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There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.

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I’m grateful for anything that reminds me of what’s possible in this life. Books can do that. Films can do that. Music can do that. School can do that. It’s so easy to allow one day to simply follow into the next, but every once in a while we encounter something that shows us that anything is possible, that dramatic change is possible, that something new can be made, that laughter can be shared.

books0977: Girl Reading. Henri Lebasque (French, 1865-1937). Lebasque studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Léon Bonnat. Here Lebasque met Camille Pissarro & Auguste Renoir. In 1924, Lebasque moved to Le Cannet on the French Riviera, where he & his friend Bonnard shared a model. His portrayals of women & their children are colorful & intimate, full of the hope & joy of life.
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Here’s how I became myself: mess, failure, mistakes, disappointments, and extensive reading; limbo, indecision, setbacks, addiction, public embarrassment, and endless conversations with my best women friends; the loss of people without whom I could not live, the loss of pets that left me reeling, dizzying betrayals but much greater loyalty, and overall, choosing as my motto William Blake’s line that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love.

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Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.

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A plant is not thinking: Tomorrow I will put a new leaf to the north and then next week when it rains I will grow a metre taller. Its existence is just unfolding out of itself spontaneously, naturally, unplanned. Similarly, your true life unfolds in the same way but you are unaware of it because you allow your mind to imagine fanciful ways of being and then pursue your projections. Like this, you began thinking and strategising your existence rather than simply experiencing your natural being. We cannot breathe tomorrows, breath today. Therefore, knowing this, leave your existence to existence and start enjoying your cosmic play. Best of all, don’t try to be anything at all. This is a secret few recognize.

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All that is asked of you is to make room for truth. You are not asked to make or do what lies beyond your understanding. All you are asked to do is *let it in*; only to stop your interference with what will happen of itself; simply to recognize again the presence of what you thought you gave away.

Be willing, for an instant, to leave your altars free of what you placed upon them, and what is really there you cannot fail to see. The holy instant is not an instant of creation, but of recognition. For recognition comes of vision and suspended judgment.

piuomenopoesia: aneleh: You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life. Unknown quotes “devi capire l’interezza della vita, non solo una piccola parte, ecco perché devi leggere, e guardare il cielo, e cantare, e ballare, e scrivere poesie, e soffrire e capire, perché tutto questo è la vita” (sconosciuto)