coming alive

A good traveler has no fixed plan, and is not intent on arriving.

—Lao-Tzu

I say that I love you, and maybe I do, but it will always pale in comparison to the aching, complex, ultimately rewarding love I have for myself. Over the past 20-something years, I have learned to grow comfortable with myself. There are parts of me I would change, but overall, I think that I’m a good person. I touch myself with care. I forgive myself. So many people who have claimed to love me have not afforded me the same courtesy. It’s not that I’m skeptical, it’s just that I’d rather depend on myself when it comes to affirming that I am a good person.

You are nice, but I don’t need your compliments.

—Charlotte Green  (via naisae)

(Source: anotherdustlandfairytale, via nogreatillusion)

christopherlindstrom:

wake up empty
go to bed fried
keep living in the one bed apartment
where your fiancée decided to die
remember the bathroom
where she shaved her head
remember your job and your boss
remember the places you wanted to visit
remember that life boils down to a cost
remember the hours you wish…

I firmly believe in small gestures: pay for their coffee, hold the door for strangers, over tip, smile or try to be kind even when you don’t feel like it, pay compliments, chase the kid’s runaway ball down the sidewalk and throw it back to him, try to be larger than you are— particularly when it’s difficult. People do notice, people appreciate. I appreciate it when it’s done to (for) me. Small gestures can be an effort, or actually go against our grain (“I’m not a big one for paying compliments…”), but the irony is that almost every time you make them, you feel better about yourself. For a moment life suddenly feels lighter, a bit more Gene Kelly dancing in the rain.

—Jonathan Carroll  (via thatkindofwoman)

(Source: jonathancarroll.com, via nogreatillusion)

It wasn’t about believing this or that, it wasn’t even about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world.

—Mark Haddon, from “The Red House” (via ingeniosa)

(Source: whereislittlemaggie, via nogreatillusion)

I loved you at your darkest.

—Romans 5:8 (via xplsns)

(Source: teopoli.com, via zofro)

You don’t get to have everything or everyone you want. And a lifetime of wanting is less poetic than you once thought. Let him/her go.

—Miranda July (via romanceplanet)

(Source: thedogwalker, via nogreatillusion)