For a new beginning...

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new grounds,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plentitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you'll be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
~ John O'Donohue

To live on a day to day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see overall patterns in our lives.  We need hope, the sense of a future.  And we need freedom (or at least the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves, whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning technology or in states of mind which allow us to travel to other worlds, to transcend our immediate surroundings.  We need detachments of this sort as much as we need engagement in our lives... transports that make our consciousness of time and mortality easier to bear.  We seek a holiday from our inner and outer restrictions, a more intense sense of the here and now, the beauty and value of the world we live in.   ~ Oliver Sacks

You always own the option of having no opinion.  There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control.  These things are not asking to be judged by you.  Leave them alone. 
~Marcus Aurelius

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.  Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.
~ Albert Einstein

You need power, only when you want to do something harmful;
otherwise, love is enough to get everything done.  ~ Charlie Chaplin

When I go
don't learn to live without me
just learn to live with my love
in a different way.
And if you need to see me
close your eyes
or look in your shadow
when the sun shines
I'm there.
Sit with me in the quiet and you will know
that I did not leave.
There is no leaving when a soul is blended
with another.
When I go
don't learn to live without me
just learn to look for me in the moments.
I will be there.
~ Donna Ashworth

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.
~ Chinese proverb

And she stopped...
and she heard what the trees said to her,
and she sat there for hours
not wanting to leave,
for the forest said nothing,
it just let her breathe.
~ Becky Hemsley

A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness

If I have harmed anyone in any way, either knowingly or unknowingly though my own confusions, I ask their forgiveness.

If anyone has harmed me in anyway, either knowingly or unknowingly through their own confusions, I forgive them.

And if there is a situation I am not yet ready to forgive, I forgive myself for that.

For all the ways that I harm myself, negate, doubt, belittle myself, judge or be unkind to myself through my own confusions, I forgive myself.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.  All things break.  And all things can be mended.  Not with time, as they say, but with intention.  So go.  Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.  The broken world awaits in darkness for the light that is you.   ~ L. R. Knost

I don't care much for things that I can't take with me after I die.  Give me love.  Moments.  Purpose.  Things that'll settle in the soul.  ~ A. R. Lucas

If people looked at the stars each night, they'd live a lot differently.  When you look into infinity, you realize that there are more important things than what people do all day.   ~ Bill Watterson

Transmutation
Grapes must be crushed to make wine.
Diamonds form under pressure.
Olives are pressed to release oil.
Seeds grow in darkness.

Whenever you feel crushed, under pressure, pressed or in darkness, you're in a powerful place of transformation and transmutation.  Trust the process.
~ Lalah Delia

It's madness to hate all roses because you got scratched with one thorn, to give up all dreams because one of them didn't come true, to give up all attempts because one of them failed.  It's folly to condemn all your friends because one has betrayed you, to no longer believe in love just because someone was unfaithful or didn't love you back, to throw away all your chances to be happy because something went wrong.  There will always be another opportunity, another friend, another love, a new strength.  For every end, there is always a new beginning.  ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Stop talking about the way things are, unless you like them. 
~ Abraham Hicks

May the stars carry your sadness away,
may the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
my hope forever wipe away your tears, and, above all,
may silence make you strong.
~ Chief Dan George

I'd rather be all by myself, talking to the moon
than be just parts of me that fit in with how people expect me to be.
~ Unknown

The Story of the Two Wolves
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.
"A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves. 
One is evil, full of anger, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity and false pride.
The other is good, full of joy, peace, love, humility, kindness and faith."
"The same fight is going on inside of you, grandson... and inside of every other person on earth."
The grandson ponders this for a moment and asks, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"
The old man smiled ad simply said, "The one you feed."

The tiny seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light. 
–Sandra Kring