I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness. Because just like a rose is beautiful, so is a sunflower, so is a peony. I mean, all flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too.  ~ Miranda Kerr   Body positive. Body negative. For women, body image is an extension…

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Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty. ~ Anne Lamott   The empty page. A blank canvas. Knitting needles and a ball of yarn. Fabric and thread.…

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We’re all starting to realize, this space, this internet space? It’s real! You’re real. I’m a real fucking person.  This is the real world. And we need to be real people in it. ~ Tracey Anne Duncan, Strategic Storytelling   “Who am I? Why am I here? What am I going to do?” are the questions…

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We write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection. ~ Anaïs Nin   Retrospection, the action, or process of looking back on things is something I’ve been obsessed with my whole life. Starting with a diary in third grade, I wrote things like, “Joni is a brat.” And, “Johnny let me ride…

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Some days are dark and depressing. The news is difficult to digest. Like many of my friends, I’ve been struggling with it all. Then, one day I happened upon a marvelous quote.   Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a…

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Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. ~ Meg Rosoff   My words are mirrors of…

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Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. ~ Rabindranath Tagore   For a long time now, I’ve wanted to understand time. Yes, I can read a clock or consult the calendar, but that’s not the experience of time that I’m trying to understand. The passing…

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For many years, one of my greatest joys and deepest held beliefs has been the practice of getting to know the Place where I live in a deep and intimate way. I believe that if everyone in the world passionately cared about her or his own backyard or neighborhood, then every place in the world would…

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Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness. ~ Eckhart Tolle   Take a moment to breathe deeply.   Focus on being fully present.   Now.   It’s gone.   Deep breath.   Another.…

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Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come. ~ Rumi   In my last blog post, To know sorrow, I wrote about the loss of dear friends.…

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