I Wish for A Bit of Adventure

“I wish sometimes that there was still a bit of adventure in the world. That wandering the world and the nations within it was both less dangerous from threat of war or terror and yet risky in that you were facing the unknown and the elements. To step onto a boat knowing that you took your life in your hands just for the chance to see a minaret or the pyramids or the rising temple in the distance. Knowing that you were going where few dared to tred. In a place that would take months to reach. Seeing things that others only dreamed of. To know that you were setting off into a world neither micromanaged nor constantly watched and guarded and known.  To be unknown in a world that was unknown.  Perhaps it is simply the romantic novels speaking or the spirit in me that was raised on stories of the great explorers of old. But it feels as though so much of the world is either politically frightening or simply has been seen a million times by a million eyes and photographs. They say that with globalization, the world continually shrinks. I feel that is true, and tragic in some way. There is something glorious in the idea of a very large world. One that has unknown possibilities and potential and newness to it. One that is too large to lay out on a computer screen and cannot be summarized in a geography book. Yes, although coming together is a wonderful thing and a miracle of our time, I wish sometimes that there was still a bit of adventure in the world.” 

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Everyone is Cute to Someone

“You know when you see a gorgeous boy on the street and you say to your friend, “Look at him!” and then your friend makes a face like, ugly? We all have such totally varied tastes that someone is going to look at you and think, yum-yum dee-lish, no matter what you think you look like. You just have to learn to see what they see. ”

** Cecily von Ziegesar

Step Out, Take a Chance

“But a planet can also become dark because of “too strong a desire for security … the greatest evil there is.” Meg resists her father’s analysis. What’s wrong with wanting to be safe? Mr. Murry insists that “lust for security” forces false choices and a panicked search for safety and conformity. This reminded me that my grandmother would get very annoyed when anyone would talk about “the power of love.” Love, she insisted, is not power, which she considered always coercive. To love is to be vulnerable; and it is only in vulnerability and risk—not safety and security—that we overcome darkness.” 

** A Wrinkle in Time

Rise Above It

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
**Rene Descartes

Troubled Times Breeds Both Honor and Cowardice ~ Which Will You Be?

“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.” 

**George RR Martin

A Very Noble View. . . .

“Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I’m not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior.” 

*Steven Brust

The Potential Within

“Once upon a time, when God had finished making the world, he wanted to leave behind Him for man a piece of His own divinity, a spark of His essence, a promise to man of what he could become, with effort. He looked for a place to hide this Godhead because, he explained, what man could find too easily would never be valued by him.
“Then you must hide the Godhead on the highest mountain peak on earth,” said one of His councilors.
God shook His head. “No, for man is an adventuresome creature and he will soon enough learn to climb the highest mountain peaks.”
“Hide it then, O Great One, in the depths of the earth!”
“I think not,” said God, “for man will one day discover that he can dig into the deepest parts of the earth.”
“In the middle of the ocean then, Master?”
God shook His head. “I’ve given man a brain, you see, and one day he’ll learn to build ships and cross the mightiest oceans.”
“Where then, Master?” cried His councilors.
God smiled. “I’ll hide it in the most inaccessible place of all, and the one place that man will never think to look for it. I’ll hide it deep inside of man himself.” 

**Dorothy Gilman (I’m kind of on a Gilman kick right now, re-reading all her books). 

Understanding Goes A Long Way

“I wasn’t offering her pity,” Mrs. Caswell said impatiently. “Tragedies don’t interest me, tragedies and heartbreaks are all alike, what matters is how a person meets them, how they survive them. Given the inevitability of losses and disappointments in life, that’s where the challenge is and the uniqueness. I was offering her sympathy.” 

~~ Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax)

Changing Home

You’ll feel so homesick that you’ll want to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won’t kill you. And one day the sun will come out – you might not even notice straight away, it’ll be that faint. And then you’ll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who’s only yours. And you’ll realize… that this is where your life is.

** Brooklyn

Words We Never Said

You never spoke a word,

But I heard words nonetheless.

Worthless

Unwanted

Useless

No Good

Unloved

Go Away

Go Away

GO AWAY!

And so I left.

And I never said a word.

But words you heard nonetheless.

Worthless

Unwanted

Useless

No Good

Unloved

Go Away

Go Away

GO AWAY!

Until, one day, you left.

If only we had said the words. . .

The real words left unsaid.

Precious

Wanted

Needed

Perfect

Loved

Stay

Stay

STAY