Maybe love is…

“Maybe, when it comes down to it, love is not about chasing another human being. Maybe, love is about chasing yourself. Chasing your growth. Chasing your hope.

Maybe love is about learning how to be gentle with yourself, how to believe in the way the Universe has removed certain people from your life. And maybe love grows within you when you learn how to trust your own heart, when you learn how to walk away from the things that have not cared for it. Maybe, love is about learning how to accept that sometimes even beautiful things end, that sometimes the timing isn’t right. And maybe love is about learning that endings aren’t something to regret; maybe it is about learning how to let go, how to appreciate the things you experienced at the hands of caring that were real and hopeful and light in a world that sometimes fails to be soft.

Maybe, love is about learning how to be alone. Maybe it is about learning how to wake up in the middle of the bed. How to make just one cup of coffee in the morning. How to hold your own heart, how to take up space. Maybe there is beauty to be found in falling in love with your growth, in learning how to stop filling voids with other human beings, and instead, in slowly having the courage to heal those voids yourself.

Maybe love is about learning how to be proud of the person you are stretching into, is about embracing the beauty and the depth that exists in trying for something while you are here. And maybe within that, love is about honoring your heart. Maybe the truest, and most honest, extension of love exists in the way you learn how to love yourself, exists in the way you learn how to be compassionate towards the parts of yourself, and your journey, that no one else claps for.

Maybe, love exists in the way you fight to be here, in the way you crash your heart into this world. Maybe, love is about you — being your own strength, being your own safe place. Maybe, when it comes down to it, love is about finally learning how to give yourself the same love you so beautifully give to others. Maybe, love is about embracing the person you are becoming, and believing in your heart, on even your hardest of days.”

@rainbowsalt

Regard Yourself As A Cloud

“Regard yourself as a cloud, in the flesh, because you see, clouds never make mistakes. Did you ever see a cloud that was misshapen? Did you ever see a badly designed wave? No, they always do the right thing. But if you will treat yourself for a while as a cloud or a wave, and realize that you can’t make a mistake whatever you do. Because even if you do something that appears totally disastrous, it will all come out in the wash somehow or another. Then through this capacity you will develop a kind of confidence. And through confidence you will be able to trust your own intuition.”
— Alan Watts

When It’s Over

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”
– Mary Oliver

Joy

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it…It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
– Mary Oliver

The Female Warrior

“The female warrior knows how to fight without violence. She knows when not to raise her sword, but instead hold up her heart. Her shield is not a defense against others but a shelter for all.”
― Riitta Klint

A Big Beautiful Life

“I want to have a big, beautiful, happy life, and let great art flow from that. I reject the idea that we need to be miserable, alone, and/or dysfunctional in order to make great work.”
Casey Gerald

Equanimity

“Equanimity boils down to this:
Everything is great and I am ok.
Everything sucks and I am ok.”
– Jerry Colonna

From the book Reboot.

The Wave

“The wave is the same as the ocean, though it is not the whole ocean. So each wave of creation is a part of the eternal Ocean of Spirit. The Ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot exist without the Ocean.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda

Making the Unconscious Conscious

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
– C.G. Jung

Role Models

“Don’t work for people you don’t want to become.”
– Shane A. Parrish

I went to the Woods

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived?”
Henry David Thoreau

Happy

“Make sure you know what makes you happy, and don’t forget it.”
― Derek Sivers

From his book Anything You Want

Love Cures People

“Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”
– Karl A. Menninger

Where you Stumble

Thank you for sharing this beautiful quote with us, James Victore.

“Work From Near Home”

“Many workers won’t be returning to an office anytime soon, but having them relocate their efforts entirely to their homes for the long run might be unexpectedly misery-inducing and unproductive. We need to consider a third option for our current moment, and if we look to authors for inspiration then one such alternative emerges: work from near home.”

What if remote work didn’t mean working form home? by Cal Newport

A Partner Who Is Ready To Build With You`

“Find a partner who is ready to build with you. It is not about finding perfection in another person, it is about realizing when you come across an undeniable connection that nourishes your being and matches the type of support you are looking for. Getting lost in the idea of perfection is a hindrance. Being with someone who is committed to going through the ups and downs of life together is truly priceless. When two people embrace their imperfections and commit to growing into better versions of themselves, it will naturally enhance the happiness they share in the relationship.”
– Yung Pueblo

The New and The Good

“Once we’re thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost, but it’s only here that the new and the good begins.”
Leo Tolstoy

Your Own Power

“the most widespread affliction
that people suffer from is a lack
of belief in their own power
to be so broken
to have
fallen
so deeply
that the only thing
you can do is
rise
into a new you”
― yung pueblo

Knowing How To Be Solitary

“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
― bell hooks

Make It A Habit

“Make it a habit to look for what you are wanting to see.”
Abraham

Fear

“Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.”
– Naguib Mahfouz

Knowing How To Be Solitary

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as means of escape.”
bell hooks

There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling

“Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

This article by Adam Grant!

Nobody Will Stop You From Creating

“Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow… The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.”
Kurt Vonnegut