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i am not a courageous person by nature. i have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. it is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. all the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. a deep breath and a leap. writing is acting is directing is living your life.

- john patrick shanley

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we cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection. love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.

- brené brown

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this quote has popped up in my face via various articles, posts, etc. so i thought it was the perfect quote to kick off the new year.

far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

- theodore roosevelt

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well-behaved women seldom make history.

- laurel thatcher ulrich

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everybody can be great. because anybody can serve. you don't have to have a college degree to serve. you don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve...you don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love.

- martin luther king, jr.

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a violinist has her violin, a painter has his palette, all i have is myself.
i am the instrument i must care for.

- josephine baker

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the highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.
- john ruskin, an english poet, artist & thinker


*source: the daily love 

"and pleasure...no pleasure?"

i felt it was time to play. most of my thoughts, time and energy had gone into creative effort. and this restriction of the love drive, the headshrinkers will tell you, is the greatest urge one really has. when one sublimates the sex drive into creative work, it puts a person in high gear, mentally. i admit it. but it is against my nature to bottle up the biological plans of pleasure for any length of time. i hope i don't sound as if i have discovered the secret salve that soothes the universe, but i do want to add my small footnote on the subject.

- mae west

this past week has been all about the idea of pleasure. scripts & books come into my life at interesting times in my life...when i need to learn something from them or have an aspect of my personality or shadow personality illuminated. funny that this week i worked on a script in ela's "directing actors" class by a wonderful writer named wendy sax. the scene was about two 50-something yr olds who meet and are attracted to each other, but are also guarded because they've been down the road of love and been burned by either illness then death or heartbreak and abandonment...the inevitables of life. the two go through the initial push & pull of when you first meet a new love interest. the man hasn't had the experience of pleasure in ages, and the woman challenges herself to see if she can get him to feel any sort of pleasure. she succeeds. by the end of the scene, they decide to take a chance on each other and once again, the hope of love.

wendy gifted me with a book called "mama gena's school of womanly arts" which is all about a woman finding & creating her own pleasure. not waiting for the perfect time, location, or man to swoop in with this delectable delight. i'm craving more pleasure and fun in my life but between financial and work (hallelujah!) obligations, i'm usually left with sore pinkie toes, a checklist of things to accomplish, and exhaustion that begs me to rest my head on my pillow for 30 mins which turns into deep slumber. pleasure hasn't seemed to make it's way high on the list...well up until this weekend that is. according to mama gena (the purveyor of pleasure in the book), "the path to pleasure...begins with a decision, a simple decision that each of us must make: we merely must acknowledge that what we have is good now. not 'life will be good, if only...' not ' life would have been good, except...' no....it is good now." alot of my friends are traveling and bbq'ing this holiday weekend. i'll be working, but that doesn't mean i can't create a little pleasure for myself. decision made.

let me know in the comments section how you plan to create pleasure for yourself this memorial day weekend...

*source: mama gena's school of womanly arts, by regena thomashauer

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the greatest mistake in the world is to pretend to be someone you're not in order to please someone else. have the courage to be yourself, no matter what. if you ruffle someone's feathers their reaction is not your business. all you can do is be who you are and who you are is one of a kind. but remember, the same thing goes for everyone else so chances are you'll get your feathers ruffled, too. one word will solve all your problems, allow.

- jackson kiddard

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- be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind
- talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet 
- make all your friends feel there is something special in them
- look at the sunny side of everything
- think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best
- be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own 
- forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future 
- give everyone a smile
- spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others
- be too big for worry and too noble for anger


- christian d. larsen, new thought leader and teacher
source: thedailylove.com newsletter

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what we create within us is always mirrored outside of us.

- shakti gawain, author of "creative visualization"
(source of the above quote: @ShaktiGawainOne)

i first learned of this book while reading "the artist's way" by julia cameron. the spiritual quotes that spoke to me the most were hers. my dear friend sheereen, whom i spoke to about my discovery of shakti gawain, bought "creative visualization" for me...one of the best gifts i've ever received. in fact, this is probably as good a time as any for a refresher.

what i find interesting is how much of a sting i get from the quote above. and if you apply it to your own life, i'm sure you'll feel just as uneasy. i interpret this quote to mean "there are no victims." whatever has manifested in your life began with you and me. no person or nothing "out there." this quote challenges us to reflect on our choices, intentions, actions and take the sole responsibility for our circumstances. uh yeah exactly...OUCH!

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life is thickly sown with thorns,
and i know no other remedy 
but to pass quickly through them.
the longer we dwell on our misfortunes,
the greater their power to harm us.

- voltaire
source: my friend brandis forwarded this quote to me

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cherish your vision; 
cherish your ideals; 
cherish the music that stirs in your heart, 
the beauty that forms in your mind, 
the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. 
if you remain true to them, your world will at last be built.

- james allen, author of "as a man thinketh"
source: www.thedailylove.com 


i love this. keep the image you have for yourself and your life and see it actualize in the real world.

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in order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.

- coco chanel

or is it just good enough to be oneself. in a world where we're always striving to be something "different" or "exotic" or "unique," when do we let ourselves off the hook and say "i'm good enough as is." (and yes that was a rhetorical question, hence no question mark). in fact, we are all already different. well maybe on the surface that is. deep down, we're all the same...connected as one. so that solves it, just be yourself.

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whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.

- eckhart tolle, spiritual author & speaker

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take chances, make mistakes. 

that's how you grow. 

pain nourishes your courage. 

you have to fail in order to practice being brave.

- mary tyler moore, actress

(source: the daily love)

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love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

- robert frost, poet

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All is well. You did not come here to fix a broken world. The world is not broken.
You came here to live a wonderful life. And if you can learn to relax a little and
let it all in, you will begin to see the universe present you with all that you
have asked for.

- Esther Hicks, best-selling spiritual author and speaker.

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when you choose to follow your dreams, you must become the person your dreams needs for them to come true.
- the daily love

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one of my favorite quotes this week:

between stimulus and response, there is a space. in that space is our power to choose our response. in our response lies our growth and our freedom.
-victor frankl, author of "man's search for meaning"