It came time for me to learn that I could pick myself up off the ground.

"There were times when he caught me, but there were more times he let me fall and finally it came time for me to learn that I could pick myself up off the ground, and walk away."
--Charlie Brown

So basically if you want to know about this, about what it is going on. Then you should just picture some one standing still with a cup in their hand, there is still half of the Pepsi remaining. And another person comes straight in through the door and goes up to the person, of course not saying anything. And then takes the cup out of the persons hand and throws it on the floor. All the pieces remaining, shattered. All the Pepsi, wasted. Everything a mess. But then it gets worse because this person who broke your cup. Who ruined your Pepsi that you weren't done drinking. They tell you that now you need to clean it up. Now you are responsible for the mess. That they want nothing to do with it.

Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of.

I'm gonna live my life if it kills me.

I took my lifestyle from mediocre to good and now I'd say it's sitting at amazing.

I couldn't breathe to save my life.

"I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness, Ed." He looks at me seriously. "And if a guy like you can stand up and do what you did for all those people, well, maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of."
--'I Am the Messenger'

My goal in life is to be the sort of person my dogs think I am.

"I have a theory that the answers to all of life's major questions can found in a John Mayer song."
--Susane Colasanti

Somehow we're never quite prepared

I step to the edge to see my world below
and I laugh at myself as the tears roll down
'cause it's the world I know

"Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.”
--Bob Dylan

Sorry, I'm only human
You know me, grown up
Oh no, guess again
My days always dry up and blow away
Progress, changing
Growing then giving up
Somehow we're never quite prepared

What if we stop having a ball?
What if the paint chips from the wall?
What if there's always cups in the sink?
What if I'm not what you think I am?
What if I fall further than you?
What if you dream of somebody new?
What if I never let you win, chase you with a rolling pin?
Well what if I do?
I am giving up on making passes and
I am giving up on half empty glasses and
I am giving up on greener grasses
I am giving up
What if our baby comes home after nine?
What if your eyes close before mine?
What if you lose yourself sometimes?
Then I'll be the one to find you
Safe in my heart

Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for
'Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for

If you wait for someone else's hand you will surely fall down.

Worth the read

I came outside after I woke up from my nap just to see how the weather was. And I'm so glad that I did because this is my favorite kind of moment. The sky has that old, worn-out look to it. It's been raining all day but the sun has been there behind it all just waiting to come out. And it's finally making its appearance for its biggest act: the setting.

It's casting the prettiest orange glow on the world, it's impossible not to feel good. I wonder why I love this time so much; this calm after the storm has past. The middle ground where the world still hasn’t recovered from the beating the rain gave it, but it isn’t quite ready to see its next phase yet. I think maybe I love it so much because I love that part of life too. Just after the pain there comes this wave of relief that, even though its still obvious you’ve been through hell, its also obvious that you’ll make it out to see another sunny day.

I'm obsessed with finding metaphors between nature and life and I find this one to be the most important one. I've been through enough storms to know how to appreciate a moment like this one. I can't get enough of how sad the sky looks but it's also telling me that even though it's gray today… there will come a time soon when it's blue again. And in learning how to deal, I've learned that yes, the skies are going to be gray sometimes, but they're also going to be bright blue with puffy clouds and a shining sun.

Life is an unpredictable mess, and weather is the same. There are some people who think they know everything about what life has to offer (weather forecasters? Don’t even get me started on what they think they know) but then all the sudden an unexpected draft brings a world of trouble. The only thing you can prepare yourself for is the fact that you'll never be prepared for what's to come in the future. But not to be scared because that’s the way its supposed to be.

Thinking you know what's going to happen is the perfect setup for disappointment when it doesn’t actually happen. The skies are different every single day and sometimes they will open up and rain on your parade and sometimes they’ll bless you with flawless shining rays.

But no matter what it decides to do, it's important to remember that it will always come back to this moment. The moment when looking up will reveal that gray overcast you hate, but if you look even further you’ll see the most beautiful shade of orange sitting over everything you know.

I am tired of being brave.

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.

Hypocrisy is annoying but not evil. Someone who says one thing and does another has doubled there chances of being half right.

When I was young I was misled by flash cards into believing that xylophones and zebras were much more common.

There is a subtle difference between a mission and a promise. A mission is something you strive to accomplish -- a promise is something you are compelled to keep. One is individual, the other is shared. When a mission and a promise are one and the same... that's when mountains are moved and races are won.
--Hala Moddelmog, President and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure

There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.
--Madeleine K. Albright, Former Secretary of State and Ambassador to the U.N.

Do not kiss your children so they will kiss you back but so they will kiss their children, and their children's children.

Childhood is a strange country. It's a place you come from or go to -- at least in your mind. For me it has an endless, spellbound something in it that feels remote. It's like a little sealed-vault country of cake breath and grass stains where what you do instead of work is spin until you're dizzy.
--Lyall Bush

Why are we inspired by another person's courage? Maybe because it gives us the sweet and genuine surprise of discovering some trace, at least, of the same courage in ourselves.

If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse.

"You see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw. Our whole guise is like giving a sign to the world to think of us in a certain way, but there's a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can't help people knowing about you."
--Diane Arbus

“It is June. I am tired of being brave.”
--Anne Sexton

Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise.

“This made her so angry that she did the dishes. We never did this unless we were trying to be grand and self-destructive. I stood in the doorway and tried to maintain my end of our silence while watching her scratch at calcified noodles. In truth, I had not yet learned how to hate anyone but my parents. I was actually just standing there in love. I was not even really standing; if she had walked away suddenly I would have fallen.”
--Miranda July, 'Something That Needs Nothing'

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
--Benjamin Franklin

"Walk in the rain, smell flowers, stop along the way, build sandcastles, go on field trips, find out how things work, tell stories, say the magic words, trust the universe."
--Bruce Williamson

I'm excited about my future life.

"Walks are never as good during the day. At night, when everyone's apartments are lit up and you can see inside, that's where the action is. Everything about this fascinates me. Windows, lampposts, building facades. Looking into other people's lives. The way it all comes together, this entity greater than the sum of its parts. I feel inspired. I'm excited about my future life. "
--Susane Colasanti, 'Take Me There'

The difference between rising at five and seven o’clock in the morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to ten additional years to a man’s life.

"Oh we all have reasons, son. The bottom line is there's only one way to live and that's all the way. If you die, you die. 'Cause I promise you, when you're my age you'll ask yourself, what the hell did I play it safe for?"
--'The Unusuals'

In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life.

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”
--Nelson Henderson

Life is really just a series of things that happen.

They want me. I want you. And you want someone else. But none of us want to turn around.

It takes millions of years for the continents to drift. And butterflies live a lot less than that. You can live all your life in a day. Or spread it out and live slow.

When I sit near you, my hands suddenly become alien things and I don't know where to put them or what they usually do, like this is the first time I've ever had hands and maybe they go in my pockets and maybe they don't.

Forget about your lists and do what you can because that's all you can do. Phone up the people you miss and tell them you love them. Hug those close to you as hard as you can. Because you are always only a drunk driver's stupidity, a nervous shopkeeper's mistake, a doctor's best attempts and an old age away from forever.

There is magic even here, in gridlock, in loneliness, in too much work, in late nights gone on too long, in shopping trolleys with broken wheels, in boredom, in tax returns, the same magic that made a man write about a princess that slept until she was kissed, long golden hair draped over a balcony and fingers pricked with needles. There is magic even here, in potholes along back-country roads, in not having the right change (you pat your pockets), arriving late and missing the last train home, the same magic that caused a woman in France to think that God spoke to her, that made another sit down at the front of a bus and refuse to move, that lead a man to think that maybe the world wasn't flat and the moon could be walked upon by human feet. There is magic. Even here. In office cubicles.

You are not too old. You are not too young. You are not too poor. You are not too sick. You are not any of the things that stop you from doing what must be done. You are right here. You, are just right.

When you finally understand what it meant, the truth will leave your lips. Not as words. But a sound at the back of your throat.

Each week, you trade 5 days for 2. That doesn't sound right to me.

Fine. Maybe I'm the puzzle. But you're still the pieces.

And if you can't say yes, answer anyway. Because I'd rather live with the answer than die with the question.

Others are going to start doing the things you talk about doing. The right time to start, is right now.

No storm is so bad that you can't learn something from it. You can grow in a storm. You can thrive. Rain cleans the air.

Not until you understand that to want is not to need and that love is meant for people, not things.

I was so busy missing you, I missed someone else standing right in front of me. Now I’m missing them instead.

Similar to tricycles, summer, winter, autumn, spring, bruised knees, your first kiss and there is no Santa Clause, life is really just a series of things that happen. Sometimes to you.