AWARNESS
"Attention without feeling is only a report." —Mary Oliver
COURAGE
“I came to realize that while I struggled to be good, I could excel at being courageous.” — Michelle Zauner
EMPATHY
“Empathy fuels connection.”—Brené Brown
FEAR
“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”—Judy Blume
GRIEF
“I don't think the common thread that runs through humanity is greed or power or these sorts of notions. It is this binding agent of loss.”– Nick Cave
GROWTH
“You don’t get to take credit for someone’s growth if they grow as a result of what you put them through.” —Maggie Smith
INSECURITIES
"It’s impossible to please everyone. The question is whether you’re disappointing the right people."
— Adam Grant
“… when you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying “You’re too this, or I’m too this.” That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”— Ram Dass
JOY
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.”— Mary Oliver
NEW YEAR
For a New Beginning
"In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you" — John O'Donohue
PATH
“Your path is your character defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming into focus.”—Jodie Foster
PURPOSE
“Perhaps this is how you know you’re doing the thing you’re intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it’s a waste of time.”— Curtis Sittenfeld
REST
"Rest isn't laziness; it's feeling the way the earth cups us when we lie down...listening to everything resting around us ...refusing to be riled by what usually riles us... paying attention to the small voices drowned out by the chorus of our busyness in the long days of other seasons. Whole fields inside us go fallow, and we begin to know that there is something very large and entirely radiant that is pregnant with us." — Joan Sutherland
SELF COMPASSION
“Self-compassion lately has looked like repeating, “Of course you’re tired. Of course you’re tired. Of course you’re tired,” instead of asking why I’m so tired.”— Lisa Olivera
SLOWING DOWN
“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.” — John O’Donohue
TENDERNESS
“We awaken this bodhichitta, this tenderness for life, when we can no longer shield ourselves from the vulnerability of our condition, from the basic fragility of existence. In the words of the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, “You take it all in. You let the pain of the world touch your heart and you turn it into compassion.” It is said that in difficult times, it is only bodhichitta that heals.” — Pema Chödrön
WINTER
“As Spring rain softens the Earth with surprise
May your Winter places be kissed by light.
As the ocean dreams to the joy of dance
May the grace of change bring you elegance.
As day anchors a tree in light and wind
May your outer life grow from peace within.
As twilight fills night with bright horizons
May Beauty await you at home beyond.”
— John O'Donohue
*Quotes added continually... what is your favorite quote that you would add to this list?
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