Know yourself fully before making promises to another. Make many mistakes so you’ll know the right decision when it really matters. Know when to hold on and when to let go. Love hard and often, and without reservation. Seek knowledge. Open yourself up to possibility. Keep your heart open, your head high and your spirit free. Embrace your darkness along with your light. Never mislead anyone, especially yourself. Have the courage to admit when you’re wrong. Awaken to the brilliance of ordinary moments. See goodness in the world. Strive to be your best. Be bold. Be grateful. Be wild and gloriously free. Be you.
++Jeanette LeBlanc

There are two great days in a person’s life
- the day we are born and the day we discover why.
++William Barclay

This was unexpected, my soul’s connection to you. You stole my loneliness. No one knows that I was wishing for you, a thief, to enter my house of autonomy, that I had locked my doors. But my windows were open, hoping, but not believing, you would enter.
++Douglous Copland

And I learned what is obvious to a child.
That life is simply a collection of little lives,
each lived one day at a time.
That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers
and poetry and talking to animals.
That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets
and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.
But most of all, I learned that life
is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks
with my hand on her knee and sometimes,
on good days, for falling in love.
++The Notebook

In love, there is always one who kisses
and one who offers the cheek.
++ French Proverb

There are also sorts of experiences that we can’t really put a name to. The birth of a child, for one. Or the death of a parent. Falling in love. Words are like nets - we hope they’ll cover what we mean, but we know they can’t possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder. Finding God is like that too. If it’s happened to you, you know what it feels like. But try to describe it to someone else - and language only takes you so far.
++ Jodi Picoulti

Sometimes we tend to be in despair when the person we love leaves us, but the truth is, it’s not our loss, but theirs. For they left the only person who wouldn’t give up on them.

There comes a time in every life when the world
gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart.
++Just Listen

I want out of the labels. I don’t want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that’s not on the map. A real adventure.  A spinx. A mystery. A blank. Unknown. Undefined.

Maybe the first time you saw her you were ten. She was standing in the sun scratching her legs. Or tracing letters in the dirt with a stick. Her hair was being pulled. Or she was pulling someone’s hair. And a part of you was drawn to her, and a part of you resisted—wanting to ride off on your bicycle, kick a stone, remain uncomplicated. In the same breath you felt the strength of a man, and a self-pity that made you feel small and hurt. Part of you thought: Please don’t look at me. If you don’t, I can still turn away. And part of you thought: Look at me.
++The History of Love

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t.  And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?
++Alice in Wonderland

And when I asked you how you'd been I meant I missed you
more than I've ever missed anything before.

You might not always like me, the things I do or the way I do them.
But these are my things, this is the way I do them and I am me.

Don't worry. Don't be afraid. The better pictures will be coming
up in the next picture update. It'll have some quotes with it too.