Hannah Koester

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The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think.

—Stephen King (via abstractnumbers)

inothernews: CROWDED HOUSE   Birds perch on a branch during a spring snowstorm in Pembroke, NY.  (Photo: David Duprey / AP via The Guardian)

inothernews:

CROWDED HOUSE   Birds perch on a branch during a spring snowstorm in Pembroke, NY.  (Photo: David Duprey / AP via The Guardian)

(Source: Guardian)

countthecolors: Somedays laughing is the only thing you can do to keep from crying. My mom lived her life laughing at everything and everyone, but most importantly, she believed in laughing at herself. She had an infectious laugh and somedays, when the pain is overwhelming, I’ll remember the better times and laugh. Because for that moment, she there with me, laughing with me.

countthecolors:

Somedays laughing is the only thing you can do to keep from crying. My mom lived her life laughing at everything and everyone, but most importantly, she believed in laughing at herself. She had an infectious laugh and somedays, when the pain is overwhelming, I’ll remember the better times and laugh. Because for that moment, she there with me, laughing with me.