It's not your fault

The path of integration does not flee anxiety but endures it, in order to recuperate those parts of the psyche which split off and returned to haunt us in projected symbolic form. – David Loy

Dare to have feelings.

Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable. – Dr. Joyce Brothers

You've been acting awful tough lately
Smoking a lot of cigarettes lately
But inside, you're just a little baby
It's okay to say you've got a weak spot
You don't always have to be on top
Better to be hated than love, love, loved for what you're not

You're vulnerable, you're vulnerable
You are not a robot
You're loveable, so loveable
But you're just troubled

Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot

You've been hanging with the unloved kids
Who you never really liked and you never trusted
But you are so magnetic, you pick up all the pins
Never committing to anything
You don't pick up the phone when it ring, ring, rings
Don't be so pathetic, just open up and sing

I am vulnerable, I am vulnerable
I am not a robot
You're loveable, so loveable
But you're just troubled

Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot

Can you teach me how to feel real?
Can you turn my power on?
Well, let the drum beat drop

Guess what? I am not a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot

Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I am not a robot, a robot 

You can't take care of someone unless you take care of yourself first

When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on--series polygamy--until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter. – Tom Robbins

BELLE & SEBASTIAN - THE WRONG GIRL from Lance Bangs on Vimeo.

Listen

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. – Richard Moss

Love. Life. Meaning.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. – Emily Dickinson

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Before it's too late

Life goes by rapidly. Don't delay. Don't put it off. Don't wait until you have some spare time. Don't wait until the time's "right". - Ken Keyes

I had a dream last night
I dreamt that I was swimming
And the stars up above
Directionless and drifting
Somewhere in the dark
Were the sirens and the thunder
And around me as I swam
The drifters who'd gone under

Time love
Time love
Time love
It's only a change of time

I had a dream last night
And rusting far below me
Battered hulls and broken hardships
Leviathan and Lonely
I was thirsty so I drank
And though it was salt water
There was something 'bout the way
It tasted so familiar

The black clouds I'm hanging
This anchor I'm dragging
The sails of memory rip open in silence
We cut through the lowlands
All hands through the saltlands
The white caps of memory
Confusing and violent

I had a dream last night
And when I opened my eyes
Your shoulder blade your spine
Were shorelines in the moon light
New worlds for the weary
New lands for the living
I could make it if I tried
I closed my eyes I kept on swimming

(rough seas they carry me wherever I go)

A reason

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Oh I do believe
In all the things you say
What comes is better than what came before

And you'd better come come, come come to me
Better come come, come come to me
Better run, run run, run run to me
Better come

Oh I do believe
In all the things you say
What comes is better that what came before

And you'd better run run, run run to me
Better run, run run, run run to me
Better come, come come, come come to me
You'd better run

Life: It's there for the taking

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. – Oscar Wilde

Remember Yourself Honestly

When true self-remembering comes, one does not want to alter oneself, or others; one somehow rises above their weaknesses and one's own. There can be no blame anywhere. One swallows what is, and becomes free. - Rodney Collin

I have no teacher. An open heart is my teacher.
I have no voice. The bird's song is my voice.
I have no path. Fearlessness is my path.
I have no achievements. Equanimity is my achievement.
I have no profession. Presence is my profession.
I have no children. All beings are my children.
I have no ambition. Kindness is my ambition.
I have no script. Authenticity is my script.
I have no partner. Life is my partner.
I have no benefactor. Gratitude is my benefactor.
I have no strength. Flowing and unfolding is my strength.
I have no goal. Freedom, and the blessings of freedom
for all beings
is my goal.

Enough nonsense

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Fly, Be Free

Him [Her] that I love, I wish to be free -- even from me. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

What is running inside of you?

You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.

- Rwandan Proverb

James - Pressure's On

Open, open, open

On reflection, one of the things I needed to learn was to allow myself to be loved. – Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga