β
Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.
β
β
Gordon B. Hinckley
β
Hope itself is like a star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.
β
β
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
β
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
β
β
J.K. Rowling
β
You never really know what's coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.
β
β
Alysha Speer
β
Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment.
β
β
Og Mandino
β
Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.
β
β
Rob Liano
β
Difficulties and adversities viciously force all their might on us and cause us to fall apart, but they are necessary elements of individual growth and reveal our true potential. We have got to endure and overcome them, and move forward. Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
What makes a hero? Courage, strength, morality, withstanding adversity? Are these the traits that truly show and create a hero? Is the light truly the source of darkness or vice versa? Is the soul a source of hope or despair? Who are these so called heroes and where do they come from? Are their origins in obscurity or in plain sight?
β
β
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead)
β
The music of hope is everywhere, but to hear it, you need to ignore the muddy jangle of life's hassles.
β
β
Christine M. Knight (Life Song)
β
How to win in life:
1 work hard
2 complain less
3 listen more
4 try, learn, grow
5 don't let people tell you it cant be done
6 make no excuses
β
β
Germany Kent
β
To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
You did anything to bury me, but you forgot that I was a seed.
β
β
Dinos Christianopoulos
β
Your strength doesn't come from winning. It comes from struggles and hardship. Everything that you go through prepares you for the next level.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
A great battle is a terrible thing," the old knight said, "but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart.
β
β
George R.R. Martin (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (The Tales of Dunk and Egg, #1-3))
β
The rhythmic motion of the silent paddlers carried her, with a sense of inevitability, to her new life as she heard the Twin Otter take off behind her. There was no turning back now, and Connie gripped the sides of the canoe, her heart beating and her hands sweating.
β
β
Sheena Billett (From Manchester to the Arctic: Nurse Sanders embarks on an adventure that will change her life)
β
Our job on earth isn't to criticize, reject, or judge. Our purpose is to offer a helping hand, compassion, and mercy. We are to do unto others as we hope they would do unto us.
β
β
Dana Arcuri (Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional)
β
My true potential had more to do with my willingness to struggle than with my past and present circumstances.
β
β
Hope Jahren (Lab Girl)
β
Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
While you are going through your trial, you can recall your past victories and count the blessings that you do have with a sure hope of greater ones to allow if you are faithful.
β
β
Ezra Taft Benson
β
God built lighthouses to see people through storms. Then he built storms to remind people to find lighthouses.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
She was always fighting a battle but her smile would never tell you so.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
It's still ok to dream with a broken heart.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
I love to walk. Walking is a spiritual journey and a reflection of living. Each of us must determine which path to take and how far to walk; we must find our own way, what is right for one may not be for another. There is no single right way to deal with late stage cancer, to live life or approach death, or to walk an old mission trail.
β
β
Edie Littlefield Sundby (The Mission Walker: I was given three months to live...)
β
Every violent storm will eventually give way to sunshine; every dark night will finally fade into dawn.
β
β
Steve Goodier
β
Our triumph over sorrow is not that we can avoid it but that we can endure it. And therein lies our hope; that in spirit we might become bigger than the problems we face.
β
β
Marianne Williamson (Everyday Grace)
β
God didnβt design your life so you would constantly fall down, but he does hope that you will be brought to your knees.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
With God, you are stronger than your struggles and more fierce than your fears. God provides comfort and strength to those who trust in Him. Be encouraged, keep standing, and know that everything's going to be alright.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
But we believe β nay, Lord we only hope,
That one day we shall thank thee perfectly
For pain and hope and all that led or drove
Us back into the bosom of thy love.
β
β
George MacDonald (A Hidden Life and Other Poems)
β
Hope is holding on to the promises of God.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (The Wings of Hope: Survivor)
β
Without being push to the wall, we will have remained in our comfortable zone. But this circumstance challenges us to find the courage to move on.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (On Eagles Wings:Rise)
β
Every adversity brings new experiences and new lessons.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Embrace who you are and your divine purpose. Identify the barriers in your life, and develop discipline, courage and the strength to permanently move beyond them, and keep moving forward.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
You can give illness to her body but you can't take the gypsy out of that girl.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
A man is nothing without dreams. A man is called idiot while he dreams. Whatever he does, he'll be judged and thrown away from the circle of clowns. And yet he needs acceptance and security from sick society, which is discriminatory far too often. But a man is blinded by other people opinions. He wants to fly and they say, βYou moron, you can't do that, it's forbidden, it's stupid.β And a man gives up on his dreams.
β
β
Annette Dabrowska (Train to the Edge of the Moon)
β
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
β
β
E.B. White
β
When life gets hectic and you feel overwhelmed, take a moment to focus on the people and things you are most grateful for. When you have an attitude of gratitude, frustrating troubles will fall by the wayside.
β
β
Dana Arcuri (Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional)
β
We can cry for years but sometimes gotta smile too.
β
β
Aberjhani (Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black (HB Gift Edition))
β
In the game of life;
Sometimes we win,
Sometimes we loss,
Either ways, we should always keep playing.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Aspiration leads to success (and adversity). Success creates its own adversity (and, hopefully, new ambitions). And adversity leads to aspiration and more success. Itβs an endless loop.
β
β
Ryan Holiday (Ego Is the Enemy)
β
Challenges are part of life. Overcoming them makes you a stronger person.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
The human spirit is as expansive as the cosmos. This is why it is so tragic to belittle yourself or to question your worth. No matter what happens, continue to push back the boundaries of your inner life. The confidence to prevail over any problem, the strength to overcome adversity and unbounded hope β all reside within you.
β
β
Daisaku Ikeda
β
Hang on! God will be thy strength in any act of your pursuit.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
The victory over our inner self is a daily struggle. Be strong and do not give up.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Some stories won't have a happy ending, but there's always hope that the next one will. Hope is everything. Even when there's nothing else. Especially when there's nothing else.
β
β
Clara Kensie (Aftermath)
β
We have to walk by faith to possess all that is duly ours.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Edward had once felt that a vineyard rolling up a mountainside over which the sun was setting was the most glorious thing heβd ever seen, but now that memory paled in comparison to the transcendent garden of life bursting forth down below.
β
β
Steven Decker (One More Life to Live (Edward and the Bricklayer Book 1))
β
It is better to look forward to summer than to curse winter.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Without hope we fail to exist.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
If you saturate your mind with positive thoughts, it will sustain you in any situation.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Hardships refine a man to what he ought to be.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
The girl was a gypsy before an illness took control of her legs, now she watches in awe the world pass by whilst stillness teaches her about inner strength.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
what once cause catastrophe in my life has now become the catalyst for my direction.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
We are surrounded by adversity but we shall triumph because we have a greater spirit
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
The gift of life, gives you the greatest opportunity to live and chance to rise above any situation. With hopeful attitude you can overcome any struggle.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Come now, be a man!' he thought. 'We are used to adversity; let's not be crushed by a mere disappointment, or else I shall have suffered for nothing. The heart breaks when it has swelled too much in the warm breath of hope, then finds itself enclosed in cold reality.
β
β
Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
β
Even the youngest must have known they were now steaming away from the country of their birth, never to return. Theyβd all suffered through the trauma of the war and the loss of their parents and were presently being further traumatized by their banishment to Australia.
β
β
Steven Decker (One More Life to Live (Edward and the Bricklayer Book 1))
β
Every time you try and fail,
Every time your hope gets stuck in the deeps,
And you wonder just how you'd get through the sail-
Don't forget that underneath your pain,
Is an anchor of great strength and fortitude
Keep digging until you find it...
And when you do,
RISE!
β
β
Chinonye J. Chidolue
β
The grace of endurance is the great power of God at work within us.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
From the mud of adversity grows the lotus of joy
β
β
Carolyn Marsden (The Buddha's Diamonds)
β
My reality isn't as gracious as it use to be, so I create things that are.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
Often what feels like the end of the world is really a challenging pathway to a far better place.
β
β
Karen Salmansohn
β
I make art when I can't gather the words to say.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
In some ways, we all are a bit like Pharaoh. When weβre riding high and on top of the world, weβre convinced that our good fortune is the result of our birthright or our ingenuity, or our talent, or our hard work. During those times, we refuse to acknowledge that everything good and everything worthwhile comes from the Lord. But God loves us enough to sometimes let lifeβs adversities smack us in the face as a wake-up call, to remind us that he is the source of our strength, our success, and our hope for the future.
β
β
Spencer C Demetros (The Bible: Enter Here: Bringing God's Word to Life for Today's Teens)
β
Money can cloud your vision. Sometimes, God takes away the money and uses times of adversity to refine us like gold.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
The darkness is needed for the light to shine
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
We all face difficult times. It is only the grace of God that gives strength to endure.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Adversity quickens the mind, awakens the spirit and strength the soul.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
I lost all I had known and gained a life I was yet to know.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
We all die. Not all of us live.
β
β
Edie Littlefield Sundby (The Mission Walker: I was given three months to live...)
β
Donβt be discouraged by lifeβs difficulties. With hope and determination, you can triumph over any difficulties.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
Life is hope.
Hope is faith.
Faith is believe.
Believe is possibilities.
Possibility is miraculous.
Miraculous is divine.
Divine is supernatural.
Supernatural is spiritual.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
We all have scars. If we embrace them and choose to learn from them, they will make our lives more interesting, and they will gift us with deeper perception.
β
β
Diamante Lavendar (Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief: Spiritual Insights Expressed Through Art, Poetry and Prose)
β
October Fullnessβ
Little by little, and also in great leaps,
life happened to me,
and how insignificant this business is.
These veins carried
my blood, which I scarcely ever saw,
I breathed the air of so many places
without keeping a sample of any.
In the end, everyone is aware of this:
nobody keeps any of what he has,
and life is only a borrowing of bones.
The best thing was learning not to have too much
either of sorrow or of joy,
to hope for the chance of a last drop,
to ask more from honey and from twilight.
Perhaps it was my punishment.
Perhaps I was condemned to be happy.
Let it be known that nobody
crossed my path without sharing my being.
I plunged up to the neck
into adversities that were not mine,
into all the sufferings of others.
It wasnβt a question of applause or profit.
Much less. It was not being able
to live or breathe in this shadow,
the shadow of others like towers,
like bitter trees that bury you,
like cobblestones on the knees.
Our own wounds heal with weeping,
our own wounds heal with singing,
but in our own doorway lie bleeding
widows, Indians, poor men, fishermen.
The minerβs child doesnβt know his father
amidst all that suffering.
So be it, but my business
was
the fullness of the spirit:
a cry of pleasure choking you,
a sigh from an uprooted plant,
the sum of all action.
It pleased me to grow with the morning,
to bathe in the sun, in the great joy
of sun, salt, sea-light and wave,
and in that unwinding of the foam
my heart began to move,
growing in that essential spasm,
and dying away as it seeped into the sand.
β
β
Pablo Neruda (The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems)
β
I thought having a chronic illness would make my life detour in ways I didn't want to accept, but I've learnt that have a chronic illness made the only detours that are worth the growth.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
The man of courage is not the man who did not face adversity. The man of courage is the man who faced adversity and spoke to it. The man of courage tells adversity, "You're trespassing and I give you no authority to steal my joy, my faith or my hope.
β
β
Kiese Laymon (How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America)
β
Challenges are part of life;
We weaken our spirit, when we act in fear and lose hope.
But we strengthen our spirit, when we fearlessly with faith and hope, rise up to meet and conquer the challenges.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
Hope may seem frail. But in the face of adversity, hope can be our strongest ally.
β
β
Imania Margria (Secrets of My Heart)
β
Perseverance, endurance and patience are the three greatest survival skills.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
β
You can use the stumbling blocks to build your success.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
No matter what happens to you, if you have life, with faith and hope, you will live to see your situation change.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
I am thankful to the Lord for my redemption. I was once lost, now I am saved by grace.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
If you are going through hell, keep walking until you reach heaven.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Today, I challenge you to pay it forward. You don't need to save a villageβonly one lost soul. Be the reflection of Christ and shine His light. The cost is little, but the reward is rich.
β
β
Dana Arcuri (Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional)
β
My art teacher had said that if you breathed deeply and imagined something, you could be there. You could see it, feel it. During our standoffs with the NKVD, I learned to do that. I clung to my rusted dreams during the times of silence. It was at gunpoint that I fell into every hope and allowed myself to wish from the deepest part of my heart. Komorov thought he was torturing us. But we were escaping into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there.
β
β
Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray)
β
You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it--all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition.
β
β
C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters)
β
Anger is an assertion of rights and worth. It is communication, equality, and knowledge. It is intimacy, acceptance, fearlessness, embodiment, revolt, and reconciliation. Anger is memory and rage. It is rational thought and irrational pain. Anger is freedom, independence, expansiveness, and entitlement. It is justice, passion, clarity, and motivation. Anger is instrumental, thoughtful, complicated, and resolved. In anger, whether you like it or not, there is truth.
Anger is the demand of accountability, It is evaluation, judgment, and refutation. It is reflective, visionary, and participatory. It's a speech act, a social statement, an intention, and a purpose. It's a risk and a threat. A confirmation and a wish. It is both powerlessness and power, palliative and a provocation. In anger, you will find both ferocity and comfort, vulnerability and hurt. Anger is the expression of hope.
How much anger is too much? Certainly not the anger that, for many of us, is a remembering of a self we learned to hide and quiet. It is willful and disobedient. It is survival, liberation, creativity, urgency, and vibrancy. It is a statement of need. An insistence of acknowledgment. Anger is a boundary. Anger is boundless. An opportunity for contemplation and self-awareness. It is commitment. Empathy. Self-love. Social responsibility. If it is poison, it is also the antidote. The anger we have as women is an act of radical imagination. Angry women burn brighter than the sun.
In the coming years, we will hear, again, that anger is a destructive force, to be controlled. Watch carefully, because not everyone is asked to do this in equal measure. Women, especially, will be told to set our anger aside in favor of a kinder, gentler approach to change. This is a false juxtaposition. Reenvisioned, anger can be the most feminine of virtues: compassionate, fierce, wise, and powerful. The women I admire mostβthose who have looked to themselves and the limitations and adversities that come with our bodies and the expectations that come with themβhave all found ways to transform their anger into meaningful change. In them, anger has moved from debilitation to liberation.
Your anger is a gift you give to yourself and the world that is yours. In anger, I have lived more fully, freely, intensely, sensitively, and politically. If ever there was a time not to silence yourself, to channel your anger into healthy places and choices, this is it.
β
β
Soraya Chemaly (Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger)
β
The thing is, there is no certainty in this life - in one second your entire world could shift. I'm not saying it will, but I am living proof that It can. We never prepare for tragedy and that's a good thing but my god what's it's taught me is how little we appreciate what we have or some cases once had.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
Cultivating an attitude of gratitude begins with counting your blessings. In simpler terms, gratitude is expressing thanks for gifts we receive. Genuine gratitude helps us to see the little things in life that are often overlooked, yet so precious.
β
β
Dana Arcuri (Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional)
β
We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.
β
β
Theodore Roosevelt
β
Maybe I was just flattering myself, thinking I'd be worth some sort of risk. Not that I'd wish that on anyone!" he clarified. "I don't mean that. It just...I don't know. Don't you all see everything I'm risking?"
"Umm, no. You're here with your family to give you advice, and we all live around your schedule. Everything about your life stays the same, and ours changed overnight. What in the world could you possibly be risking?"
Maxon looked shocked.
"America, I might have my family, but imagine how embarrassing it is to have your parents watch as you attempt to date for the first time. And not just your parents-the whole country! Worse than that, it's not even a normal style of dating.
"And living around my schedule? When I'm not with you all, I'm organizing troops, making laws, perfecting budgets...and all on my own these days, while my father watches me stumble in my own stupidity because I have none of his experience. And then, when I inevitably do things in a way he wouldn't, he goes and corrects my mistakes. And while I'm trying to do all this work, you-the girls, I mean-are all I can think about. I'm excited and terrified by the lot of you!"
He was using his hands more than I'd ever seen, whipping them in the air and running them through his hair.
"And you think my life isn't changing? What do you think my chances might be of finding a soul mate in the group of you? I'll be lucky if I can just find someone who'll be able to stand me for the rest of our lives. What if I've already sent her home because I was relying on some sort of spark I didn't feel? What if she's waiting to leave me at the first sign of adversity? What if I don't find anyone at all? What do I do then, America?"
His speech had started out angered and impassioned, but by the end his questions weren't rhetorical anymore. He really wanted to know: What was he going to do if no one here was even close to being someone he could love? Though that didn't even seem to be his main concern; he was more worried that no one would love him.
"Actually, Maxon, I think you will find your soul mate here. Honestly."
"Really?" His voice charged with hope at my prediction.
"Absolutely." I put a hand on his shoulder. He seemed to be comforted by that touch alone. I wondered how often people simply touched him. "If your life is as upside down as you say it is, then she has to be here somewhere. In my experience, true love is usually the most inconvenient kind.
β
β
Kiera Cass (The Selection (The Selection, #1))
β
The most dangerous extremists know how to dress up their childish values in the language of transaction or universal principle. A right-wing extremist will claim she desires "freedom" above all else...But what she really means is that she wants freedom from having to deal with any values that do not map unto her own...A leftie extremist will say that he wants "equality" for all, but what he really means is that he never wants anyone to feel pain, to feel harmed, or to feel inferior. He doesn't want anyone to have to face moral gaps, ever. And he's willing to cause pain and adversity to others in the name of eliminating these moral gaps.
β
β
Mark Manson (Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope)
β
Whether weβre overcoming adversity, surviving trauma, or dealing with stress and anxiety, having a sense of purpose, meaning, and perspective in our lives allows us to develop understanding and move forward. Without purpose, meaning, and perspective, it is easy to lose hope, numb our emotions, or become overwhelmed by our circumstances. We feel reduced, less capable, and lost in the face of struggle. The heart of spirituality is connection. When we believe in that inextricable connection, we donβt feel alone.
β
β
BrenΓ© Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are)
β
Nothing so difficult as a beginning
In poesy, unless perhaps the end;
For oftentimes when Pegasus seems winning
The race, he sprains a wing, and down we tend,
Like Lucifer when hurled from Heaven for sinning;
Our sin the same, and hard as his to mend,
Being Pride, which leads the mind to soar too far,
Till our own weakness shows us what we are.
But Time, which brings all beings to their level,
And sharp Adversity, will teach at last
Man,βand, as we would hope,βperhaps the Devil,
That neither of their intellects are vast:
While Youth's hot wishes in our red veins revel,
We know not thisβthe blood flows on too fast;
But as the torrent widens towards the Ocean,
We ponder deeply on each past emotion.
β
β
Lord Byron (Don Juan)
β
This is life.
Learning to love through loss. Seeking warm pockets in the bitter cold. Finding the worth of a smile on a cloudy day. Carrying the weight of the world on weary shouldersβmistakes, sins, injusticesβadded upon daily. Enduring burdens that spur greater strength.
This is life.
Sorting through layers of expressions staring you straight in the eye. A battle to be right when wrong, to be good when bad, to be content when in need, and to laugh when tearing up.
This is life.
Valuing things of no worth. Reevaluating dreams. Laboring ceaselessly against the current. Seeing less, wanting more, having enough.
This is life.
Chasing the moon when the sun would extend its warmth. Slapping the hand that would offer a gentle caress. Cowering at personal, monstrous shadows. Giving and taking in unbalanced weights. Diminishing the majesty of mountains in order to form our own lowly hills. Hoping for more than we deserve.
This is life.
Hurting. Despairing. Losing. Weeping. Suffering. Laboring. Sinking. Mourning. Appreciating with greater capacity and sincerity a learned knowledge that these adversities do have their opposites.
This is life.
A taste. A revelation. A banishment. A mercy. A test. An experience. A turbulent sea-voyage that shall assuredly reach the unseen shore, making seasoned sailors of us all.
This is life.
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year)
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Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not rousedβin whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakenedβby the recurrence of Christmas. There are people who will tell you that Christmas is not to them what it used to be; that each succeeding Christmas has found some cherished hope, or happy prospect, of the year before, dimmed or passed away; that the present only serves to remind them of reduced circumstances and straitened incomesβof the feasts they once bestowed on hollow friends, and of the cold looks that meet them now, in adversity and misfortune. Never heed such dismal reminiscences. There are few men who have lived long enough in the world who cannot call up such thoughts any day of the year. Then do not select the merriest of the three hundred and sixty-five for your doleful recollections, but draw your chair nearer the blazing fireβfill the glass and send round the songβand if your room be smaller than it was a dozen years ago, or if your glass be filled with reeking punch, instead of sparkling wine, put a good face on the matter, and empty it offhand, and fill another, and troll off the old ditty you used to sing, and thank God itβs no worse.
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Charles Dickens (Sketches by Boz Vol. I (Charles Dickens: Complete Works))
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Thereβs an important distinction between writing about trauma and writing a tragedy. I sought to write about identity, loss, and injusticeΒ β¦ and also of love, joy, connection, friendship, hope, laughter, and the beauty and strength in my Ojibwe community. It was paramount to share and celebrate what justice and healing looks like in a tribal community: cultural events, language revitalization, ceremonies, traditional teachings, whisper networks, blanket parties, and numerous other ways tribes have shown resilience in the face of adversity. Growing up, none of the books Iβd read featured a Native protagonist. With Daunis, I wanted to give Native teens a hero who looks like them, whose greatest strength is her Ojibwe culture and community.
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Angeline Boulley (Firekeeper's Daughter)
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But the Count hadnβt the temperament for revenge; he hadnβt the imagination for epics; and he certainly hadnβt the fanciful ego to dram of empires restored. No. His model for mastering his circumstances would be a different sort of captive altogether: an Anglican washed ashore. Like Robinson Crusoe stranded on the Isle of Despair, the count would maintain his resolve by committing to the business of practicalities. Having dispensed with dreams of quick discovery, the worldβs Crusoes seek shelter and a source of fresh water; they teach themselves to make fire from flint; they study their islandβs topography, itβs climate, its flora and fauna, all the while keeping their eyes trained for sails on the horizon and footprints in the sand.
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Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow)
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What fascinates meβand what serves as a central theme of this bookβis why we make the choices we do. What separates us from the world we have and the kind of ethical universe envisioned by someone like Havel? What prompts one person to act boldly in a moment of crisis and a second to seek shelter in the crowd? Why do some people become stronger in the face of adversity while others quickly lose heart? What separates the bully from the protector? Is it education, spiritual belief, our parents, our friends, the circumstances of our birth, traumatic events, or more likely some combination that spells the difference? More succinctly, do our hopes for the future hinge on a desirable unfolding of external events or some mysterious process within?
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Madeleine K. Albright (Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948)
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We cleave our way through the mountains until the interstate dips into a wide basin brimming with blue sky, broken by dusty roads and rocky saddles strung out along the southern horizon. This is our first real glimpse of the famous big-sky country to come, and I couldn't care less. For all its grandeur, the landscape does not move me. And why should it? The sky may be big, it may be blue and limitless and full of promise, but it's also really far away. Really, it's just an illusion. I've been wasting my time. We've all been wasting our time. What good is all this grandeur if it's impermanent, what good all of this promise if it's only fleeting? Who wants to live in a world where suffering is the only thing that lasts, a place where every single thing that ever meant the world to you can be stripped away in an instant? And it will be stripped away, so don't fool yourself. If you're lucky, your life will erode slowly with the ruinous effects of time or recede like the glaciers that carved this land, and you will be left alone to sift through the detritus. If you are unlucky, your world will be snatched out from beneath you like a rug, and you'll be left with nowhere to stand and nothing to stand on. Either way, you're screwed. So why bother? Why grunt and sweat and weep your way through the myriad obstacles, why love, dream, care, when you're only inviting disaster? I'm done answering the call of whippoorwills, the call of smiling faces and fireplaces and cozy rooms. You won't find me building any more nests among the rose blooms. Too many thorns.
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Jonathan Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)