To fight discouragement, remind yourself of the basics: I can write.I have the opportunity to do so. I love what I write. Now smile and be thankful.

There are people who are never content, never appeased, forever dissatisfied—who continually look to what escapes them, convincing themselves that if only they could attain that one desire outside of reach they would be happy....

I made a sorry face in response to such strong insistence, but I couldn’t believe him. Fantasies were exactly that..…..fantasies. Whimsy. Wishes. Mere castles in the sky without foundation or substance. Dreams didn’t come true....

You’re right; you can’t make someone be happy. But I don’t see the harm in trying.

I learn by doing….the same thing over and over and over again countless times.

Win or lose, good or bad, the experience will change you.

To have a caring and committed heart toward someone—a heart so firm in its devotion as to sooner stop beating than neglect the object of its desire despite the person’s state of health, appearance, reputation,...

I have always felt that fear possesses such great power, enough to paralyze and quake an individual. Pondering this, I realized that the source of fear’s power comes from within me. So, I ask myself,...

Happiness isn’t reserved for privileged individuals. It is a state of mind that can neither be bought nor stolen nor traded; it is a liberty available to anyone.

You can believe what you’ve been told. You can imagine in vivid detail the things explained to you. You may even feel emotions assumed to accompany the related experience. But you absolutely cannot know something...

Me”( Notice Me)I was sent here on a journey that has no end.I hear you joke of going nowhere fast.Well, maybe life’s a joke and I’m the foolThat dreams of being first but ends up...

You’re right. I’ll see to it.”He fed the barrel stove until a healthy blaze was roaring. Finding me no longer a decent conversationalist, Thaddeus left with a promise to return soon with food and water....

The funny thing about an impossibility is that it tends to be a magnet for those who would prove it otherwise.

You are the one star I wish upon nightly, praying your glory will fall from the heavens and land in my undeserving arms.

Life works on the same principle as a boomerang. It’s simple, really—what you send out you get back. A smiling face receives many smiles. Friendliness finds itself surrounded by friends. Giving hugs creates hugs. Offered...

Oh, Man in the Moon””Oh, man in the moon, send an evening star to wink at my dreary eyes, and I shall make a wish for a peaceful world that spins with no more lies....

Just like salt makes sweet taste sweeter, trials make happy feel happier.

When you do fall in love with me, Eena, I don’t want it to be because I gave into your demands, but because your heart gave into its desire to truly be loved.” With an...

If you’d just learn to do as I say from the beginning, I wouldn’t have to follow up your errors with reproving smirks and repeated ‘I told you so’s’.

Sometimes ideas flow from my mind in a raging river of stringed sentences; I can scarcely scribble on the page fast enough to keep up with the mental current. Sometimes, however, beavers move in and...

Life requires us to do things anyway, despite what sort of fear or monster or tragedy or suffering lurks behind that anyway.

I love when the sun plays hide-n-seek for a few days because its invisibility often goes unnoticed. The world seems content that its presence behind the clouds is enough. But as soon as that brilliant...

You matter.You are important.There is a reason for your existence.You may not see or understand how this is true, but truth doesn’t cease to be truth because of doubt, blindness, or ignorance. And the truth...

Mothers give us life, love, and the heartfelt inclination to cry, ‘I want my mommy,’ no matter how old we get.

I’ve a habit of placing a happy-face or a frowny-face on my calendar, depending on what kind of day I’ve had. Often I slap a droopy circle in the box, discouraged by the things I...

True love is a developed and intense appreciation for someone. It’s that perfect awareness that you are finally whole when she’s with you, and that hollow incompleteness you suffer when she’s gone.

Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give in. Don’t ever stop trying. Don’t ever sell out. And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment, pick yourself up, brush...

I stumble and fall.I weep and struggle to rise.My mom feels it all.

Relax; the world’s not watching that closely. It’s too busy contemplating itself in the mirror.

There are few things better than losing yourself in a book. And if you’re lucky enough to have that adventure continue in a series, it’s like chocolate ganache on the icing on the cake.

Some people are like gravity; they draw you into a room with a hop in your step and a smile on your face. Others are like the stench of sulfur; they make you scowl and...

Reality depends a great deal upon one believing what he sees—or seeing what he believes. Either way.

Your efforts extend like ripples on the ocean, much further than you know.

Only a writer would slap a bumper sticker on her car that read, ‘Seriously, I’d rather be working’.

You are here to make a difference, to either improve the world or worsen it. And whether or not you consciously choose to, you will accomplish one or the other.

Daydream. Because you can’t accomplish what you’ve never fully imagined.

Today is a BRAND NEW day—a perfectly good reason to get up and start over. Never give up.

Evil might not prevail in the end, but it certainly doesn’t fail to devastate in its time.

Life is a voyage across troubled waters where our days are often spent clinging to the top of the highest mast, scouting for a comforting glimpse of shore.

Helpful is happy.Selfish is sad.(It’s not uncommon to confuse the two.)

Why so eager to jump in and direct someone else’s life when you can’t stick to your own goals and resolutions?

Never believe you’re so great or important, so right or proud, that you cannot kneel at the feet of someone you hurt and offer a humble, sincere apology.

Yes, happiness is dependent upon misery. For we all feel a swell of happiness after our circumstances improve from a misery recently suffered.

Missing someone is the reverberating echo of everything beautiful about her—her laugh, her song, her touch, her smell, the power of her words, and the constant shadow that lingers on as her perfect image in...

It wasn’t a kiss that changed the frog, but the fact that a young girl looked beneath warts and slime and believed she saw a prince. So he became one.

I like bubbles in everything. I respect the power of silence. In cold or warm weather I favor a mug of hot cocoa. I admire cats―their autonomy, grace, and mystery. I awe at the fiery...

One bad turn does not excuse another.

Why Roses Crave Thorns”Petals detach from a wilting bud—a single stem plucked before fully blossomed. They descend in hesitant swirls, too soft and limp to shatter like teardrops. One by one they light to blanket...

I am grateful for hands to tickle with. Not so grateful for that process in reverse, however.

Little girls grow up thinking that knights in shining armor actually exist. But they don’t. And if those valiant heroes ever did bless this world with their chivalrous deeds, I imagine, just like Christ’s apostles, they...