Love requires you to be kind when you are angry, patient when you feel anxious, compassionate when you judge others, caring when you feel apathetic, trust when you've been wronged, let go when you want to hold on and always know that the other person is you.

-- Conscious Living on Facebook

I see relationships as intricate dances that two people enter, no matter what else goes on around them or who else is waiting in the wings the goal is to focus solely on that dance, on the steps, and part of the art of dance is gracefully switching partners, whether the other partner is a job, a child, a friend... no matter what it is that takes the dancer's attention from the intricate dance.

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Ref

Any society, any nation, can be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members ; the last, the least, the littlest.

I saw this quote, again, on facebook this time. I hold this as true, I have for a long time, and I believe I always will. This is probably a main reason why I always end up around the same spot when I try the political compass.

I've sometimes (and sometimes often) been accuseed of being selfish for wanting to be me and living accordingly (as much as I can). It's an accusation I've had some difficulties with, it's loaded to me. Yet, I haven't been able to grasp that concept, that it would be selfish to want to be myself. Others that I've talked with have simply said that it's ok to be selfish, to think about oneself. I've listened, but I've obviously not been able to accept that completely, or I wouldn't write this entry.

Oscr Wilde said something interesting on the subject, I stumbled upon this just a few moments ago:

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

-- Oscar Wilde

This is something I can listen to, easily.

[ I saw this just a moment ago and couldn't believe my eyes, because I've said something very similar a few years ago without realising this man had already said it. No wonder I admire him! ]

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?

-- John Lennon

[ Mahatma Gandhi had a lot of good and inspiring things to say. Here are two of them ]

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

[ Peace is what everyone wants, and yet so few understand how to really achieve... maybe they should listen to this? ]

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[ I borrowed this from one of smilla's texts and translated it to English. It's just that inspiring and exactly the way I see life (or want to see it) ]

Life is a tremendous celebration - and I'm invited!

There are times when some songs seem particularly important. Today, this one made an impression on me as an affirmation.
I hope the Barcode Brothers will forgive me for copying the lyrics, for they send a very important message that should be told over and over, again and again.

Barcode Brothers: Ambient

Consider this:
92% of the world's population
feel that their lives could be better.
what about you?
If you could do anything,
anything at all,
what would you do?
What are you doing now?

Imagine that
you could live your life,
knowing that it could not be better,
and never feeling that you would rather
be doing something else,
be somewhere else,
or be someone else.

Now consider this:
some people actually live that way
and so could you.

Contemplate this:
What if 90% of the problems you encountered in your life
were mere illusions and only existed in your mind?
In your everyday life
whenever something annoys you,
stresses you, makes you mad, or makes you sad,
consider if that something really matters.

Will you even remember
how you felt in one day, one week, one month, one year,
or what about in ten years?
So when the people you work for pressure you, and fail to understand you, does it really matter?
And when they call you on the phone,
screaming and yelling,
does it matter and should you really allow that to influence your life?
It's all about choices.