“If you fight to retain ownership of your time, then you are wise”

“You need to come to a place of maturity and realization that you are only free and wise when you begin to fight for your time”

“Researchers surf the wave of human imagination.”

“This world is teetering on a knife’s edge. Light and darkness. Good and evil. Battling for supremacy. Every light bravely flickering in the deep darkness of inhumanity shifts the balance of the universe toward good. That light is you.”

“True strength is forged in gentleness, guided by wisdom, and steeped in peace.”

“If we slow down and take the time to listen every soul we encounter can teach us something new. Wisdom comes in every shape and size and color and language and form imaginable. The only true limitation is our own inability to see and hear and understand the infinite beauty and wisdom of the human spirit, regardless of its packaging.”

“The job of each generation is to solve more problems than they create and to lift up the next generation to be better than the last. Simply repeating the past does neither.”

“Want world peace?Be peaceful. Think the world needs more kindness?Be kind. Want a better world?Be a better person. #wearetheworld”

“They say that music soothes the soul.I think that’s true. Sometimes. But other times music stirs the soul,reaching deep and digging up pain we need to process, thoughts we need to wrestle with, fears we need to work through, sadness we need to sit with, loss we need to lay to rest. Music is powerful because it can reach past the guardhouse of the mind, taking on those dragons that jealously hoard the glittering treasure of the human spirit,and set the tortured soul free.”

“Every coin has two sides. Every mountain has a valley. For every strength there is a weakness. Every up has a down. For every in there is an out. For every height there is a depth. Life itself is a mosaic of light and dark. And every human is a study in opposites, a kaleidoscope of good and bad, positive and negative, hopes and losses, dreams and disappointments, successes and failures, courage and fear, confidence and insecurity, power and vulnerability. We do not live in a homogeneous world. We live in a world of brilliant contrasts, vivid diversity, striking polarity, and eloquent disparity…a stunning array of sometimes gorgeous, sometimes glaring, always fascinating differences.”

“As night falls, let the day’s troubles slip away into the darkness and rest well knowing tomorrow brings a new day, a new chance to do things better, a new opportunity to make things right. And when the new day dawns, awaken a little wiser, a little older, a little more prepared for the future. That’s simply the pattern of life, my friends, a tapestry of light threaded with darkness, laughter threaded with tears, hope threaded with despair, wisdom threaded with failure, insight threaded with regret. It’s just how we learn and grow as humans, and that’s okay. It’s enough to end each day knowing we’ve done our best and we’ll do our best again tomorrow.”

“Healing is not a straight and narrow road that leads from darkness to light. There’s no sudden epiphany to take us from despair to serenity, no orchestrated steps to move us from hurting to healed. Healing is a winding mountain road with steep climbs and sudden descents, breathtaking views and breath-stealing drop-offs, dark tunnels and blinding exposures, dead ends and endless backtracks, rest stops and break downs, sheer rock walls and panoramic vistas. Healing is a journey with no destination, because healing is the journey of every lifetime.”

“Beauty is not found in uniformity,nor value in conformity. It is in ourcolors and quirks and flaws and scarsthat true beauty and value unfold,because that is where our stories are told.”

“The only way to heal from the pain of the past is to walk through that pain in the present. It’s terrifying, I know. It feels safer to just let the pain continue to smolder in the darkest parts of yourself. But the dark parts need tending, too, my friend. Don’t be afraid to breathe life back into those embers of old pain, to rekindle the fires of unhealed hurts. The flames aren’t there to burn you. They are there to light your way through pain to healing. You can walk through courageous and confident or shaking in your boots. It doesn’t matter. Just walk through it. Hurt will transform into hope, wounds into wisdom, suffering into scars that tell of battles won and lost and of a human who survived it all.”

“The Dream I Dream For You, My Child…I hope you search for four-leaf clovers,grin back at Cheshire moons,breathe in the springtime breezes,and dance with summer loons.I hope you gaze in wide-eyed wonderat the buzzing fireflyand rest beneath the sunlit treesas butterflies fly by.I hope you gather simple treasuresof pebbles, twigs, and leavesand marvel at the fragile webthe tiny spider weaves.I hope you read poetry and fairy talesand sing silly, made-up songs,and pretend to be a superherorighting this world’s wrongs.I hope your days are filled with magicand your nights with happy dreams,and you grow up knowing that happiness is found in simple things.The dream I dream for you, my child,as you discover, learn, and grow,is that you find these simple joyswherever in life you go.”