I think we all want the same thing: A quiet peace. Maybe just even a single moment of it to close our eyes and just be okay. For even a single second, to not feel worried about something, sad about something. To not crave something we don‘t–or can‘t–have. Just to be there, okay. Still. Silent. On the inside. Maybe that‘s what‘s so beautiful about this time of the day. And the hope that maybe this day will be different.
And that‘s just it. All of this. The sadness, the accidents, the smiles, the peace, the pain, the love, the loss, and the sacrifice: it‘s not for nothing. It is not without purpose. It‘s not a mistake, some sort of oversight or a random course of events.
This dark place is not the end. Remember that the darkness of night precedes the dawn. And as long as your heart still beats this is not the death of it. You don‘t have to die here. Sometimes the ocean floor is only a stop on the journey. It's when you are at this lowest point that you are faced with a choice. You can stay there at the bottom until you drown. Or you can gather pearls & rise back up stronger from the swim and richer from the jewels
And yet, from the time we were little, we, as women, have been taught that we will never reach completion until a man comes to complete us. Like Cinderella we were taught that we are helpless unless a prince comes to save us. Like Sleeping Beauty, we were told that our life doesn‘t fully begin, until Prince Charming kisses us. But here‘s the thing: no prince can complete you. And no knight can save you.
So often we find that the darkest times in our lives are followed by the most precious.
We need to look through the illusion for a moment, into the Reality that stands behind it.
It was only a dream. For a moment, it overtakes me. Yet the suffering I feel in my nightmare is only an illusion. Temporary
Growth never comes without pain, and success is only a product of struggle.
How do we learn to forgive when we have been wronged? How do we become strong, without being hard, and remain soft, without being weak? When do we hold on, and when can we let go? When does caring too much, become too much? And is there such a thing as loving more than we should?
We will always mess up. And in those mess-ups, we will inevitably hurt others, knowingly and unknowingly, intentionally and unintentionally. The world would not always be fair.
In my childish idealism, I failed to understand that this world is inherently imperfect. We, as humans, are inherently imperfect.
So the problem is not the trial itself. The problem is not the hunger or the cold. The problem is whether we have the provision needed when that hunger and cold come. And if we do, neither hunger nor cold will touch us. It won‘t hurt. The problem is only when the hunger comes and we don‘t have food. The problem is when the snow storm hits and we have no shelter.
How is it that sometimes we have more patience with the big challenges in life than we do with the everyday small ones?
Why do some people who have nothing find no reason to complain, while others who have ‘everything‘ find nothing but reasons to complain?
Giving up something the heart adores is one of the hardest battles we ever have to fight
But, once in a while, people enter your life that you love—not for what they give you—but for what they are... Now suddenly it isn‘t about what you‘re getting, but rather what you can give. This is unselfish love.
A person‘s capacity to give is inconstant and changing. Your response to what you are given is also inconstant and changing. So if you‘re chasing a feeling, you‘ll always be chasing. No feeling is ever constant.
The only problem is, that‘s not where the story ends. That‘s where it begins. That‘s where the building starts: the building of a life, the building of your character, the building of patience, perseverance, and sacrifice. The building of selflessness. The building of love.
Yet, you will give your whole life, still, to reaching this ‘place‘. You do this because in the fairy tale, that‘s where the story ends. It ends at the finding, the joining, and the wedding. It is found at the oneness of two souls.
And so there are some who spend their whole lives seeking. Sometimes giving, sometimes taking. Sometimes chasing, but often, just waiting. They believe that love is a place that you get to: a destination at the end of a long road.
We‘re all running. But so few of us are running in the right direction. We have the same goal. But to get there, we need to stop. And examine if we are running towards the Source–or just a reflection.
As the author, Charles F. Haanel, put it: "To acquire love… fill yourself up with it until you become a magnet."
The less we chase after the approval and love of the people, the more we gain it.
Every time you run after, seek, or petition something weak or feeble, you too become weak or feeble. Even if you do reach that which you seek, it will never be enough. You will soon need to seek something else. You will never reach true contentment or satisfaction. That is why we live in a world of trade-ins and upgrades. Your phone, your car, your computer, your woman, your man, can always be traded in for a newer, better model
Try not to confuse attachment with love. Attachment is about fear and dependency, and has more to do with love of self than love of another. Love without attachment is the purest love because it isn‘t about what others can give you because your empty. It is about what you can give others because you‘re already full
This world cannot break you—unless you give it permission. And it cannot own you unless you hand it the keys—unless you give it your heart.
He understood that the same ocean which sparkles in the sunlight will become a graveyard for the ships that enter it.
And the same ocean that holds ships afloat can shatter those ships to pieces.
And in that heaven, complete peace is not something of a moment. It is a state, eternal.
If there is anything—or anyone—that losing would absolutely break us, we have a false attachment.
... to step outside of moments and see them for what they are: not universes, not reality, past and present, just that—a single moment in a string of infinite moments…and that they too shall pass.
A negative state consumed everything. It became the whole world, past and present, the entire universe was bad for that moment.
If we study the difficult times in our lives, we will see that they were also filled with much good. The question is—which do we chose to focus on?
We say this life isn‘t perfect. And it isn‘t. It isn‘t perfectly good. But, it also isn‘t perfectly bad, either.
It means that the breathtakingly beautiful rose in my vase will wither tomorrow. It means that my youth will neglect me. But it also means that the sadness I feel today will change tomorrow. My pain will die. My laughter won‘t last forever—but neither will my tears.
And if there is one recipe for unhappiness it is that: expectations.
I started to see what my problem was. I was expecting this life to be what it is not, and was never meant to be: perfect.
We must also realize that nothing happens without a purpose. Nothing. Not even broken hearts. Not even pain. That broken heart and that pain are lessons and signs for us. They are warnings that something is wrong. They are warnings that we need to make a change.
Seeking to turn, what is by its very nature temporary into something eternal is like trying to extract from fire, water. You just get burned.
It was about what happens when you try to dig in concrete with your bare hands: not only do you come back with nothing—you break your fingers in the process.
I allowed those relationships to define my happiness or my sadness, my fulfillment or my emptiness, my security, and even my self-worth. And so, like the vase placed where it will inevitably fall, through those dependencies I set myself up for disappointment. I set myself up to be broken. And that‘s exactly what I found: one disappointment, one break after another.
She asked me, "Why do people have to leave each other?" The question was a personal one, but it seemed clear to me why the question was chosen for me. I was one to get attached.
Once let down, I never fully recovered. I could never forget, and the break never mended. Like a glass vase that you place on the edge of a table, once broken, the pieces never quite fit again
Reclaim Your Heart | 
