swissmiss

“Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure…and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”
– Maya Angelou

Three Things in Human Life Are Important.
The First Is To Be Kind.
The Second Is To Be Kind.
And the Third Is To Be Kind
— Henry James

“Ordinary isn’t the enemy but instead something nourishing and unavoidable, the bedrock upon which the rest of experience ebbs and flows. Embrace this — the warm water, the pruned hands, the prismatic gleam of the bubbles and the steady passage from dish to dish to dish — and feel, however briefly, the breath of actual time, a reality that lies dormant and plausible under all the clutter we pile on top of it. A bird makes its indecipherable call to another bird, a song from a passing car warps in the Doppler effect and I’m reminded, if only for a moment, that I need a lot less than I think I do and that I don’t have to leave my kitchen to get it.”
– Mike Powell, An Ode to Washing the Dishes

(via)

“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke

stand up for what is right
prioritize your mental health
being flexible brings success
your voice makes a difference
do not hide from your emotions
hard moments do not last forever
healing yourself makes life better
pursue your goals no matter what
embracing change eases your mind

young pueblo

“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together”
— Anaïs Nin

“Well now really when we go back into falling in love. And say, it’s crazy. Falling. You see? We don’t say “rising into love”. There is in it, the idea of the fall. And it goes back, as a matter of fact, to extremely fundamental things. That there is always a curious tie at some point between the fall and the creation. Taking this ghastly risk is the condition of there being life. You see, for all life is an act of faith and an act of gamble. The moment you take a step, you do so on an act of faith because you don’t really know that the floor’s not going to give under your feet. The moment you take a journey, what an act of faith. The moment that you enter into any kind of human undertaking in relationship, what an act of faith. See, you’ve given yourself up. But this is the most powerful thing that can be done: surrender. See. And love is an act of surrender to another person. Total abandonment. I give myself to you. Take me. Do anything you like with me. See. So, that’s quite mad because you see, it’s letting things get out of control. All sensible people keep things in control. Watch it, watch it, watch it. Security? Vigilance Watch it. Police? Watch it. Guards? Watch it. Who’s going to watch the guards? So, actually, therefore, the course of wisdom, what is really sensible, is to let go, is to commit oneself, to give oneself up and that’s quite mad. So we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity.”
– Alan Watts

“My life is my practice.”
– Ram Dass

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving.”
— bell hooks

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
— C. G. Jung

“There are no passengers
on spaceship earth.
We are all crew.”
— Marshall McLuhan

“To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up. Do not be misled into passivity either by false security (they don’t mean me) or by despair (there’s nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it.”
— Audre Lorde

“The habitual tendency when things get tough is that we protect ourselves, we get hard, we get rigid. But…that’s the time to soften and see how we might play or dance with the situation.”
— Jeff Bridges

“Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
— Plato

“Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.”
— Rebecca Solnit

“Fight for the things that you are about,
but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Why do you run around looking for the truth? Be still, and there it is—in the mountain, in the pine, in yourself.”
– Lao Tzu, Conscious Arrival

(via Libby)

“The cure for pain is in the pain.”
— Rumi

“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.”
— Eckhart Tolle

“One who is at peace naturally improves the world just by being.”
— Paul Ferrini

“Embrace the glorious mess that you are.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert