Many paths up the mountain...

Walking through life with curiosity and a sense of investment and joy in no way requires having a child.

~ a NY Times advice columnist

If you're going to walk on ice,
You might as well dance
~ Joey "CoCo" Diaz

Don't judge a book by the cover

“He looked like a shitkicker, but he spoke with the wisdom of a sage.”
Bob Dylan describing Ronnie Hawkins

"When I was a child and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

~ Mr. Rogers

Get in line, sister

I want my life to get bigger, not smaller...

~ Debbie from GLOW

Hope” is the thing with feathers

by Emily Dickenson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Personal note: Emily Dickenson wrote with a particular cadence, and you can sing her poems to the melody of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song.

Joy is the opposite of fear.

~ Carlos Santana

Warrior Truths

“As we stand here tonight, there are thousands of nuclear missiles pointing right at us, and if we were to get an attack, we would have 30 minutes, 30 minutes, before we were hit.

There is no shelter. This is the warmonger’s hoax. There is no shelter. It’s all a lie."

~ Tulsi Gabbard

I'd Really Like to See You Tonight...

Hello, yeah, it's been a while
Not much, how about you?
I'm not sure why I called
I guess I really just wanted to talk to you

And I was thinking maybe later on
We could get together for a while
It's been such a long time
And I really do miss your smile

I'm not talking about moving in
And I don't want to change your life
But there's a warm wind blowing, the stars are out
And I'd really love to see you tonight

We could go walking through a windy park
Or take a drive along the beach
Or stay at home and watch TV
You see it really doesn't matter much to me

I won't ask for promises
So you don't have to lie
We've both played that game before
Say I love you and say goodbye

I'm not talking about moving in
And I don't want to change your life
But there's a warm wind blowing, the stars are out
And I'd really love to see you tonight

~ England Dan and John Ford Coley

Life is a choice,
and the choices we make dictate how we live

~ gymnast Katelyn Ohashi

Hard times build character.

Wrong.

Hard times do not build character, but they do reveal character.

~ Iraq War Veteran

May you live in interesting times...

Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them.

~ James Comey (in a New York Times editorial)

If you think this is going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

~ Ramsay Snow, in Game of Thrones

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”

~ Rosa Luxemburg

“A lot of the conflict you have in your life exists simply because you’re not living in alignment; you’re not be being true to yourself.”

~ Steve Maraboli

Yet we must persevere...

Behold the Dreamer!

Let us slay him and see what becomes of his dreams.

~ Genesis 37:19-21

Sufi Wisdom

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

~ Rumi

Seeing ahead

Prophesy is like a half-trained mule. It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, is kicks you in the head.

~ Tyrion, Game of Thrones

My typical sleeping aid...

Johnny Rose: Moira! Get up! Get up!

Moira Rose: Ohhhhh, nooo. I just cried myself to sleep!

~ from Schitt's Creek (Netflix)

Truer words...

Do not regret loving someone...

Sarek, to Michael Burnham
Star Trek Discovery

Depression is just rage turned inward.

~ Dr. Melfi, the Sopranos

Princess Bean: What's this feeling that I don't want to drink away?

Elfo: That's hope

~ Disenchantment

My whole life, I've done everything I was supposed to do,
and all it did was make me miserable.

~ from Suits

You'll always feel the same, you'll just keep getting older

~ Nora Ephron

The Perfect Icebreaker:

How's your day?

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.

~ E. M. Forster

If you want to be loved, give love...

~ paraphrased from the early stoic Hecato of Rhodes, in Seneca's Moral Letters to Lucilius

Do the best that you can until you know better.

Then, when you know better, do better.

~ Maya Angelou

A little comedian wisdom

(Chris ) Rock's set is surprisingly pro-bully; his reasoning is that being bullied toughens you up and gets you ready for the real world, which is filled with assholes.

~ Rolling Stone, on comedian Chris Rock

Ancient wisdom about when to give up on an argument

If a man objects to truths that are all too evident, it is no easy task finding arguments that will change his mind. This is proof neither of his own strength nor of his teacher’s weakness. When someone caught in an argument hardens to stone, there is just no more reasoning with them.

~ Epictetus - Discourses I, 5.1

A sobering metaphor for life

Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them.

And some are given a chance to climb, they cling to the real or the gods or love.

Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.

~ Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, in the Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones quote for today's political environment.

A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of sheep.

~ Tywin Lannister

Power always thinks it has a great soul.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The man who goes around the room just once is ahead of the man who just sits there.

When $$$ > safety

This windshield decal is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love Fig Newtons!

~ Ricky Bobby

Be wary of those who believe they are 100 percent right

"The data run counter to your anecdotes."

~ Robby Mook, 2016 Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager, to Bill Clinton, when Clinton suggested to his wife's advisors that, considering Brexit, they might be underestimating the strength of the populist tide.

From "Shattered" by Jonathon Allen and Amie Parnes

It seems that everybody has an opinion these days...

The World is changed by your example,

not by your opinion.

~ Paul Coelho

Sagan wrote this in 1995...

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and not one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

deja vu all over again...

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

~ Ecclesiastes 1:9

“It’s no use going back to yesterday,” said Alice, “because I was a different person then.”

~ Alice, in Alice in Wonderland

What do you want after you stop caring about your life?

I want to save my life while I still care about it.
I want a divorce.

~ female protagonist in the HBO show, Divorce

A great warrior is just an average man with laser-like focus.

~ Bruce Lee

Are you ready to change the energy of the universe?

~ Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, at a Sept 2016 concert in Kansas City

Unless you puke, faint, or die,
keep going

~ Jillian Michaels

The sky is not really the same when your are watching it alone.

~ Clark, to Lana. Smallville

Time marches, choices narrow.

~ Nancy on Weeds

Without doing, dreaming is useless.

~ Rilla Alexander

Troubles hurt the most when they are proved self-inflicted.

~ Sophicles

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

~ Muhammad Ali (1942 - 2016)

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

~ Louis Armstrong

When you’ve been constantly repeating the need for a “revolution” and it still hasn’t happened, you are probably not the one who will be leading it.

— John in Winter Park, Fla., reacting to a NYTimes article about Senator Bernie Sanders seeking to damage Hillary Clinton’s standing late in the Democratic race.

"Isn't it frustrating? Wanting somebody who doesn't want you back?"

~Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones

What is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

~ Albert Camus

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

~ Zora Neale Hurston

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

~ Anais Nim

Close, but no cigar

Shame sticks to you like tar...

~ Monica Lewinski

A zen story

A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered this monastery. I beg you to teach me.”

Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?”

The monk replied, “I have.”

“Then,” said Joshu, “Go and wash your bowl."

At that moment the monk was enlightened.

A meditation regarding the people who believe that Donald Trump really saw muslims dancing in the streets of New Jersey City...

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be:
An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.”