The past is never where you think you left it.   

Katherine Anne Porter 

If it is right, it happens — 

The main thing is not to hurry. 

Nothing good gets away.

John Steinbeck, born on this day in 1902, on falling in love in a magnificent letter of advice to his teenage son.

Star Cluster NGC 2244 in the Heart of the Rosette Nebula

   Happiness doesn’t lie in conspicuous consumption 

and the relentless amassing of useless crap. 

Happiness lies in the person sitting beside you and your ability to talk to them. 

Happiness is clear-headed human interaction and empathy. 

Happiness is home. 

And home is not a house-home is a mythological conceit. 

It is a state of mind. 

A place of communion and unconditional love. It is where, 

when you cross its threshold, you finally feel at peace.   

Dennis Lehane 

I think people would be happier if they admitted things more often.

 In a sense we are all prisoners of some memory, or fear, or disappointment

— we are all defined by something we can’t change.

Simon Van Booy, The Illusion of Separateness 

No matter what is happening now, events will ultimately bend 

toward love the way a flower bends toward sunlight.

Marianne Williamson

Your experiences today will influence the molecular composition of your body 

for the next two to three months, or perhaps for the rest of your life. 

Plan your day accordingly.

UCLA’s Steve Cole from The Social Life of Genes

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. 

If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead.

 Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. 

Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good, either. 

White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.

 Roald Dahl 

painting in my studio

There is no meaning to teaching art 

unless it is a teaching for how to live your life.

Josef Albers

Behold the wisdom that’s as black as bold.

A tearful entry due to the tears falling down your face.

Have you ever seen a owl cry?

A matter that isn’t conquered by one being strong enough.

Nor smart enough. But neither could stupidity defy.

Its takes that of an Abstract Surrealist.

One who realizes that there is truth in fantasy 

Lies within a reality.A lost hope in found dreams.

Even a gift in stolen property.

Love in a broken heart.

Its not a cry,but that of a soft weep.

There is always a crack within a tight mind.

Even the simplest can see the world in a simple way.

But the complex no longer complicates the rational.

Dave Modeso Jonah

Just let go. Let go of how you thought your life should be,

 and embrace the life that is trying to work its way into your consciousness.

Caroline Myss 

All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality.

Joseph Conrad

The minute I heard my first love story,

I started looking for you, 

not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along.

 Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi