“courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quite voice at the end of the day wispering, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’ “ ~ Mary Anne Radmacker

“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it.” ~ Jim Carrey

“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.”  ~ Ram Dass

This is the real secret of life - - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. 

And instead of calling it work, realize that it’s play. - Alan Watts  

Be true to yourself 

 “ A lot of people...have a problem being true to themselves. They have a problem looking in the mirror and looking directly into their souls. The reason I can...walk around, the reason I am who I am today, is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul.” ~ Tupac Shakur

To capture life in a moment you have to have something to risk.  Your heart, your health, your ego, but regardless, there has to be the consequence of failure. 

The only way we can live, is if we grow. The only way we can grow, is if we change. The only way we can change, is if we learn.

Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way right into the answer.

The world hides treasures,

great and small

mixed in the dirt beneath your feet.

people will love you, people will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you. 

we’ve all searched for the light of day in the dead of night. 

This life is built almost entirely on love, and loss

Everyday, another chance

to love again

to live again

to dream again

Asbury Park

Just another afternoon in Asbury Park.

some cats...

Some coffee...

some plants..

Some music..

Some signs..

Our days are a series of choices

choose to laugh

choose to love

choose to live

Brooklyn like a sea in the asphalt stalks

push out dead air from a parking garage. 

Where you stand with the keys and your cool hat of silence, where you grip her love like a driver’s license.   

I’ve seen the Kansas of your sweet little myth.  

 “If you want to be happy, you have to be happy on purpose. When you wake up, you can't just wait to see what kind of day you'll have. You have to decide what kind of day you'll have”. - Joel Osteen

I brought my mom to the hospital today for a procedure and had a bunch of idle time on my hands to think. It got me thinking about happiness. It seems like it should be so easy to just be happy. For me it has always seemed to be much, much harder than that and it often seems like a chore. 

I tend to think that some people are naturally happy people and that they just wake up happy in the morning. I think that for most of us, it is much more of a struggle.  I do know that it is easy to offer up a smile to a stranger, to hold the door for someone who is walking behind you. I know that by doing simple things to make others happy, it makes me happy. I also know that by compounding all of these little, simple acts, I am developing the habits that will help to make me happier, more of the time.

I just wish that sometimes it came a lot easier.

- abstract image of a glass door to an office in the hospital.  

 “remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet” - Stephen Hawking

And you can stand on the arms of the Williamsburg Bridge crying, well hey man this is babylon.