Give and receive with gratitude. Do the former, without expectation of, the latter.

They are called, "SELF-worth" and "SELF-esteem" for a reason... we can't let others decide what we are worth, that is so dangerous! Empower yourself!

People can have the best of intentions when they tell their loved ones how they should be living their lives. But often times, when we are in struggle, we are seeking to be supported, not solved.

From the tattered edges of an exhausted mind, inspiration blooms... mental filters disintegrate and walls crumble, as the ocean of creativity washes over everything.

Imagination is our inner-child and creativity, its playground.

Art gives those unexpressed parts of ourselves permission to be felt and spoken.

Sanity is transmuting all the insane parts of your brain into a creative outlet.

Art invites us to become explorers and excavators of our vast internal landscapes, discovering new terrain and digging deep into the past to unearth forgotten experiences and emotion.

My past takes no hostages, no prisoners. I've let go of yesterday and am free to receive the beautiful gift of the present.

I embrace my shadow self. Shadows give depth and dimension to my life. I believe in embracing my duality, in learning to let darkness and light, peacefully co-exist, as illumination.

Grace is darkness and light, peacefully co-existing, as illumination.

The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.

History is never above the melee. It is not allowed to be neutral, but forced to enlist in every army.

Still, the music was always there, and the lyrical capability was always threatening to show its head.

If you're an older sibling and you have a younger sibling who needs mentoring or is afraid of the dark, you develop nurturing and empathic skills that you wouldn't otherwise have.

I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.

My mom was there, in some form, in some sense, in some universe. My mom was still my mom, even if she only lived in books and door locks and the smell of fried tomatoes and old paper. She lived.

When I get stressed out my de-stress default is - not cat videos - but I just watch his surrogates. They're so entertaining. It's like escapees from the Nordstrom cosmetics counter.

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

She had worried that she would break if her heart broke, but she wasn't broken. she had lost everything, but she was not lost. It seemed a worthwhile thing to know.

Though progress starts with the imagination, only work can make things happen. And work itself works best when fueled, again by the imagination.