“Life grows too quickly; it quickly turns into memories.”

“Your life will never be the same, ever, so you can never be the same, ever. Pain will make you stronger, but it will make you a lot of other things first.”

“My life is a daily celebration. I choose who to invite to my party, and who doesn’t get an invitation. And I’d be damned if I spent my time standing at the door, looking out and wondering where some people are, while my home is filled with people who are there to celebrate with me. Every day, I am going to party with the people whom I invited, the people who matter.”

“Dear Change,My fear of the unknown finally outweighed my fear of the familiar.”

“Every relationship that has hit a crossroads has asked, “What is it that you want from me?”

“The person who hurt you–who raped you or killed your family–is also here. If you are still angry at that person, if you haven’t been able to forgive, you are chained to him. Everyone could feel the emotional truth of that: When someone offends you and you haven’t let go, every time you see him, you grow breathless or your heart skips a beat. If the trauma was really severe, you dream of revenge. Above you, is the Mountain of Peace and Prosperity where we all want to go. But when you try to climb that hill, the person you haven’t forgiven weighs you down. It’s a personal choice whether or not to let go. No one can tell you how long to mourn a death or rage over a rape. But you can’t move forward until you break that chain.”

“Even seasonal situations can bring with them lessons that last a lifetime. If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.”

“Learning, empowering, studying, practicing, and not repeating the same mistakes will help you move forward, move up, and move on to where you want to be.”

“Time is a machine: it will convert your pain into experience. Raw data will be compiled, will be translated into a more comprehensible language. The individual events of your life will be transmuted into another substance called memory and in the mechanism something will be lost and you will never be able to reverse it, you will never again have the moment back as its uncategorized, preprocessed state. It will force you to move on and you will not have a choice in the matter.”

“When we let go of our pride, we give ourselves permission to be human. We give ourselves permission to slip up and hurt and to grow without ridiculous standards of perfection constantly looming over our heads. We give ourselves a chance to face conflicts, to face ourselves, and to heal. And, in this healing process, we give others a chance to follow our lead.”

“Sometimes you must let people go because their pieces no longer fit. This departure is for the betterment of your energy, your space and your precious life.”

“You think it’s so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain’t.”

“How many boys like him were out there in the ether, holding on to their big brothers and sisters who were still alive? How many husbands were floating between life and death, clinging to their wives in this world? And how may millions and millions of people were there in the world like Charlie who wouldn’t let go of their loved ones when they’re gone?”