Life isnt divided into genres.

Its

a horrifying, romantic, tragic,

comical, science-fiction cowboy

detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky. Alan Moore

We can never judge the lives of

others, because each person knows

only their own pain and

renunciation. It's one thing to feel

that you are on the right path, but

it's another to think that yours is the only path. Paulo Coelho

to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your

hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its

tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you like your

own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body

withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again. Ellen Bass

People are afraid of themselves, of

their own reality; their feelings

most of all. People talk about how

great love is, but thats bullshit.

Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing.

People are taught that pain is evil

and dangerous. How can they deal with love if theyre afraid to feel?

Pain is meant to wake us up.

People try to hide their pain. But theyre wrong. Pain is something

to carry, like a radio. You feel your

strength in the experience of pain. Its all in how you carry it. Thats

what matters. Pain is a feeling.

Your feelings are a part of you.

Your own reality. If you feel

ashamed of them, and hide them, youre letting society destroy your

reality. You should stand up for

your right to feel your pain. Jim Morrison

It hurts to let go. Sometimes it

seems the harder you try to hold on

to something or someone the more

it wants to get away. You feel like

some kind of criminal for having

felt, for having wanted. For having

wanted to be wanted. It confuses

you, because you think that your

feelings were wrong and it makes

you feel so small because it's so

hard to keep it inside when you let

it out and it doesn't coma back.

You're left so alone that you can't

explain. Damn, there's nothing like

that, is there? I've been there and

you have too. You're nodding your head. Henry Rollins, The Portable

Henry Rollins

And then I felt sad because I

realized that once people are

broken in certain ways, they can't

ever be fixed, and this is something

nobody ever tells you when you are

young and it never fails to surprise

you as you grow older as you see

the people in your life break one by

one. You wonder when your turn is

going to be, or if it's already happened. Douglas Coupland, Life After

God

What, if some day or night a

demon were to steal after you into

your loneliest loneliness and say to

you: 'This life as you now live it

and have lived it, you will have to

live once more and innumerable

times more' ... Would you not

throw yourself down and gnash

your teeth and curse the demon

who spoke thus? Or have you once

experienced a tremendous moment

when you would have answered

him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay

Science with a Prelude in Rhymes

and an Appendix of Songs

Ester asked why people are sad. "Thats simple," says the old man.

"They are the prisoners of their

personal history. Everyone believes

that the main aim in life is to follow

a plan. They never ask if that plan

is theirs or if it was created by

another person. They accumulate

experiences, memories, things,

other people's ideas, and it is more

than they can possibly cope with.

And that is why they forget their dreams. Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Here's what I think, Mr. Wind-Up

Bird," said May Kasahara.

"Everybody's born with some

different thing at the core of their

existence. And that thing,

whatever it is, becomes like a heat

source that runs each person from

the inside. I have one too, of

course. Like everybody else. But

sometimes it gets out of hand. It

swells or shrinks inside me, and it

shakes me up. What I'd really like

to do is find a way to communicate

that feeling to another person. But I

can't seem to do it. They just don't

get it. Of course, the problem

could be that I'm not explaining it

very well, but I think it's because

they're not listening very well.

They pretend to be listening, but

they're not, really. So I get worked

up sometimes, and I do some crazy things. Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up

Bird Chronicle

I have always, essentially, been

waiting. Waiting to become

something else, waiting to be that

person I always thought I was on

the verge of becoming, waiting for

that life I thought I would have. In

my head, I was always one step

away. In high school, I was biding

my time until I could become the

college version of myself, the one

my mind could see so clearly. In

college, the post-college adult

person was always looming in front

of me, smarter, stronger, more

organized. Then the married person, then the person Id become

when we have kids. For twenty

years, literally, I have waited to

become the thin version of myself, because thats when life will really

begin. And through all that waiting, here I

am. My life is passing, day by day,

and I am waiting for it to start. I am

waiting for that time, that person,

that event when my life will finally

begin. I love movies about The Big

Moment the game or the

performance or the wedding day or

the record deal, the stories that

split time with that key event, and

everything is reframed, before it

and after it, because it has changed

everything. I have always wanted

this movie-worthy event,

something that will change

everything and grab me out of this

waiting game into the whirlwind in

front of me. I cry and cry at these

movies, because I am still waiting

for my own big moment. I had

visions of life as an adventure, a

thing to be celebrated and

experienced, but all I was doing

was going to work and coming home, and that wasnt what it

looked like in the movies. John Lennon once said, Life is what happens when youre busy making other plans. For me, life is

what was happening while I was

busy waiting for my big moment. I

was ready for it and believed that

the rest of my life would fade into

the background, and that my big

moment would carry me through

life like a lifeboat. The Big Moment, unfortunately, is

an urban myth. Some people have

them, in a sense, when they win

the Heisman or become the next

American Idol. But even that

football player or that singer is

living a life made up of more than

that one moment. Life is a

collection of a million, billion

moments, tiny little moments and

choices, like a handful of luminous,

glowing pearl. It takes so much

time, and so much work, and those

beads and moments are so small,

and so much less fabulous and

dramatic than the movies. But this is what Im finding, in

glimpses and flashes: this is it. This

is it, in the best possible way. That thing Im waiting for, that

adventure, that move-score-worthy

experience unfolding gracefully.

This is it. Normal, daily life ticking

by on our streets and sidewalks, in

our houses and apartments, in our

beds and at our dinner tables, in

our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets this pedestrian life is

the most precious thing any of use will ever experience. Shauna Niequist, Cold

Tangerines: Celebrating the

Extraordinary Nature of Everyday

Life

Dont bother trying to explain

your emotions. Live everything as

intensely as you can and keep

whatever you felt as a gift from

God. The best way to destroy the

bridge between the visible and

invisible is by trying to explain your emotions. Paulo Coelho, Brida

"Sleep, my love," He whispered, smoothing her long hair, lifting the damp locks away from the back of her neck. "I'll be here to watch over you." "You sleep too," she said groggily, her hand creeping to the center of his chest. "No." McKenna smiled and pressed a soft kiss against her temple. His voice was husky with wonder. "Not when staying awake is better than anything I could find in a dream. !! Lisa Kleypas !!

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you. A.A. Milne

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. A.A. Milne

It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily. "So it is." "And freezing." "Is it?" "Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately. A.A. Milne

What day is it?" It's today," squeaked Piglet. My favorite day," said Pooh. A.A. Milne How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet "You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh A.A. Milne

Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

What I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it.

It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." "Oh!" said Pooh. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Hallo, Rabbit, he said, is that you? "Lets pretend it isnt, said Rabbit, and see what happens. A.A. Milne

It's not much of a tail, but I'm sort of attached to it. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully. "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever." "And he has Brain." "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain." There was a long silence. "I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything. A.A. Milne I was walking along looking for somebody, and then suddenly I wasn't anymore. A.A. Milne

Bouncy trouncy flouncy pouncy fun fun fun fun fun. The most wonderful thing about tiggers is I'm the only one! A.A. Milne

I dont feel very much like Pooh today," said Pooh. "There there," said Piglet. "Ill bring you tea and honey until you do. A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Happy is the moment, when we sit together, With two forms, two faces, yet one soul, you and I.

The flowers will bloom forever, The birds will sing their eternal song, The moment we enter the garden, you and I. The stars of heaven will come out to watch us, And we will show them the light of a full moon you and I. No more thought of you and I. Just the bliss of union Joyous, alive, free of care, you and I. All the bright-winged birds of heaven Will swoop down to drink of our sweet water The tears of our laughter, you and I. What a miracle of fate, us sitting here. Even at the opposite ends of the earth We would still be together, you and I. We have one form in this world, another in the next. To us belongs an eternal heaven, the endless delight of you and I.~Rumi