i hope you dance.

risk taking is free.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool

To weep is to appear sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings is to risk exposing yourself

To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd

is to risk their loss

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure.

But the greater hazard in life is to risk nothing,

They may avoid suffering and sorrow,

but they simply cannot

learn, feel, change, grow or love

chained by certitudes, they are slaves

who have forfeited freedom.

Only a person who risks is Free.

- christina henry

wild geese.

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

(- Mary Oliver, Wild Geese) 

wear sunscreen.

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

-Mary Schmich

(compliments of gabby and bridgette thoma)

i've learned.

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you.

All you can do is be someone who can be loved.

The rest is up to them.

I've learned that no matter how much I care,

some people just don't care back.

And it's not the end of the world.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust,

and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned that it's not what you have in your life,

but who you have in your life that counts.

I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.

After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself

to the best others can do,

but to the best you can do.

I've learned that it's not what happens to people,

It's what they do about it.

I've learned that no matter how thin you slice it,

there are always two sides.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words.

It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going

long after you think you can't.

I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done

When it needs to be done

regardless of the consequences.

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly,

but just don't know how to show it.

I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,

but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance.

Same goes for true love.

I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to

doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is,

they're going to hurt you every once in a while

and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.

Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken,

the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are,

but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean that they don't love each other.

And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned that sometimes you have to put the individual

ahead of their actions.

I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing

and see something totally different.

I've learned that no matter the consequences,

those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.

I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours

by people who don't even know you.

I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give,

when a friend cries out to you,

you will find the strength to help.

I've learned that writing,

as well as talking,

can ease emotional pains.

I've learned that the people you care most about in life

are taken from you too soon.

I've learned that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice

and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

I've learned to love

and be loved.

I've learned...

- Omer B. Washington

i will be with you in the fire and i will be with you in the cloud.

Pack nothing.

Bring only your determination to serve

and your willingness to be free.

Don't wait for the bread to rise.

Take nourishment for the journey,

but eat standing, be ready

to move at a moment's notice.

Do not hesitate to leave

your old ways behind —

fear, silence, submission.

Only surrender to the need

of the time — to love

justice and walk humbly

with your God.

Do not take time

to explain to the neighbors.

Tell only a few trusted

friends and family members.

Then begin quickly,

before you have time

to sink back into

the old slavery.

Set out in the dark.

I will send fire

to warm and encourage you.

I will be with you in the fire

and I will be with you in the cloud.

You will learn to eat new food

and find refuge in new places.

I will give you dreams in the desert

to guide you safely to that place

you have not yet seen.

The stories you tell

one another around the fires

in the dark will make you

strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you,

and some follow you,

and at times you will get weary

and turn on each other

from fear and fatigue and

blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing

for this for hundreds of years.

I am sending you into the wilderness

to make a new way and to learn my ways

more deeply.

Some of you will be so changed

by weathers and wanderings

that even your closest friends

will have to learn your features

as though for the first time.

Some of you will not change at all.

Some will be abandoned

by your dearest loves

and misunderstood by those

who have known you since birth

and feel abandoned by you.

Some will find new friendships

in unlikely faces, and old friends

as faithful and true

as the pillar of God's flame.

Sing songs as you go,

and hold close together.

You may at times grow confused

and lose your way.

Continue to call each other

by the names I've given you,

to help remember who you are.

You will get where you are going

by remembering who you are.

Touch each other and keep telling the stories.

Make maps as you go

remembering the way back

from before you were born.

So you will be only the first

of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas.

It is the first of many beginnings —

your Paschaltide.

Remain true to this mystery.

Pass on the whole story.

Do not go back.

I am with you now

and I am waiting for you

("passover remembered" by alla renee bozarth)