In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen — really seen.

Recommended reading: Rising Strong.

One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

Recommended reading: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back everything is different.

Recommended reading: The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics.

Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing the lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.

Recommended reading: The Dharma Bums.

The desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.

Recommended reading: The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. 

Unless we are very, very careful, we doom each other by holding onto images of one another based on preconceptions that are in turn based on indifference to what is other than ourselves. This indifference can be, in its extreme, a form of murder and seems to me a rather common phenomenon. We claim autonomy for ourselves and forget that in so doing we can fall into the tyranny of defining other people as we would like them to be. By focusing on what we choose to acknowledge in them, we impose an insidious control on them. I notice that I have to pay careful attention in order to listen to others with an openness that allows them to be as they are, or as they think themselves to be. The shutters of my mind habitually flip open and click shut, and these little snaps form into patterns I arrange for myself. The opposite of this inattention is love, is the honoring of others in a way that grants them the grace of their own autonomy and allows mutual discovery. Compassion is one of the purest springs of love.

Recommended reading: Daybook: The Journal of an Artist.

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension and not another… unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present and future mingle and pull us backward, forward or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

Recommended reading: The Portable Anaïs Nin.

When everything is connected to everything else, for better or for worse, everything matters.

Recommended reading: Massive Change.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Recommended reading: Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.

Recommended reading: The Alchemist.