More Words
	Here is a collection of quotes that inspire me, for a variety of reasons. I have been collecting quotes for years, since I read so much. I hope you enjoy them.

"It is true of every art that you cannot acquire what you have not felt."

~Gustie Herrigel

"When our hands do the work of our hearts, the circle of creation is completed inside us and the doors of our souls fly open."

"Every artist dips his brush into his own soul and paints his nature into his pictures."

"If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way."

-Buddha

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself."

-Katherine Mansfield

"Time it was and what a time it was, a time of innocence, a time of confidences. Long ago it must be I have a photograph. Preserve your memory they're all that's left of you."

-Simon & Garfunkle

"Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth."

~Archimedes

"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."

~Robert Frost

"We write to taste life twice -- once in the moment and once in retrospection."

~ Anais Nin

"There is a community of the  spirit. Join it and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise."

-Rumi

"Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and friendship sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness, speak approving words while their ears can hear them and while their hearts can be filled by them."

~ William Childs

"Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over."

~ Gloria Naylor

"Tell me who you love, and I'll tell you who you are."

~ Creole Proverb

"People will love you for the honesty within your soul." 

~ Kate Winslette

"Live your life with hope and bravery and you shall live a life uncommon." 

~ Jewel

"The secret of life is in the living, not just standing there and watching life go by." 

~ song lyrics

"You are the best you. You will always be a second best anyone else."

~ Leo Buscaglia

"Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a revelation."

~ Eileen Caddy

"Be at peace and see a clear pattern and plan running through all your lives. Nothing is by chance."

~ Eileen Caddy

"Everything I do and say with anyone makes a difference."

~ Gita Bellin

"Be realistic: Plan for a miracle."

~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

" Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came.  He pushed them...and they flew."

~ Guillaume Apollinaire

"The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement."

~ Annon

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it is not pretty every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself and if you truly like the company  you keep
in the empty moments.I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love, for your dream,
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own without moving to hide it
or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer

We Were Made for These Times

Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.

I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered.
They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now. Ours
is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the
latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The luster and hubris some have aspired
to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday
people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.

Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry
by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most
particularly because, the fact is --that we were made for these times.
Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training
for, and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see
one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in
the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.
Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on
the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how
much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a
tendency too to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside
your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending
the wind without raising the sails. We are needed; that is all we can
know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who
will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear.

Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen
to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to
be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of
stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any
small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist
some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely.

It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom will cause the
critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic
change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing.

We know that it does not take "everyone on Earth" to bring justice and
peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale. One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up
flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.

If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things
you can do. There will always be times when you feel discouraged.
I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair
for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.
The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It
is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.

In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship
is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is
not what great ships are built for. This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth.

              ~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D