The Woman Who Has Herself

by Maria Harchanan Kaur

When a woman has herself

you can enter or leave her life

you can flatter or judge her

and she, she will receive or say goodbye to you kindly

and she will thank you and understand your shadows

because she already knows hers.

You probably won’t tolerate it and at the same time

you want to own it and you will end up walking away

from her if you don’t have the courage to respect her.

When a woman has herself

the Universe Dances at her feet, and She rises.

She becomes compassionate.

She chooses.

She is aware.

She gives and receives Love.

It is easy to recognize it.

The woman who has herself

she smiles in the sun as in the storm.

She celebrates life and understands death.

She lives and dances the processes.

She doesn’t have a hue, she’s a rainbow.

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My Fave Passage from Khalil Gibran

. . . let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

Relentless Joy

by Janne Robinson:

You know what I respect more than people who don’t use the piece of paper they have no interest in using?

People who don’t finish the piece of paper.

That’s right y’all — people who drop out.

People who quit.

People who quit the things they no longer care for.

Don’t finish the law degree you have no interest in actually using. Our society gets hard ons for certification — but what I get hard ons for is people who follow through with their truth.

Don’t marry the person you are engaged to if you wake up one day and say, “I should be more excited than this.” Respect the person sleeping next to you by knowing somebody could and can love them better. Know if you stay for the sake of staying, you are taking up space in their life. Is following through with your word and giving someone an inauthentic half ass in it partner for life really a favor for them?

Break the lease and lose the damage deposit. Move to the city you really wanted to move to before you shrunk back to what was comfortable and signed on to yet another year lease in a city you outgrew eons ago.

Marriage is probably the biggest agreement we make, and sometimes most damaging to adjust.

How the fuck are we supposed to know that we will wake up everyday and love somebody?

That’s ridiculous.

Someday we might roll over and not love that person, and then what?

Feel bound with guilt and obligation to keep our word and try force ourselves back into love?

Thank God for divorce.

One of the most loving things we can do for both ourselves and other people is to honor our truths.

To say, “I don’t love you anymore. I don’t even know why or when it happened, but I don’t.” This gives both human beings the opportunity to go out into this world and love deeper, love again.

So, love somebody until you love them.

Do a job until you don’t love it.

Quit shit.

Start shit.

Walk away.

Go find what gives you relentless joy.

 

I’ve Learned

Photo by Kristina Litvjak

Below is one of my favourite poems of all time from Maya Angelou:

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.”

I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Advancing Confidently

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of [her] dreams, and endeavors to live the life which [she] has imagined, [she] will meet a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

Happiness Is …

An original poem by Cristina Gecolea

Happiness is a bowl of cherries

Picked lovingly from the berry farm

After a long day’s work.

Happiness is home-made cookies:

Batter pre-mixed the day before

Rested in the fridge overnight

Waking me up in the morning as the chocolate-chip aroma wafts to my room!

Happiness is a black cat with shiny fur

Greeting me as I enter the door

Back-arched and furry face weaved on my leg excitedly,

Glad I’m home because she missed me.

Happiness is a glass of ice water

Touching my parched lips;

Grateful to be having it

Because I’m super-thirsty.

Happiness is watching Grey’s Anatomy

and seeing any and all episodes

That have McSteamy!

Happiness is getting a hug,

A hand-squeeze, a cuddle

When I need it most

Be it a tough day or just a regular one.

Happiness is being loved,

Cared about, longed-for and missed

When I’m away

Or when he is away from me.

Happiness is a bearded dragon

Flattening his back

Basking in the sun

Streaming into my living room.

Happiness is tennis:

Playing well, having fun

And seeing my friends there.

Happiness is my life

And the people in it

Who bring me joy

Every day.

Happiness is … me

Your Standards

Raise your standards for the one thing over which you have complete control – yourself. It means you’ve committed to being intelligent, flexible, and creative enough to consistently find a way to look at your life in a fashion that makes any experience enriching.

Tony Robbins

A Writer’s Duty

A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.
E. B. White