Inspirational quotes

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying. – Nikki Giovanni

We must go ahead and see for ourselves. – Jacques Cousteau

Life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties – which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return? – Margot Fonteyn

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. – Frederick Douglass

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King Jr.

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. Andre Gide

All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Henry David Thoreau

To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, not lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

The more you move, the stronger you’ll grow, not like a tree that can be killed if you uproot it.- Ha Jin

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Two changes to live… to live is to change…and not to change is to die. Tennessee Williams

Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Rumi

The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences. Hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. – Chris McCandless

In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost

As time passes we all get better at blazing a trail through the thicket of advice. – Margot Bennett

If the fish had stuck to its gills, there would have been no movement up to the land. Cynthia Ozick

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. Louis L’Amour

An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy. Madeline L’Engle

Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision, and at some I had only to listen. Duke Ellington

The moment of change is the only poem. Adrienne Rich

Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future. Kathleen Norris

Our way is not soft grass, it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun. Ruth Westheimer
Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with. – Mark Twain

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Proverbs 17:22

Laughter is the sun which drives winter from the human face. Victor Hugo

How truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. Washington Irving

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or, more correctly speaking, loved in spite of yourself. Victor Hugo

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. Joseph Addison

… feel the stars and the infinite high and clear above you. Then life seems almost enchanted after all. Vincent Van Gogh

Joy is prayer, joy is strength, joy is love, joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do, the fun is in having lots to do –
and not doing it. Mary Little

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln

One cannot divine or forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world’s end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame. Willa Cather

You won’t win until you learn how to lose. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Growth and self- transformation cannot be delegated Lewis Mumford

What we lack is not so much leisure to do as time to reflect and time to feel. Margaret Mead

The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and saying. What a mistake that would be. Joan Oliver Goldsmith

Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through. Wislawa Szymborska

We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors. George Washington

Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for living a full life. Sophia Loren

The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations. Anaïs Nin

To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves -there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. Joan Didion

We know too much and feel too little. Bertrand Russell

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim. Nora Ephron

The man who has lived most is not he who has numbered the most years, but he who has had the keenest sense of life. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness. May Sarton

We need other human beings in order to be human. Desmond Tutu

People are like bicycles. They can keep their balance only as long as they keep moving. Albert Einstein

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t. Pete Seeger

Try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun. Julia Child

In the Book of Life, the answers aren’t in the back. Charles Schultz

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder

To find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest, or over a wild flower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life. John Burroughs

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. – Lin Yutang

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman

Simplify the problem of life: distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. Henry David Thoreau

Silence is more musical than any song. Christina Rossetti

Most of the luxuries, and many of these so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Henry David Thoreau

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. Oscar Wilde

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. William Morris

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. Charlie Mingus

To be a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. Helen Keller

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. Edwin Way Teale

Learn to wish that everything may happen as it does. Epictetus

Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Look at your feet. You were standing in the sky. When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins at the earth…We breathe it deep within us. Diane Ackerman

Go not abroad for happiness. For see! It is a flower that blossoms by thy door. Minot J Savage

Being is sufficient. Being is All. The cheerful, sunny self you are missing will return, as it always does, but only being will bring it back. Alice Walker

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Khalil Gibran

Happiness, not in another place but this place … not for another hour, but this hour. Walt Whitman

…those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy. Marcus Aurelius

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself, so that you can hear it in other people. Marian Wright Edelman

Strange as it may seem today to say, the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. Henry Miller

The breeze of grace is always blowing on you, but you have to unfurl your sails. Sri Ramakrishna

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. Carl Jung

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness. James Thurber

You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. J.R.R. Tolkien

Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved. Jane Goodall

The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest. Lao Tzu

Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things. When they do, it is best to be a little hard of hearing. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectations of reward, save that one day someone might do the same for you. Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. Arthur Ashe

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. Henry Ward Beecher

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own. Benjamin Disraeli

We must understand ourselves before we can respect ourselves. We must respect ourselves before we can win the respect of others. Pearl S Buck

Art is a lie that makes us realize truth. Pablo Picasso

Time has no divisions to mark its passage; there is never a thunderstorm to announce the beginning of the new year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. Thomas Mann

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you can see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center. Kurt Vonnegut

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Franz Kafka

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view. George Eliot

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world. George Bernard Shaw

A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. Mohammed Ali

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust

Drop by drop is the pitcher filled. Buddha

Patient serves as protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. Leonardo da Vinci

Nothing great is produced suddenly. Epictetus

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

Little drops of water wear down big stones. Russian proverb

Little strokes fell great oaks. Benjamin Franklin

The best way out is always through. Robert Frost

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Albert Einstein

Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience . Georges-Louis LeClerc de Buffon

The one at peace sleeps pleasantly having abandoned victory and defeat. Buddha

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. Martha Washington

Never look at what you have lost; look at what you have left. Robert Schuller

You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. Paulo Coelho

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his own feet. James Oppenheim

One must view the world through the eye I n one’s heart rather than just trust the eyes in one’s head. Mary Crow Dog

It’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. Sally Kempton

A thousand words leave not the same deep print as does a single deed. Henrik Ibson

It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy. Steve Jobs

I don’t believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel. Gloria Naylor

You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you. Mary Tyler Moore

Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth. Horace

When you drink the water, remember the well. Chinese proverb

The critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. GK Chesterton

It isn’t enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it; one must work at it. Eleanor Roosevelt

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. Stanley Kubrick

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means. Ronald Reagan

He has great tranquility of heart who cares for neither praise nor blame. Thomas A Kempis

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. William S Burroughs

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein

Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out. Katherine Dunham

There is no way to peace; peace is the way. Mahatma Gandhi

Do you work, then step back. The only path to serenity. Lao Tzu

None but ourselves can free our minds. Bob Marley

Quotes about making art

“Artists paint apples because they have the urge to paint apples. And if people like the art, that’s a bonus.” – Jeanne-Claude (partner of Christo)

———————
“You should paint pictures because you want to paint them, not because everyone wants you to paint them.”

“It’s your picture, and all that is important is developing your own vision. It only needs to please you semicolon pleasing everyone is impossible, anyway.”

From “Urban Watercolor Sketching” by Felix Scheinberger

———————-

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol

———————
“The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed…because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may affect the course of events…by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think.” -Leonard Bernstein

———————
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘You cannot paint’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Quotes about silence and solitude

“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.” – Alan Watts

“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary seabird that opens its wings on the steak. Let me sit here forever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.” – Virginia Woolf

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; and when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound becomes diversion and a pastime.” – Kahlil Gibran

“All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their chamber.” – Blaise Pascal

“You rest now. Rest for longer than you are used to resting. Make a stillness around you, a field of peace. Your best work, the best time of your life will grow out of this peace.” – Peter Heller

“There is a loneliness more precious than life. There is a freedom more precious than the world. Infinitely more precious than life and the world is that moment when one is alone with God.” – Rumi

“While I am looking for something large, bright, and unmistakably holy, God slips something small, dark, and apparently negligible in my pocket. How many other treasures have I walked right by because they did not meet my standards?” – Barbara Brown Taylor

“Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.” – Rumi

“I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days.” – Hafiz

“Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.” – Richard Rohr

“Silence is precious; by keeping silence and knowing how to listen to God, the soul grows in wisdom and God teaches it what it cannot learn from men.” – Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Poem – God is understood as dual

The alpha and the omega –
there you go.
Yin and Yang.
(this completely ignores the trinity
– the holy spirit is the Force)

God made us to be
God’s agents in this world.
We are part of
creation,
and part of
the creating force.
We are God’s hands
and eyes
and feet
in this world
(quote Teresa of Avila)

We are more than just physical beings.
We are souls,
created by God,
housed in these vessels.

God is the sculptor, we are the clay
(quote Isaiah)

These bodies are like cars –
they get our souls where they need to be.
They are like “avatars”
Our souls can be sorry that someone is suffering.
But because we are physical,
we can do something about it.
We can offer a shoulder
to cry on.
We can cook a meal for them.
We can hold their hand.
We can listen to them when they complain.
We can use our bodies to share the love
and compassion of God in a real sense.
No empty words here.

We have the kingdom of heaven within us
(quote Jesus).
That kingdom is our soul – created by God.

Part of that kingdom is that we have the ability
to do good in this world,
and to be a force for good.
We have the ability
to make this world better
– to bring about the kingdom here,
and now.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
(quote the Hopis)

We have the choice to use it
for good
or bad.
To use our days mindfully
or mindlessly.
Sometimes it is hard to choose good
(quote st. paul – I don’t do what I want to do).

So we pray.
We pray for advice, for will, for strength.
Just praying for these things is good –
it is a sign that we are reaching for God.
And it is essential that we not see ourselves
as God.
We are created – not the creator.
(quote Beowulf’s reference to hubris)

There is a fine balance here.

We need to wake up
to our full potential.
(quote quantum physics)
But we need to also remember that we are dust,
(quote Carl Sagan, Genesis 3:19)

We aren’t omnipotent or omniscient.
Nor are we an island
(quote John Donne)
We need to work together,
and know that we were put here,
each one of us,
for a reason.
And live up to that.

Quotes from my phone

There is nothing original here. These are quotes that I’d saved as screen captures on my phone. I realized recently that I had way too many pictures so I’ve been culling them. I’ve gone through and typed up all the quotes/ideas/words that I had saved, so here they are.

“People are often unreasonable and self centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world your best and it may not be enough. Give your best anyway. In the end it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” – Mother Teresa

The fact that no one understands you doesn’t mean you’re an artist.

“Salvation is not about what happens after we die, but what begins whenever we realize God Loves us.” – from “If God is Love” – by Philip Gulley

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.” – Thich Nhat Han

The Jewish notion of the Lamed Vavnik – that there are always 36 people standing up for justice.

The word “afflatus” – it is used in the literal form of inspiration. It is the “staggering and sudden blow of a new idea, and idea that the recipient may be unable to explain.”

“Take a moment before a meal to reflect on the work and the wonder, involve in the process that brings food from the earth to your table in order to eat it with both more pleasure and more consciousness. Whether you actually say grace out loud or simply reflect in silence on this everyday miracle, the practice fosters more mindful eating. And mindfulness helps us to eat more slowly and more sanely. “This meal is the labor of countless beings,” goes one Zen blessing offered before eating. “Let us remember their toil.” – – unknown book of blessings.

“There’s force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.” – Gandhi.

“Everybody talks about leaving a better planet for the children. Why does nobody try to leave better children for the planet?” – Facebook meme.

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” – Lao Tzu

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Every day is a good day to celebrate.” – seen on a reusable shopping bag from Publix

“When you give Gratitude for everything that comes in life, even trouble – magic opens up.” – Amma

“We all have different faces, characters and names. If God wanted us to be all the same, He would have done it. Not to respect the differences, to accuse the others for our faults is not to respect God.” – Shams Tabrizi

“Rastas say that Jah, in the form of the Holy Spirit (incarnate) lives within the human, and for this reason they often refer to themselves as “I and I”. Furthermore, “I and I” is used instead of “We”, and is used in this way to emphasize the equality between all people, in the belief that the Holy Spirit within all people makes the essentially one and the same.” – Wikipedia article on Rastafarianism, and the word “Jah” as a name for God.

“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.” – Rumi

“Whatever happens to you, don’t fall in despair. Even if all the doors are closed, a secret path will be there for you that no one knows. You can’t see it yet but so many paradises are at the end of this path. Be grateful! It is easy to thank after obtaining what you want, thank before having what you want.” – Shams Tabrizi
“The darker the night, the brighter the stars. The deeper the grief, the closer is God!” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” –Rumi

“Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity” – seen on a FB meme.

“We are all connected; to each other biologically. To the earth chemically. To the rest of the universe, atomically.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

“There are more fake guides, teachers in the world than stars. The real guide is the one who makes you see your inner beauty, not the one who wants to be admired and followed.” – Shams Tabrizi

“Countless paths / lead to the mountain’s summit / yet from it / the same moon shines / over the land.” – Ikkyu

“All God’s angels come to us disguised.” – James Russell Lowell

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“…the total combined weight of human beings on Earth now exceeds 287 million tons. A third of that global human biomass exists in North America, although we account for only 6 percent of the world’s population.” – from the New York Times Well Blog (the blog used the term “voluntary physical inactivity” to explain why North Americans are so huge)

“The best time to plant a tree was always 20 years ago. The second best time is always today.” – Old Chinese Saying.

“I free myself from hatred through forgiveness and love. I understand that suffering, when it cannot be avoided, is here to help me on my way to glory. I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea.” – Paulo Coelho (from “Aleph”)

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

“Your way begins on the other side. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.” – Rumi

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

“I said – what about my eyes? God said Keep them on the road. I said –what about my passion? God said Keep it burning. I said –what about my heart? God said Tell me what do you hold inside it? I said –pain and sorrow? He said…Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi.

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Basho

“There is a simple way to become buddha: when you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no desiring thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.” – Dogen Zenji

“Water which is too pure has no fish.” – Ts’ai Ken T’an

Phrases to use with people who are recovering. – I love you. I’m here for you. Is there anything I can do?
Phrases to use with caution (may be not taken well) – Everything is going to be OK. I know how you’re feeling. You’re in my prayers.
Phrases to never use – I know someone who died of that same health condition. How did this happen?

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” – Rumi

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lifves are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” – Rainer Maria Rilke.

“I am grateful for all my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.” – James Cash (J.C.) Penney

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” – C.S. Lewis

“Know then that the body is merely a garment. Go see the wearer, not the cloak.” – Rumi

“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” – Mark Twain

“To change the world is not your mission. To change yourself Is not your duty. To awaken to your true nature is your opportunity.” – Mooji

“Watch over those who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends on each other’s toil” – BCP

“No one wishes to be ‘rescued’ with someone else’s beliefs. Remember your task is not to convert anyone to anything, but to help the person in front of you get in touch with his or her own strength, confidence, faith, and spirituality, whatever that might be.” – The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

Kintsukuroi – “to repair with gold” – the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver laquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

“To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of bullshit.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Keep silence, be mute; if you have not yet become the tongue of God, be an ear.” – Rumi

“Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.” – Eckhart Tolle

Fane – from the Latin “fanum” – temple, place dedicated to a deity.

“When superior people hear of the Way, they travel it diligently. When mediocre people hear of the Way, they seem aware, yet are as if oblivious. When lesser people here of the Way, they laugh at it out loud. What they don’t laugh at couldn’t be the Way.” – Lao Tzu

“The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.” – Dalai Lama

“The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.” – from Sherwood Anderson’s letter of advice on art and life to his teenage son.

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasure of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. The very cave that you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for. The damned thing in the cave that was so dreaded has become the center.” – Joseph Campbell

“Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates happiness and sorrow, a good deed and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom.” – Buddha

“When I say ‘Be yourself,” I mean the spiritual freedom fighter who’s scrambling and finagling and conspiring to relieve your fellow messiahs from their suffering and shower them with rowdy blessings of laughter.” – Bob Brezny

“Hekau is the Medu Neter (Ancient Egyptian) term meaning “words of power”. It comes from the idea of creation by words.” – from a blog called Hekau

“The way other people practiced a sport, learned a dance, I sat with feelings to learn who I am.” – S. Kelley Harrell, Gift of the Dreamtime: Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma

Namaste – (Sanskrit) – my soul recognizes your soul, I honor the light, love, beauty, truth and kindness within you because it is also within me. In sharing these things there is not distance and no difference between us, we are the same, we are one.

“The arets are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” – Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“Reexamine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” – Walt Whitman