Okay, let’s put this another way―if what you’re about to say wouldn’t look good permanently engraved on your tombstone, bite your tongue.

Sometimes giving up feels like the easiest thing to do. But then the easiest thing has never produced more than a garden full of weeds.

I’ll always want to be your friend, Annabelle. Do you want to be mine?”My head nodded like mad, ecstatic, all on its own. I disappeared among the shadows again and watched my new friend until...

I don’t believe that the course of anyone’s lifetime has ever been as unerring as that of the rising and setting sun, but I know many lives that have been just as inspiring.

Trying to change old habits is like fighting a war in your head—a draining and exhausting skirmish that makes you wonder at your chance of survival.

Yes, of course we could all use some help. There isn’t a person alive without a need. So don’t ask the silly question, just figure out how you’re going to help and do it!

Trying again is okay. Trying again and again and again is okay. It’s sort of an infinite thing because the alternative is failure, and that’s not okay.

Are you what others say and think you are? Or are you who you are regardless of what others say and think?

Be true to the writer within you; tell the story you’re dying to tell in exactly the way you wish to tell it, and don’t trust anyone who tries to sway you otherwise.

Vengeance, retaliation, retribution, revenge are deceitful brothers; vile, beguiling demons promising justifiable compensation to a pained soul for his losses. Yet in truth they craftily fester away all else of worth remaining.

The blue of daylightfades and chills as the sun sinksbeneath clouds of fire.

There are those who fear the sunset, worried they will never see light again. There are those who ignore the sunrise, squandering dawn, believing they will never run out of daylight. And then there are...

Don’t be fool enough to think you can know a person’s character after a few moments of observation. You can’t. You have no idea where his life began or how his saga has unfolded thus...

Don’t be afraid to try, because you never look back on life and smile at what you could have attempted. Joy only brightens your countenance over those things you did attempt.

Just knowing you’re not alone is often enough to kindle hope amid tragic circumstances.

A Wish on the Sun””I see the world beyond a tiny window that allows a glimpse of Heaven into my life. Those who dwell in that enviable light cannot hear me through the glass that...

The bitterest hardships, the most daunting trials; none of these are burdens if it means being with you.

You were born and with you endless possibilities, very few ever to be realized. It’s okay. Life was never about what you could do, but what you would do. 

In a world plagued with commonplace tragedies, only one thing exists that truly has the power to save lives, and that is love.

Sometimes all you can do is hug a friend tightly and wish that their pain could be transferred by touch to your own emotional hard drive.

Your weaknesses may not seem overwhelming, but they will create the biggest problems you face.

The only way to change the world is to quit thinking it’s a job for Superman. Real power lies in your own hands.

Eyes, so easily deceived, might judge more rightly with lids closed, allowing ears and heart to remain wide open.”from “The Beauty of Ugh

To encourage me is to believe in me, which gives me the power to defeat dragons.

Happiness isn’t complicated. It is a humble state of gratitude for simple pleasures, tender mercies, recognized blessings, and inherent beauty.

No one is born a sprinter. We all learn to push ourselves up from the floor and then balance before taking that first, wobbly step. It is an individual choice where to go from there.

Is anything truly impossible? Or is it that the path to our goals appears too unclear to follow? It seems to me that if you seek hard enough, pray hard enough, you usually stumble across...

I want you.Eena thought the expression on his face—the look in his weary blue eyes—appeared strangely sincere. But there was one thing she had learned from all this: never trust a master of deceit.

Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.

You know those little moments when an unexpected act or a spoken word affects your heart with sweet, satiating intensity―a simple gesture that possesses deep, personal meaning beyond what anyone realizes? You know those tender...

When you tend to another’s dying embers, you find both warmth and an increase in the glow of your own fire.

To most, being locked away in solitary with nothing but pen and paper would prove a hard punishment. What a strange creature who views this as heaven.

People will insist on building high and wide barriers directly in your path, often with the intent of closing you in. If you treat these obstacles like fencing walls, they will prove mightily so. I...

Yes, he knew he was falling in love, her way. And the worst part was, as disabling as he found the emotion to be he craved it all the more. To feel this way about...

The description of Huck’s father grabbed my full attention, and I glanced up at the book in my teacher’s hand as if to double check. My eyes bulged reflexively. Huck’s father was an abusive drunk...

Minutes turn into hours that add up to days amounting to weeks that become months melting into yearsaccumulating for decadesto pile up for centuriesand ultimately form minutes again―just on a grander, divine scale.

If one is content to freely speak trash about another, it is probably more correct to judge them as the one of ill repute and refuse the load of garbage they offer you.

Choose altruism, because selfishism is a lonely, cold, dark hole.

Perfection is a paradigm meant to keep us striving and learning and growing. Like a wondrous sunset, perfection may be beyond our reach, but it is within our view and well worth seeking after.

Mothers observe all, absorb all, give all, forgive all, offer all, suffer all, feel all, heal all, hope for all, pray for all.But most of all,Mothers love always.

Answer me, you good-for-nuthin’ wench!” The pain bit instantly as his hand connected with my cheek. I shook my head in answer to his crazy questions, feeling a rise of warm tears.

I love the magic of a hot bath; how time pauses and every grievance melts away.

Some books mirror reality while others are entirely fantasy. My favorite are those that manage to weave a world with both.

No one is without troubles, without personal hardships and genuine challenges. That fact may not be obvious because most people don’t advertise their woes and heartaches. But nobody, not even the purest heart, escapes life...

Determined, I riseand face the dawn with resolve.This time I will win.

Discouragement, fear, and depression—three villains who lurk in the dark.They slip inside souls with a blindfold and goals to shatter your dreams and extinguish your spark.Their tactics are highly effective.They crush a great many each...

I read so I might live a thousand lives in a lifetime. I write to control the particulars in those lives.

My Floating Sea””Pastel colors reflect in my opening eyes and draw my gaze to a horizon where the waters both begin and end. This early in the day I can easily stare without blinking. The...

Family gathersto share good noise and good food.Gratitude abounds.

Las palabras nunca desaparecen, sino que hacen eco para la eternidad. Deja que tu eco suene dulce.