β
Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
β
β
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikerβs Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1))
β
You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?"
"Not even a little bit." I showed him that I still had both arms and both legs, and Tyson clapped happily.
"Yay!" he said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!"
I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4))
β
Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.
β
β
Janet Evanovich
β
I want everything with you, America. I want the holidays and the birthdays, the busy season and lazy weekends. I want peanut butter fingertips on my desk. I want inside jokes and fights and everything. I want a life with you.
β
β
Kiera Cass (The One (The Selection, #3))
β
No more rhymes now I mean it!β
βAnybody want a peanut?β
βAAHH!
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Magnus's eyes gleamed. "He seems to like you. I saw him going for your hand out there like a squirrel diving for a peanut.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Stop worrying about the world ending today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Love is the jelly to sunshineβs peanut butter. And if I tell you that Iβm in sandwich with you, Iβm not just saying it to get in your Ziploc bag.
β
β
Jarod Kintz (Love quotes for the ages. Specifically ages 18-81.)
β
Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question-- 'Is this all?
β
β
Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique)
β
Can you, like, see invisible people, too?"
"No," Warner says to him, eyes focused in front of him. "I can feel your presence. Hers, most of all."
"Really?" Kenji says. "That's some weird shit. What do I feel like? Peanut butter?"
Warner is unamused.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life.
β
β
Bill Watterson (The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury)
β
We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn't that a shame we don't have many more ways to say it?
β
β
Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees)
β
Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
I am not plain, or average or - God forbid - vanilla. I am peanut butter rocky road with multicolored sprinkles, hot fudge and a cherry on top.
β
β
Wendy Mass (Every Soul a Star)
β
Tyson thought Annabeth was just about the coolest thing since peanut butter, and he SERIOUSLY loved peanut butter.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Titanβs Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3))
β
I was just slipping my pajama top over my head when I heard Ren bellow, βYOU ate ALL of my peanut . . . butter . . . COOKIES?
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (Charlie Brown's Little Book of Wisdom (Peanuts Little Books))
β
Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Why me?", then a voice answers "Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
I was born with an adult head and a tiny body. Like a 'Peanuts' character.
β
β
Jon Stewart
β
Frustration was my constant companion. I wanted to scream. "What the he-eck are we supposed to do now? I asked Fang.
He looked at me, and I could tell he was mulling over the problem. He held out a small waxed-paper bag.
Peanut?
β
β
James Patterson (The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride #1))
β
No Difference
Small as a peanut,
Big as a giant,
We're all the same size
When we turn off the light.
Rich as a sultan,
Poor as a mite,
We're all worth the same
When we turn off the light.
Red, black or orange,
Yellow or white,
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.
So maybe the way,
To make everything right
Is for god to just reach out
And turn off the light!
β
β
Shel Silverstein
β
Yay!' he said. 'Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Titanβs Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3))
β
A broken heart in real life isn't half as dreadful as it is in books. It's a good deal like a bad tooth, though you won't think THAT a very romantic simile. It takes spells of aching and gives you a sleepless night now and then, but between times it lets you enjoy life and dreams and echoes and peanut candy as if there were nothing the matter with it.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery
β
Why not? Do you like him?β Magnusβs eyes gleamed. βHe seems to like you. I saw him going for your hand out there like a squirrel diving for a peanut.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
There is nothing more attractive than a nice smile
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
β
You can always trust a dog that likes peanut butter.
β
β
Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn-Dixie)
β
Paul wasnβt too sure about a half nibbled peanut, quite some parting gift, he thought.
β
β
Molly Arbuthnott (Peanut the Hamster)
β
No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, 1959-1962)
β
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
β
β
Edward W. Said
β
Man can not live by bread alone ... he must have peanut butter.
β
β
Bill Cosby
β
Don't duh me!" Puck snapped. "Trying to figure out what you're thinking from one day to the next takes more brains than I have."
Well, maybe you should stop. I'd hate to burn out that little peanut in your head.
β
β
Michael Buckley (The Everafter War (The Sisters Grimm, #7))
β
You know the best thing about aeroplanes? Apart from the peanuts in the little silver bags, I mean.
It's looking out of the windows at the clouds, and thinking, maybe I could go walking in there. Maybe it's a special place where everything's okay.
Sometimes I do go walking in the clouds, but it's just cold and wet and empty. But when you look out of a plane it's a special world... and I like that.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives)
β
Clary stopped wondering about peanut-fish-olive-tomato soup and started wondering what would happen if she dumped the contents of the pot on Isabelleβs head.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Why shouldn't I be introspective? We dont' make sense."
"Neither do Chocolate and Peanut Butter, but it somehow works." He says "Somehow the mixture of two things is genius.
β
β
Simone Elkeles (Return to Paradise (Leaving Paradise, #2))
β
But it makes an immigrant laugh to hear the fears of the nationalist, scared of infection, penetration, miscegenation, when this is small fry, peanuts, compared to what the immigrant fears - dissolution, disappearance.
β
β
Zadie Smith
β
Lucy: You learn more when you lose
Charlie Brown: Well then I must be the smartest person in world!!!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts Treasury)
β
Me. A bad boy. For eating boiled peanuts in the graveyard. Go figure.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)
β
A wise man once said, 'Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
β
β
Miranda Kenneally (Catching Jordan (Hundred Oaks, #1))
β
I feel kind of depressed today... Do you ever have the feeling that life has passed you by?
Worse than that... Sometimes I think life and I are going in opposite directions!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 4: 1957-1958)
β
Without peanut butter, I might starve.
β
β
Judy Blume
β
My anxieties have anxieties.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9: 1967-1968)
β
There are big bad wolves all over the world who tremble at the sound of his name, yet a little puny coyote girl peanut-buttered the seat of Bran Cornickβs car because he told her that she should wear a dress to perform for the pack.
β
β
Patricia Briggs (Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson, #7))
β
I don't know what you think of me. And you certainly would never picture us together. But probably peanut butter was just peanut butter for a long time, before someone ever thought of pairing it with jelly. And there was salt, but it started to taste better when there was pepper. And what's the point of butter without bread? (Why are all these examples of FOODS?!!?!?!?!?!?!) Anyway by myself I'm nothing special. But with you I could be.
β
β
Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes)
β
If youβre ever stuck for an idea try eating a peanut.
β
β
Molly Arbuthnott (Peanut the Hamster)
β
There is also a CAN OF PEANUTS on the desk. Ha ha, oh DAD. You won't be falling for THAT one again any time soon.
A severe peanut allergy is a terrible affliction to cope with.
β
β
Andrew Hussie (Homestuck Book One)
β
Sometimes I feel that life has passed me by... Do you ever feel that way, Charlie Brown?"
"I feel that it has knocked me down and walked all over me!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
β
I only remember a few things about Jimmy Carter. He had big lips and liked peanuts. I now know that Jimmy Carter was and is a good man.
β
β
Kurt Cobain (Journals)
β
Peanut was a hamster. He was furry, had four legs, a big tummy and his favourite food was, you guessed it, peanuts
β
β
Molly Arbuthnott (Peanut the Hamster)
β
normal person's weekly chore list:
1. clean kitchen.
2. clean bathroom.
3. clean entire rest of domicile.
cleaning impaired person's weekly chore list:
1. don't get peanut butter on sheets.
β
β
Dave Barry
β
Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also β if you love them enough.
β
β
George Washington Carver
β
Thereβs an organic grocery store just off the highway exit. I canβt remember the last time I went shopping for food.β A smile glittered in his eyes. βI might have gone overboard.β
I walked into the kitchen, with gleaming stainless-steel appliances, black granite countertops, and walnut cabinetry. Very masculine, very sleek. I went for the fridge first. Water bottles, spinach and arugula, mushrooms, gingerroot, Gorgonzola and feta cheeses, natural peanut butter, and milk on one side. Hot dogs, cold cuts, Coke, chocolate pudding cups, and canned whipped cream on the other. I tried to picture Patch pushing a shopping cart down the aisle, tossing in food as it pleased him. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.
β
β
Becca Fitzpatrick (Silence (Hush, Hush, #3))
β
Dear Valentine, I love you. Whoever you are.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 11: 1971 - 1972)
β
He had a peanut the shape of a peanut on his back too and so was nutty through and through.
β
β
Molly Arbuthnott (Peanut the Hamster)
β
Jeff: The drive from the valley?
Peanut: Was bad as hell!
Jeff: Traffic?
Peanut: Sucked like hell!
Jeff: Drivers?
Peanut: Angry as hell!
Jeff: And you?
Peanut: Were scared as hell!
Jeff: Parking?
Peanut: Sucked more like hell!
Jeff: So?
Peanut: We're in hell!
β
β
Jeff Dunham
β
Is Tyson okay?" I asked.
The question seemed to take my dad by surprise. He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though "peanut butter" is a strange battle cry.
"You let him fight?"
Stop changing the subject! You realize what you are asking me to do? My palace will be destroyed.
"And Olympus might be saved."
Do you have any idea how long I've worked on remodeling this palace? The game room alone took six hundred years.
"Dadβ"
Very well! It shall be as you say. But my son, pray this works.
"I am praying. I'm talking to you, right?"
Oh . . . yes. Good point.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5))
β
Goodbys always make my throat hurt... I need more hellos...
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9: 1967-1968)
β
On a beautiful day like this it would be best to stay in bed so you wouldn't get up and spoil it!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9: 1967-1968)
β
Beauty tips. How to look younger: Don't be born so soon.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 16: 1981-1982)
β
You don't give warnings. If someone's close enough that you can't run, and they won't let you get away, you're done. Kick, swing, whatever you have to do."
"It sounds mean."
"Ugh," Nathan groaned behind us. (...) "Peanut, will you just listen? If someone isn't letting you run away, he's not a nice person. Beat the shit out of him.
β
β
C.L. Stone (Forgiveness and Permission (The Ghost Bird, #4))
β
I've never eaten here so I don't know what's good. Peanut butter and jelly is always good. You can't screw that up. Peanut butter and jelly has always been there for me and is one of the constants in my life. Peanut butter and jelly has never done me wrong. It's my favorite."
"Should I leave you two alone when it gets here? Sounds like you don't need me.
β
β
Chelsea M. Cameron (My Favorite Mistake (My Favorite Mistake, #1))
β
Though no longer pregnant, she continues, at times, to mix Rice Krispies and peanuts and onions in a bowl. For being a foreigner Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy -- a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity of from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.
β
β
Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake)
β
I have deep feelings of depression... What can I do about this?'
'Snap out of it! Five cents, please.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
β
What if everyone in the whole world suddenly decided to run away from his problems?"
"Well, at least we'd all be running in the same direction!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964)
β
Dearest darling, how I love you. Words cannot tell how much I love you. So forget it.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976)
β
Have you ever known anyone who was happy? And was still in his right mind, I mean...
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10: 1969β1970)
β
LADY LAZARUS
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it--
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?--
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me
And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand and foot--
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies
These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,
Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.
The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut
As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.
It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical
Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:
'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge
For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart--
It really goes.
And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash--
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
-- written 23-29 October 1962
β
β
Sylvia Plath (Ariel)
β
Ryan Chase was my eighth-grade collage, aspirational and wide-eyed. But Max was the first bite of grilled cheese on a snowy day, the easy fit of my favorite jeans, that one old song that made it onto every playlist. Peanut-butter Girl Scout cookies instead of an ornate cake. Not glamorous or idealized or complicated. Just me.
β
β
Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You (The Start of Me and You, #1))
β
Life is just too much for me. I've been confused right from the day I was born... I think the whole trouble is that we're thrown into life too fast... We're not really prepared..."
"What did you want... A chance to warm up first?
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
β
I have peanut M&M's up there."
"Not my style"
"Raisinets."
"Feh."
"Sam Adams."
Thor narrowed his eyes. "Cold?"
"Downright icy."
Thor crossed his arms over his chest and told him self he was not pouting like a five-year-old. "I want Milk Duds.
β
β
J.R. Ward (Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #10))
β
Let me also say I wanna make you sandwhiches,
And soup,
And peanut butter cookies,
Though, the truth is peanutbutter is actually really bad for you 'cause they grow peanuts in old cotton fields to clean the toxins out of the soil,
But hey, you like peanutbutter and I like you!
β
β
Andrea Gibson
β
I rented Ghostbusters, my all-time favorite inspirational movie. I picked up some microwave, popcorn, a KitKat, a bag of bite-sized Reese's peanut butter cups, and a box of instant hot chocolate with marshmallows. Do I know how to have a good time, or what?
β
β
Janet Evanovich (Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum, #2))
β
He's a cousin of some friends of the Lightwoods or something. He's nice. I promise."
"Nice, bah. He's gorgeous." Magnus gazed dreamily in his direction. "You should leave him here. I could hang hats on him and things."
"No. You can't have him."
"Why not? Do you like him?" Magnus's eyes gleamed. "He seems to like you. I saw him going for your hand out there like a squirrel diving for a peanut.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Don't be a leaf... Be a tree!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964)
β
You try for a little happiness, and what do you get? A few memories and a fat stomach!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 8: 1965-1966)
β
Life is full of choices, but you never get any!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976)
β
There sure are a lot of these 'instant' products on the market. Instant coffee, instant tea, instant pudding, instant cereal... instant dislike.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 4: 1957-1958)
β
I am trying to see things in perspective. My dog wants a bite of my peanut butter chocolate chip bagel. I know she cannot have this, because chocolate makes dogs very sick. My dog does not understand this. She pouts and wraps herself around my leg like a scarf and purrs and tries to convince me to give her just a tiny bit. When I do not give in, she eventually gives up and lays in the corner, under the piano, drooping and sad. I hope the universe has my best interest in mind like I have my dogβs. When I want something with my whole being, and the universe withholds it from me, I hope the universe thinks to herself: "Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants, but she does not understand how it will hurt.
β
β
Blythe Baird
β
You know what I think my best quality is? I think I'm nice to have around. I'd hate it if I weren't around!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 8: 1965-1966)
β
The world is filled with unmarried marriage counselors.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 12: 1973-1974)
β
Your stupidity is appalling!"
"Most stupidity is!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9: 1967-1968)
β
For one brief moment victory was within our grasp!"
"And then the game started!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962)
β
A kiss on the nose does much toward turning aside anger.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962)
β
Paulβs last grain of hope falling to the ground below him.
β
β
Molly Arbuthnott (Peanut the Hamster)
β
Danger comes in many forms, I suppose. For some people, it might be jumping off a bridge or climbing impossible moutains. For others, it could be a tawdry love affair or telling off a mean-looking bus driver because he doesn't like to stop for noisy teenagers. It could be cheating at cards or eating a peanut even though you're allergic. For me, danger might be getting out from the protective cloak of my family and venturing into the world more of my own, even though I don't know what- or who- awaits me.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
My mind reels with sarcastic replies!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964)
β
What are my options?"
"You could read obscure poetry while I play the triangle, I suppose. Or we can smother ourselves in peanut butter and howl at the moon. Use your imagination."
"Fine,"I said. "You take my hand and back up toward the bed."
"Excellent choice. What then?"
"You sit down, and pull me down with you."
"Where are you?" he asked.
"You pull me onto your lap."
"Where are your legs?"
"Around your waist."
"Well," Noah said, his voice slightly rough. "This is getting interesting. So I'm on the edge of your bed. I'm holding you on my lap as you straddle me. My arms are around you, bracing you there so you don't fall. What am I wearing?"...
"What do you usually wear to bed?" I asked.
Noah said nothing. I opened my eyes to an arched brow and a devious grin.
Oh my God.
"Close. Your. Eyes," he said. I did. "Now, where were we?"
"I was straddling you," I said.
"Right. And I'm wearing..."
"Drawstring pants."
"Those are quite thin, you know."
I'm aware.
...
"Right," he said. "So what are you wearing?"
"I don't know. A space suit. Who cares?"
"I think this should be as vivid as possible," he said. "For you," he clarified, and I chuckled. "Eyes closed," he reminded me. "I'm going to have to institute a punishment for each time I have to tell you."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Don't tempt me. Now, what are you wearing?"
"A hoodie and drawstring pants too, I guess."
"Anything underneath?"
"I don't typically walk around without underwear."
"Typically?"
"Only on special occasions."
"Christ. I meant under your hoodie."
"A tank top, I guess."
"What color?"
"White tank. Black hoodie. Gray pants. I'm ready to move on now."
I felt him nearer, his words close to my ear. "To the part where I lean back and pull you down with me?"
Yes.
"Over me," he said.
Fuck.
"The part where I tell you that I want to feel the softness of the curls at the nape of your neck? To know what your hipbone would feel like against my mouth?" he murmured against my skin. "To memorize the slope of your navel and the arch of your neck and the swell of your-
β
β
Michelle Hodkin (The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2))
β
I'm depressed! I'm completely depressed! I am firmly convinced that there is no one in this world who really likes me!"
"So what else is new?
β
β
Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
β
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they executed the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. I'm stupid about executions. The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick, and that's all there was to read about in the papers -- goggle-eyed headlines staring up at me at every street corner and at the fusty, peanut-smelling mouth of every subway. It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves.
I thought it must be the worst thing in the world.
New York was bad enough. By nine in the morning the fake, country-wet freshness that somehow seeped in overnight evaporated like the tail end of a sweet dream. Mirage-gray at the bottom of their granite canyons, the hot streets wavered in the sun, the car tops sizzled and glittered, and the dry, cindery dust blew into my eyes and down my throat.
β
β
Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar)
β
When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck.
β
β
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
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believe that this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on the news headlines but on the flowers growing in your own garden, the children growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was coal. This way of living and noticing and building and crafting can crack through the movie sets and soundtracks that keep us waiting for our own life stories to begin, and set us free to observe the lives we have been creating all along without ever realizing it.
I donβt want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. Thatβs the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I donβt even see it, because Iβm too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.
The Heisman Trophy winner knows this. He knows that his big moment was not when they gave him the trophy. It was the thousand times he went to practice instead of going back to bed. It was the miles run on rainy days, the healthy meals when a burger sounded like heaven. That big moment represented and rested on a foundation of moments that had come before it.
I believe that if we cultivate a true attention, a deep ability to see what has been there all along, we will find worlds within us and between us, dreams and stories and memories spilling over. The nuances and shades and secrets and intimations of love and friendship and marriage an parenting are action-packed and multicolored, if you know where to look.
Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life youβve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that youβre having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.
Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is.
You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.
You are more than dust and bones.
You are spirit and power and image of God.
And you have been given Today.
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Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life)
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Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you've been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you're having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull off the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted." -Cold Tangerines
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Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life)
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So Uncle Stuart is marrying that lady? Mom says she's going to be our aunt Amy. She's okay except she would't try any peanut butter M&M chocolate chip fudge cookies. They were good- you ate five, remember? But she said she was on a special diet, and couldn't eat something called carbs. We told her we didn't put any carbs in our cookies, just M&Ms, but she said M&Ms were carbs.
Uncle Mitch, what's carbs?
email to Uncle Mitch from Haily and Brittany
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Meg Cabot (Boy Meets Girl (Boy, #2))
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My chair rolls to a stop. his voice cut short, followed by a thump and sliding sound. My wheelchair rolls forward again. I look back and see Ragnar pushing it innocently along. Sevro isn't in the hallway behind us. I frown, wondering where he went, till he bursts out of a side passage.
"You! Troll!" Sevro shouts. "I'm a terrorist warlord! Stop throwing me. You made me drop my candy!" Sevro looks at the floor of the hallway. "Wait. Where is it? Dammit, Ragnar. Where is my peanut bar? You know how many people I had to kill to get that? Six! Six!"
Ragnar chews quietly above me, and though I'm probably mistaken, I think I see him smile.
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Pierce Brown (Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3))
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Jeff: I understand you guys had a good day today?
Peanut: Yes we had a great day!
Jose: No we did not.
Peanut: Yes
Jose: No
Peanut: Yes
Jose: No
Peanut: Yes
Jose: No we did not have a good day.
Peanut: Yes we hhhaad...a great frickin' day!
What?
Jeff: Did you have a good day?
Peanut: Yes
Jose: No
Peanut: Shut up
Jeff: A good day?
Peanut: Yes
Jose: No
Peanut: Shut up
Jeff: You're supposed to have taken him to the spa.
Peanut: I took him to the spa!
Jose: He put me in the vegetable steamer.
Peanut: It's the same thing!!!
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Jeff Dunham
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Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts. . .
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall. . .
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fried and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That it finally touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
"OK, I'll take the garbage out!"
But then, of course, it was too late. . .
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!
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Shel Silverstein
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Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton... I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by... If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations... What do you think you see, Linus?"
"Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean... That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor... And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen... I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side..."
"Uh huh... That's very good... What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?"
"Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!
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Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
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Maybe I can put it another way... Life, Charlie Brown, is like a deck chair."
"Like a what?"
"Have you ever been on a cruise ship? Passengers open up these canvas deck chairs so they can sit in the sun... Some people place their chairs facing the rear of the ship so they can see where they've been... Other people face their chairs forward... They want to see where they're going! On the cruise ship of life, Charlie Brown, which way is your deck chair facing?"
"I've never been able to get one unfolded...
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Charles M. Schulz (The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 16: 1981-1982)
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I was on a mission. I had to learn to comfort myself, to see what others saw in me and believe it. I needed to discover what the hell made me happy other than being in love. Mission impossible.
When did figuring out what makes you happy become work? How had I let myself get to this point, where I had to learn me..? It was embarrassing. In my college psychology class, I had studied theories of adult development and learned that our twenties are for experimenting, exploring different jobs, and discovering what fulfills us. My professor warned against graduate school, asserting, "You're not fully formed yet. You don't know if it's what you really want to do with your life because you haven't tried enough things." Oh, no, not me.." And if you rush into something you're unsure about, you might awake midlife with a crisis on your hands," he had lectured it. Hi. Try waking up a whole lot sooner with a pre-thirty predicament worm dangling from your early bird mouth.
"Well to begin," Phone Therapist responded, "you have to learn to take care of yourself. To nurture and comfort that little girl inside you, to realize you are quite capable of relying on yourself. I want you to try to remember what brought you comfort when you were younger."
Bowls of cereal after school, coated in a pool of orange-blossom honey. Dragging my finger along the edge of a plate of mashed potatoes. I knew I should have thought "tea" or "bath," but I didn't. Did she want me to answer aloud?
"Grilled cheese?" I said hesitantly.
"Okay, good. What else?"
I thought of marionette shows where I'd held my mother's hand and looked at her after a funny part to see if she was delighted, of brisket sandwiches with ketchup, like my dad ordered. Sliding barn doors, baskets of brown eggs, steamed windows, doubled socks, cupcake paper, and rolled sweater collars. Cookouts where the fathers handled the meat, licking wobbly batter off wire beaters, Christmas ornaments in their boxes, peanut butter on apple slices, the sounds and light beneath an overturned canoe, the pine needle path to the ocean near my mother's house, the crunch of snow beneath my red winter boots, bedtime stories. "My parents," I said. Damn. I felt like she made me say the secret word and just won extra points on the Psychology Game Network. It always comes down to our parents in therapy.
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Stephanie Klein (Straight Up and Dirty)
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Charlie Brown: I think lunchtime is about the worst time of day for me. Always having to sit here alone. Of course, sometimes, mornings aren't so pleasant either. Waking up and wondering if anyone would really miss me if I never got out of bed. Then there's the night, too. Lying there and thinking about all the stupid things I've done during the day. And all those hours in between when I do all those stupid things. Well, lunchtime is among the worst times of the day for me. Well, I guess I'd better see what I've got. Peanut butter. Some psychiatrists say that people who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely...I guess they're right. And when you're really lonely, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth. There's that cute little red-headed girl eating her lunch over there. I wonder what she would do if I went over and asked her if I could sit and have lunch with her?...She'd probably laugh right in my face...it's hard on a face when it gets laughed in. There's an empty place next to her on the bench. There's no reason why I couldn't just go over and sit there. I could do that right now. All I have to do is stand up...I'm standing up!...I'm sitting down. I'm a coward. I'm so much of a coward, she wouldn't even think of looking at me. She hardly ever does look at me. In fact, I can't remember her ever looking at me. Why shouldn't she look at me? Is there any reason in the world why she shouldn't look at me? Is she so great, and I'm so small, that she can't spare one little moment?...SHE'S LOOKING AT ME!! SHE'S LOOKING AT ME!! (he puts his lunchbag over his head.) ...Lunchtime is among the worst times of the day for me. If that little red-headed girl is looking at me with this stupid bag over my head she must think I'm the biggest fool alive. But, if she isn't looking at me, then maybe I could take it off quickly and she'd never notice it. On the other hand...I can't tell if she's looking, until I take it off! Then again, if I never take it off I'll never have to know if she was looking or not. On the other hand...it's very hard to breathe in here. (he removes his sack) Whew! She's not looking at me! I wonder why she never looks at me? Oh well, another lunch hour over with...only 2,863 to go.
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Clark Gesner (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - Vocal Score)