“Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.” – Alex Tan

I just think this is a beautiful reminder that it’s okay to cry and to release emotion. I feel like too many of us are taught that crying is weak. I completely disagree. I think that we should all feel every emotion to its fullest and then carry on through life’s stages once we have worked through whatever we need to work through. It’s not weak, I think it is actually STRONG to face your emotions head on, deal with them and express them however you need to in order to feel better. Crying is one of these ways. Have you ever had a good cry and felt like you lost 20 pounds afterwards? It feels great and is almost like a revival of sorts. So, if you need to cry, don’t fight the tears, let them wash your eyes and cleanse your soul so that you can see Life with a clearer view again. As one of my favorite writers says, and I’ve quoted numerous times before, “Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love) And, of course, Charles Dickens in Great Expectations, “We need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the binding earth, overlying our hard hearts.”

“It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are – not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within – that you can begin to take control.”

As most of you know, I LOVE Oprah Winfrey! I find her inspiring, motivating and look up to her more than most. Well, today is her birthday so I figured I’d share some of my favorite O quotes. Happy Birthday, O!

– Love, your best friend from the 4th row, November 4, 2008. A.K.A. Election Day 2008; what I like to call my “O day” 😉

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” 

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” 

“Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: What is my truest intention? Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it’s right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it.”

“I think that when you invite people to your home, you invite them to yourself.”

“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.”

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”

“What I know for sure is that what you give comes back to you.”

“Whatever you fear most has no power – it is your fear that has the power.”

“I am responsible.

Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening,

I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life.

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and

the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness,

immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the 

pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”

-Walker Anderson

“To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” – Confucius

This is a tough one! I feel as though we all hold on to pain and resentment and focus our energy on how we have been wronged or hurt instead of moving forward. It’s an easy habit to get caught up in. But when you stop and really think about it, what can you do? You can’t change what has been done or said to you and if you harbor your energy towards trying to you are just wasting your time and energy. You might as well focus your energy on the positives in your life, on those people and things that DON’T wrong you. Remembering the wrong and the negative is allowing people, words or situations to live rent free in your head. You give your power away. Remember, YOU are the only one that has control over your mind and your thoughts.

I needed this quote today…it really hits home with current relationships in my life and reading this made me reflect and redirect my energy. It’s hard to forget being wronged, but remembering it drains us. I think the important thing is to just remember what it taught you!

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu has more brilliant quotes than I know what to do with, but this one is new to me. I like it. No, I don’t just like it, I LOVE it! Many of us are scared to love. Hey, I’m not afraid to admit it, I know I am. It’s scary, you’re vulnerable, you’re exposed, the chance of pain and heartache is 50/50. But…it’s COURAGEOUS! It takes courage to put yourself in a scary, vulnerable, exposed situation with potential pain and heartache as an outcome, but that courage you gain in the process can never be taken away from you. Yes, the love of others makes us stronger, and allowing yourself to love and be loved is one of the hardest things we can do in this world (I think at least.). So, although we may put ourselves out there and get burned it’s the putting ourselves out there that defines us, that makes us stronger and more courageous.

Find and get rid of the cowardly lion within yourself and find your courage, because it has been within you all along. We are all capable of loving deeply, so why not? You never know what the outcome will be until you try and what you will ultimately learn in the end.

On MLK Day let’s not just be grateful for a day off of work, let’s remember the core and values of a person that fought for things more important than a day that many of us don’t have to go into the “office.” Martin Luther King, Jr. isn’t just a name, he was an inspirational and fearless man and we should all take this day off and listen to his words, read his words, whichever is available to you, and let them resonate in all of us. So if my blog is the only place you have access to some of his words today, enjoy! Here are many of my favorites; the ones that really hit home for me. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream and wasn’t afraid to share it with the world. Do you have a dream? (And congratulations President Obama!)

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

“On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?…There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.”

“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”

– Brene Brown, Ph.D., L.M.S.W., The Gifts of Imperfection

I won’t give away any more of this book right now, but I will share that it is one of the best gifts I have ever been given. I’m pretty sure that quotes from it will continue to appear on my blog, but just this for now 😉

Dr. Brown’s book is spectacular and I think that EVERYONE should own it, read it, read it again, apply it to their lies and then read it again. I’ve saved you a step and put a link to it here on Amazon. BUY IT!!! Seriously! It’s worth it’s weight in gold.

“The future lies before you, like a field of fallen snow; Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.” – Unknown

This is so brilliantly put! So.True! We are responsible for every thing we do and every thing we say, so be wise in your decisions, actions and with your words. You can’t take back a step in the snow 😉 All that we say and do throughout our lives creates who and what we are in the future. It’s actually kind of refreshing that we have control over our own destinies, huh? I have no one to blame but myself if I don’t reach my goals.

Challenge accepted!

“I look forward to being older, when what you look like becomes less and less an issue and what you are is the point.” – Susan Sarandon

Beautiful words spoken by a beautiful woman. The older I get, with each passing year that I get further from my younger years of judgement and insecurity, I realize this more and more. LOVE IT!

“It is not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What is hard is figuring our what you are willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.” – Shauna Nieguist