On History

"...This human mind wrote history, and this must read it. The Sphinx must solve her own riddle. If the whole of history is in one man, it is all to be explained from individual experience. There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time..." - Emerson

Out with the Old

I have two postcard-like sheets of paper with sayings and cute designs on them which are framed and have been sitting on shelves for years. One says "protect this girl from the storms of life," and the other says "every girl is my sister." I used to love these sayings. I thought they were cute and inspirational. I thought they were important to me, so I kept them around.

Now, having looked beyond the memories with them and how long I have had them, I have decided I must let them go. I disagree with they say. I do not want to be protected from the storms of life. What is life without the storms? I say bring on the heartbreaks and failures, the broken bones and stuggles. That is where life is. In the storms. I know now I will get through. I know now how to ask for help and what to do to get out of the rain. I have been given tools, and I will use them.

Also, every girl is not my sister. It sounds too cliche. Too ideal. Too religious. I am a different person than I used to be. I have realized that there are just going to be those people who do not like you and who you do not like back. Sometimes, yeah, I can see that maybe in crisis and world disaster we all need to be family. But you can not be best friends with everyone.

I am replacing my frames with new quotes! They better illustrate who I am and what I think today.

Changing Your Mind

"Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts everything you said today."

-Emerson, Self-Reliance

I agree. Change can be either good or bad, but not changing, when it contradicts a person's beliefs is always bad. I think. That is how I feel today anyway.

"I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is." - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird.