A Moment of Inspiration

Pause for a moment of inspiration...

"Human" by Christina Perri

This is a song I remember hearing on the radio while driving and just stopping to listen to the lyrics. They stirred something in me, something that hits me every time I stop and really listen to this song. It reminds me to stop trying to be somebody and just be myself. It makes me remember to embrace life -- all of it -- including the happy and the sad, the triumph and the troubles. Also, this song reminds me that everyone struggles with their own version of these same feelings and they need forgiveness and encouragement the same as I do. I've always wanted to be a light for others, but I also want to shine with my own light, a bright fire that is not afraid to shine.

"Human"

by Christina Perri

I can hold my breath

I can bite my tongue

I can stay awake for days

If that's what you want

Be your number one

I can fake a smile

I can force a laugh

I can dance and play the part

If that's what you ask

Give you all I am

I can do it

I can do it

I can do it

But I'm only human

And I bleed when I fall down

I'm only human

And I crash and I break down

Your words in my head, knives in my heart

You build me up and then I fall apart

'Cause I'm only human

I can turn it on

Be a good machine

I can hold the weight of worlds

If that's what you need

Be your everything

I can do it

I can do it

I'll get through it

But I'm only human

And I bleed when I fall down

I'm only human

And I crash and I break down

Your words in my head, knives in my heart

You build me up and then I fall apart

'Cause I'm only human

I'm only human

I'm only human

Just a little human

I can take so much

'Til I've had enough

'Cause I'm only human

And I bleed when I fall down

I'm only human

And I crash and I break down

Your words in my head, knives in my heart

You build me up and then I fall apart

'Cause I'm only human

Never the Same

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he is not the same man. ~Heraclitus

Classic Poets To Read

I have been wanting to read some classics again. I remember while in school I would find a list of classic books and read them all. Perfect timing found me doing a crossword puzzle of classic poets. So now I have a list of poets to read. Some I know well, but some I don't know at all. I love reading lists like this. Here it is!

• Dante Alighieri
• William Blake
• William Cullen Bryant
• Robert Burns
• Geoffrey Chaucer
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• e.e. Cummings
• Emily Dickinson
• John Donne
• T.S. Eliot
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Robert Frost
• Kahlil Gibran
• Johann von Goethe
• Thomas Hardy
• Seamus Heaney
• Langston Hughes
• Victor Hugo
• John Keats
• Rudyard Kipling
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Christopher Marlowe
• A.A. Milne
• John Milton
• Thomas Moore
• Pablo Neruda
• Boris Pasternak
• Charles Perrault
• Sylvia Plath
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Ezra Pound
• Alexander Pushkin
• Christina Rossetti
• Carl Sandburg
• George Santayana
• Johann Schiller
• William Shakespeare
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Edmund Spenser
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Dylan Thomas
• John Updike
• Phillis Wheatley
• Walt Whitman
• Oscar Wilde
• William Wordsworth
• William Butler Yeats

"To Build A Home" by The Cinematic Orchestra

"To Build A Home"

by The Cinematic Orchestra

There is a house built out of stone

Wooden floors, walls and window sills

Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust

This is a place where I don't feel alone

This is a place where I feel at home.

And I built a home

for you

for me

Until it disappeared

from me

from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust........

Out in the garden where we planted the seeds

There is a tree as old as me

Branches were sewn by the color of green

Ground had arose and passed its knees

By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top

I climbed the tree to see the world

When the gusts came around to blow me down

Held on as tightly as you held onto me

Held on as tightly as you held onto me......

And I built a home

for you

for me

Until it disappeared

from me

from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust........

"Story of My Life" by One Direction

"Story Of My Life"

by One Direction

Written in these walls are the stories that I can't explain

I leave my heart open but it stays right here empty for days

She told me in the morning she don't feel the same about us in her bones

Seems to me that when I die these words will be written on my stone

And I'll be gone, gone tonight

The ground beneath my feet is open wide

The way that I been holding on too tight

With nothing in between

The story of my life

I take her home

I drive all night to keep her warm

And time... is frozen (the story of, the story of)

The story of my life

I give her hope

I spend her love

Until she's broke

Inside

The story of my life (the story of, the story of)

Written on these walls are the colors that I can't change

Leave my heart open but it stays right here in its cage

I know that in the morning now I see us in the light upon a hill

Although I am broken, my heart is untamed, still

And I'll be gone, gone tonight

The fire beneath my feet is burning bright

The way that I been holding on so tight

With nothing in between

The story of my life

I take her home

I drive all night to keep her warm

And time... is frozen (the story of, the story of)

The story of my life

I give her hope

I spend her love

Until she's broke

Inside

The story of my life (the story of, the story of)

And I been waiting for this time to come around

But baby running after you is like chasing the clouds

The story of my life

I take her home

I drive all night to keep her warm

And time is frozen

The story of my life

I give her hope (give her hope)

I spend her love

Until she's broke (until she's broke inside)

Inside

The story of my life (the story of, the story of)

The story of my life

The story of my life (the story of, the story of)

The story of my life

After a While

After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security,
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much.
So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring your flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure...
That you really are strong,
And you really do have worth.

Written by Veronica A. Shoffstall (at age 19)
Published in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul

Anticipation

"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.

Everything and Nothing

"To think of everything and nothing at once is the most peaceful moment." ~Anonymous

Today's Inspiration - October 23, 2014

No One

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~Elenor Roosevelt 

"Good Life" by OneRepublic

"Good Life"

by OneRepublic

Woke up in London yesterday 

Found myself in the city near Piccadilly 

Don't really know how I got here 

I got some pictures on my phone 

New names and numbers that I don't know 

Address to places like Abbey Road 

Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want 

We're young enough to say

Oh this has gotta be the good life 

This has gotta be the good life 

This could really be a good life, good life 

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight 

Like this city is on fire tonight 

This could really be a good life 

A good, good life 

To my friends in New York, I say hello 

My friends in L.A. they don't know 

Where I've been for the past few years or so 

Paris to China to Colorado

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out 

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now 

We all got our stories but please tell me-e-e-e

What there is to complain about 

When you're happy like a fool 

Let it take you over 

When everything is out 

You gotta take it in 

Oh this has gotta be the good life 

This has gotta be the good life 

This could really be a good life, good life 

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight 

Like this city is on fire tonight 

This could really be a good life 

A good, good life

Hopelessly 

I feel like there might be something that I'll miss 

Hopelessly 

I feel like the window closes oh so quick 

Hopelessly 

I'm taking a mental picture of you now 

'Cause hopelessly 

The hope is we have so much to feel good about

Oh this has gotta be the good life 

This has gotta be the good life 

This could really be a good life, good life 

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight 

Like this city is on fire tonight 

This could really be a good life 

A good, good life

Oh yeah

Good, good life

Good life

Ooh

Listen

My friends in New York, I say hello

My friends in L.A. they don't know 

Where I've been for the past few years or so 

Paris to China to Colorado

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out 

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now 

We all got our stories but please tell me-e-e-e

What there is to complain about

"Keep Breathing" by Ingrid Michaelson

"Keep Breathing"

by Ingrid Michaelson

The storm is coming but I don't mind

People are dying, I close my blinds

All that I know is I'm breathing now

I want to change the world

Instead I sleep

I want to believe in more than you and me

But all that I know is I'm breathing

All I can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing now

All that I know is I'm breathing

All I can do is keep breathing.

All we can do is keep breathing 

All we can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing now

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

"I will tell you the story of how we found ourselves in a realm where dreams are formed, destiny is chosen, and magic is as real as a hand print in the snow."

"There are no safe choices. Only other choices."

"Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right."

I run after her, not really giving chase. I'm running because I can, because I must. Because I want to see how far I can go before I have to stop."

"In every end, there is also a beginning."

"Felicity ignores us. She walks out to them, an apparition in white and blue velvet, her head held high as they stare in awe at her, the goddess. I don't know yet what power feels like. But his is surely what it looks like, and I think I'm beginning to understand why those ancient women had to hide in caves. Why our parents and suitors want us to behave properly and predictably. It's not that they want to protect us; it's that they fear us."

"There's a lot about discovering who you are and how difficult that is. And it never stops."

"No one asks how or what I am doing. They could not care less. We're all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they'd like to be seen. Hollow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just waiting to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance. A fissure forms in the vessel. I'm cracking open."

"What happens if your choice is misguided?"
"You must try to correct it."
"But what if it is too late? What if you can't?"
"Then you must find a way to live with it."

"We can't live in the light all of the time. You have to take whatever light you can hold into the dark with you."

"But forgiveness...I'll hold on to that fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."

"I changed the world; the world changed me. Everything you do comes back to you. When you affect a situation, you are also affected."

"May I suggest that you all read? And often. Believe me, it's nice to have something to talk about other than the weather and the Queen's health. Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating."

"Women who have power are always feared."

"I can see his pain, see it in the way he runs his fingers through his hair, over and over, and I understand what it costs him to hide it all."

"And now I understand that truth casts a spell of its own, one I'm not sure of how to hold on to, though I'm desperate to try."

"We are all unkind from time to time. We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds."

"I've heard it said that God is in the details. It's the same with the truth. Leave out the details, the crucial heart, and you can damn someone with the bare bones of it."

"You can never really know someone completely. That's why it's the most terrifying thing in the world, really - taking someone on faith, hoping they'll take you on faith too. It's such a precarious balance, it's a wonder we do it at all."

"Things aren't good or bad in and of themselves. It's what we do with them that makes them so."

"One can never go back. One always has to move forward."

"Reality is a state of mind. To the banker, the money in his ledger book is all very real, though he doesn't actually see it or touch it. But to the Brahma, it simply doesn't exist the way the air and the earth, pain and loss do. To him, the banker's reality is folly. To the banker, the Brahma's ideas are as inconsequential as dust."

"People see what they want to see when they need to."

"It's strange how deliberate people are after a death. All the indecision suddenly vanishes into clear, defined moments -- changing the linens, choosing a dress or a hymn, the washing up, the muttering of prayers. All the small, simple, conscious acts of living a sudden defense against the dying we do every day."

"There's no time to be modest. Reason will not work here. Without warning, I kiss Kartik. His lips, pressed against mine, are a surprise. They are warm, light as breath, firm as the give of a peach against my mouth. A scent like scorched cinnamon hangs in the air, but I'm not falling into any vision. It's his smell in me. A smell that makes my stomach drop through my feet. A smell that pushes all thought out of my head and replaces it with an overpowering hunger for more."

"They see her differently now, as somebody. And isn't that what everyone wants? To be seen?"

"We're never prepared for how much we love our children, for how much we wish we could protect them by being perfect."

Today's Inspiration - October 8, 2014

Here's just a little inspiration from the internet today. Laugh. Be inspired. Wake up and live!

Holding the Moon

When I saw this picture, I fell in love immediately. A woman holding the moon is simply beautiful to me. I like the quote too: "I choose solitude over cold kisses. If it isn't love, it is poison" ~Anita Krizzan. That is so very true. It is better to be alone than in a situation that will drag you down because in the end you are only hurting yourself. Like I said, I like the quote, but I love the picture.

Today's Inspiration - #2