Don't Forget

photo by gary barnes

Note to Self: 

The more you love your decisions, 

the less you need others to love them.

Light

As we work to create light for others,

we naturally light our own way.

- Mary Anne Radmacher

- photo by gary barnes

sails

She stood in the storm

and when the wind

did not blow her way,

she adjusted her sails.

~Elizabeth Edwards




(Happy International Women's Day! We love you all and are grateful for the inspiration of the strong, loving women around us!)

"God has set within you a femininity that is powerful and tender, fierce and alluring. No doubt it has been misunderstood. Surely it has been assaulted. But it is there, your true heart, and it is worth recovering. You are captivating." - Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge

being girl:

brantley gutierrez

"I had no choice but to own up to the fact that I was a girl and stop feeling like that was a professional liability. I'm so glad I did... It's totally allowed to be 100% girl and 100% pro." 

- Emily Haines

Strength:

sarah tobler
(from the we are women book)

"I myself have no power. It's the people behind me who have the power. Real power comes only from the Creator. It's in His hands. But if you're asking about strength, not power, then I can say that the greatest strength is gentleness." 

-Leon Shenandoah, Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy 

(source: Wisdomkeepers).

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

~James Allen in As A Man Thinketh

The time is always right to do what is right.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

~Dorothy Parker

don't wait a single moment

How wonderful it is that we need not wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

~Anne Frank

Happy New Years!

(art by kirby)

"nature seemed to me benign and good; i thought she loved me, outcast as i was; and i, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness."

~Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Be something, Abe."

The last words Abraham Lincoln's mother said to him.

"... Don't pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle."

~Thomas S. Monson

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."

~Marie Curie (1867-1934)

Thoughts on a Monday

Today I am up for a post. I have some ideas of what to write about but to be honest with you, this week has been a bit draining for many reasons. One of those reason is a new responsibility I have been asked to take on at church. It will be a big change and a new experience for me and to be completely honest, I have been feeling a little... intimidated. But I know that I can do it. And I know that it will push me and pull me and make me stretch.

So, until I actually get something written, here are a few essays and articles that have impressed me as of late.

Did you hear about the three women who won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011? It was awarded to them for their work for gender equality, peace, and democracy.

Though I personally have not experienced it, Reachel's essay on her journey through infertility touched my heart. AND they just found out that they have permission to adopt their foster child Coco. Oh happy day!

Some people wonder why get an education if you are just going to "waste" it by staying home with your children. While there are many reasons why I feel passionately that it is important for everyone to get as much education as possible, I believe it greatly affects our children and their future. This article reaffirmed that belief.

Those Who Save Us

"Thee lift me, and I'll lift thee, and we'll both ascend together."

~Anonymous

There is so much unkindness and selfishness in the world. It would be easy to think that no one cares for others anymore.

But I believe in kindness. I believe in the people who save our lives and our souls and our sanity. I believe in being kind to strangers and neighbors. I believe in kindness even when it doesn't always seem deserved.

I am grateful to the friend who brought me soup and conversation when my health and hope was at its lowest.

I am grateful for the man who, when I was a poor college student, left his change at the front desk for me, not knowing I had no money to buy my last textbook.

I am grateful to my friend from high school who, seeing a child drowning, pulled him from the water and revived him, saving his life and his parents from great grief.

I am grateful to the bystanders who saw a motorcyclists life in danger and stepped up, lifted the car that was on top of him and pulled him to safety.

I am grateful for the men and women who ran into the burning Twin Towers on that fateful September day to save the people left inside.

I believe in the greatness in everyday people. I believe in the kindness in you and me. We can save one another, in big ways and in small.

THANK YOU for the kindness you show those around you. You are someones savior. Never forget that worth (and responsibility) you hold.

Inspire us! Share your stories of kindness that you or others have shown.

Life, believe, is not a dream

So dark as sages say:

Oft a little morning rain

Foretells a pleasant day.

~Charlotte Brontë, from the poem “Life”