Mother Teresa

 "I chose to forgive. Putting this decision into action hasn’t been the simplest thing I’ve ever done. Sometimes when your heart is smashed into a million pieces, you have to dig pretty deep to collect all of them again, and along the way, anger and bitterness and resentment rear their ugly heads and try to convince you that it will be easier to just give in to them. And sometimes, that’s a pretty tempting idea. Those are the days when you have to take a deep breath and choose, again, the path to forgiveness. And if that’s not enough, those are the days when you find someone who will help you want forgiveness, and you sit with them and cry about how unfair it all is until you settle down and realize that what you’re doing feels terrible and the forgiveness thing is just a better idea anyway. And after enough days, and maybe months, of deciding again and again to forgive, it suddenly becomes easy. And you’re finally not angry any longer." -To Write Love On Her Arms

Friendship. Community. Love.

"You're the strangest person I ever met, she said, & I said you too, & we decided we'd know each other a long time" -Brian Andreas

  

"You may not remember the time you let me go first.

Or the time you dropped back to tell me it wasn't that far to go.

Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up.

You may not remember any of those, but I do and this is what I have to say to you:

Today, no matter what it takes,

We ride home together.”  

-Brian Andreas

"Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done."~Starhawk

"No one with good friends is ever a failue."

"I can't promise to solve all your problems, but I can promise you won't have to face them alone."

"In this world full of pain & sorrow, maybe once in a lifetime, you'll find people who will make you feel wonderful. Hang on to those people no matter what."

“I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for. Something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead. I can't tell you what it might be, that's for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking & support you in the search."

My Past Self Is So Smart...

 Rarely is this blog about my personal thoughts. But sometimes, I make exceptions. Today is one of those times. Snippet of my past self, telling me(and you) super important thought provoking things. Listen to her, she's a smart lady :)

"Growing up in this world sucks and unfortunately there's no nice way of putting that. But I guess maybe we need to slow down a little and stop running, I hear it takes a lot of energy out of you. Who knows, maybe if you stop running you'll find out who you are, who your friends are and what the people in your life truly mean to you ." [June, 2007]

"There comes a moment, even if just a brief moment, when you find some inner strength and it is amazing. Where you get your strength from doesn't matter, as long as it comes along and pours cold water over your head." [December, 2007].

"It is cool to think about the roles that we have in the communities we are a part of. Sometimes I forget that I'm not alone because there are so many other people out there who are part of the community, who have a role and who fill it well. It is also really cool to think of the different, smaller communities that we are apart of and the different roles we play in each of them. God is pretty great like that, giving us different talents for the communities that we are apart of and for community in general. I don't know if this will be profound. Or even if it is suppose to be profound. I just know that community is awesome and that even in the darkest places community comes along and pulls you out. I'm glad I know that I need people. Because with people we have community and with community there is love and love is the best thing ever." [January, 2009]

"It is interesting, he said, to look back on the life you've lived. Why's that, she asked. He smiled and simply said, because if all this good has come already there is hope that something better is on its way." [February, 2012]

Questions & Faith

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." -Rainer Maria Rilke

"At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. Its like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And its not so important, happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in a while people may even take your breath away." -Grey's Anatomy

Moving Forward But Remembering The Past

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." 

-Thomas Merton

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

 - Louis L'Amour

"Even though our paths will divide into separate worlds, we will all take a little bit of everyone with us"

"You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place."

"The way we get to live forever is through memories stored in the hearts and souls of those whose lives we touch. That’s our soul print. It’s our comfort, our emotional nourishment at the end of the day and the end of a life. How wonderful that they are called up at will and savored randomly. It seems to me we should spend our lives in a conscious state of creating these meaningful moments that live on. Memories matter." 
-Leeza Gibbons

"Start here and go until you die, he said. What's so complicated about that?" 
-Brian Andreas

 

Extremists...For What?

"I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized as an extremist. But as I continue to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist... Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice - or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?"

-Martin Luther King Jr-

Go Dancing!

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance

Lee Ann Womack 

The Dalai Lama's 18 Rules for Living

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs: -Respect for self -Respect for others -Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you have made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

*Taken from Peaceful Daily

Finding Your Passion and the Small Things

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive & then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

“You are exactly who, what and where you are supposed to be and you are lovely. – Unknown

“Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things."

 "That is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest."