I remain passionate and loving, still in the pursuit of all things personally meaningful to me, conscious enough to know not to give up, conscious enough to know that even when I doubt the things I know, I also know enough to go ahead and get started.

The sun is high now, tripping on the bodies lined up along the shore, and the shore is there for those bodies, a shoulder for them to forget about whatever winter brought, and I am there because winter brought me down to the goddamn core, and the core burns even the tannest of souls.

As visions of an everyday shadow begin to fight the fade. A sip of coffee to swallow the sudden ache.

Serve, but serve love as the main course. Serve it to those who are hungry, those who have been flying to and from the hive at the master's beck and call so long they've forgotten that they are the ones creating the riches!

Take a seat. Close your eyes and imagine how much you will regret if you keep living your life exactly the same way you are right now. How do these thoughts make you feel? Is your body tense? Does your mind feel imprisoned? Feel it as clearly as you can. And then ask yourself: is it time to toss your broken record?

I recently realized I possess a truly epic skill set, but it's hardly what I would hope for it to be. No, I have this uncanny ability to deprive myself of any free time whatsoever.

Like all secrets, it has something of value to reveal to us, and that is what makes it worth sharing. Sit down. Unplug for a moment. Look around and then take a deep breath.

So the next man you will love... differently. Perhaps the love you felt with your ex was like bubbly champagne and the next guy will be that deep velvety red with a lovely oak finish. There is no less or more but just... different.

Hold your hand through your darkness, as you say hello to my sin.

Three years ago, I could not have even thought about death without breaking down. If only I had known what I know now, then.

I sit there and hold myself, often literally. I reach out and touch my hand on the mirror, on my reflection, and I tell myself, "You're safe, you're okay, I'm not leaving you, you've got this, I'm with you, I'm here."

Everything inside of you has a standoff. You look at yourself in the mirror and you still don't have the answers, but you find that hand. It's God.

Anxiety arises anytime you are not living your truth. The second you deviate from your authenticity, you will be notified by your bodily experience and the Universe...

Screw it! I wanted my old body back. I wanted to race through the yard with dirt on my face and climb so high that womanhood would never catch me.

Alternate between ballsy swagger and soft cooing, unassuming, sometimes downright invisible, a scull swift on the river, a skull on the alter, a moose crossing, a roadside bouquet.

Watch out for the good things coming your way. Watch out for opportunities springing into your path. Say Hello to people who are awesome like you, who may cross your path to join you for those special moments. Enjoy, enjoy enjoy the spring in your step, as you skip with flowers and butterflies in your hands towards your epic life.

You and I dancing around one another, two tops spinning, spattering lust in hues of red rouged rosy blush.

I wasn't entirely surprised when my child joined us at that bewitching hour, the alchemy of dark turning to light. The alchemy of my darkest hour in my deepest mystery, when my own beating heart washed up onto dry land. When my tiny merman made his brave voyage from his watery nest, onto this side of consciousness. When my body died another death -- from girl to woman; from woman to mother -- and rose from the ash like a phoenix to claim its righteous place as a giver of life.

Destiny - we all have one. The challenge is trying to figure out what it is and how we can bring it to life in our world. And clearly, we must be here for a purpose...

She knows this threat, this danger, is coming, and she needs to keep my body ready and alert for this. Sort of like waiting for a hurricane to come that you've heard about on the news. Because if it came and I wasn't ready, I'd be fucked. If the threat came -- the one that is seemingly going to hit any second -- and I wasn't prepared to deal with it or to attack back or to hold on to my protective armor that this part holds up for me, then I'd be screwed.

Step into the light, says Marianne. Be absolutely ridiculous, says Marilyn. When faced with the possibility of failure, let's collectively say So Fucking What? and keep on going.

Metta is the Pali word for loving-kindness or friendliness. It literally means fat with friendship. Along with karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity), it's considered one of the brahmaviharas (divine abodes) in Buddhism. In my experience, it's one of the most rapid routes to exquisite happiness that there is.

We haven't met yet, but I will surely exude joy because bitterness doesn't belong And I will abide by happiness because optimism is essential.

Certain things hurt, it's true. If someone deliberately hurts you by actions or nasty words, it stings. But still other people are not the problem. Ultimately your own reaction to their words and actions is what leads you to freedom or a dead end.

What is the problem if we, confined to our own company, realize solitary love? The fear lies with the if, if we realize that love.

By Brittany Connors “You know you have bear in you too,”he said.“And otterand wolfand eagle and fox.”But I didn’t hear him.I shifted one more timefeet stumblingever the newborn foal that I was.I’d shiver at the sunand twitch from actionand cloak myself in a shadowor the nightor someone else’s luminescent lightjust to get out of the way of it all.When my voice came out, it was a rasp –wind creaking through battered trees,and if I left footprintsanywhereyou were soon to find me quicklysweeping them uppreserving the ground the way it wasbefore I came along.He said it again.Later in life.Then later again:“You know you have bear in you too,And otterand wolfand eagle and fox.”Luckily little foal had chance to grow.My life wasn’t over yet.Yes.I had bear in me too.And otter.And wolf.And eagle and fox.And me, among...

Forgive myself for fucking up? Forgive myself for doing things that caused, or cause, myself pain and greater sorrow or heartbreak or turmoil or struggle? Forgive myself for neglecting my needs and depriving myself of things I enjoy? Forgive myself for failing, for saying or doing the wrong thing? Forgive myself for being selfish or being mean? Forgive myself for having qualities I hate about myself? Forgive myself for having patterns that Piss. Me. Off.?

It took one baby and a battle with postpartum depression to tear down the barriers and force out of my shell. Motherhood has taught me so much about who I really am.

I wish there was a concoction designed to plunge tear-drops, a tool made for the sole purpose of unstopping emotional stagnation.

Suspended and hung -- a hovering humming hummingbird heart Buoyant and shapeless.

When I cautiously shared the pain in my heart with a group of my trusted religious friends, one of them fled to the opposite side of the room for the rest of the evening. My vulnerability was standing naked center stage. Had I done enough to try and save my marriage? What if I had worked just a little bit harder, or settled for just a little bit more of what I was being given?

Lay your sledgehammer down. You don't need it any more. If beating yourself up worked, you'd be far more enlightened by now.

I dream in fractured memories hung out to dry on strings of lies. In origami promises set to sail across uncharted lives.

Palms open in welcoming patience she stands, knowing why you did not come sooner, but wishing you had.

I need to feel independent from you, and most importantly, I need to feel myself. I need to go on dates with Vitality, and have naked morning cuddles with Energy. I need to write poetry with Freedom and sing rap songs with Life.

Oh, hell, yes. I want to look back and see a juicy, balls-to-the-wall, no-stone-unturned, bittersweet, handmade life. I want to say, "Yes," when I'm on my deathbed. I want to see that, "hell, yes" sketched onto my face as I shuttle through the coming years. I want to write that yes, nothing-but-yes, across an azure sky.

Sure, natural disposition plays a role, but anyone can learn how to think and behave in ways that are proven to make them happier. And everyone should.

Release your institutions, choose love and freedom in every color.

Failure can be my greatest co-conspirator in my quest for success but only if i have the courage to befriend it.

There is no limit to how much we can love; no need to contain it. It moves through us, we breathe in its being.

I trekked onward, not the least afraid of a man who bound himself, I was free of his chains, and only searching for myself.

I have never just been me, the authentic Me. The Me with no added sugar or artificial coloring.

... I've come to acknowledge that my impulsive desire for clear immediate answers to the incessant questioning of self-doubt only pushes me further under.

When she died, that light imploded in on itself, scattering far and wide to moments in the future that I've been finding sporadically in the wake of her absence. Her being is laced in the falling snow and the twinkle of my eye. Her blessing is in every pleasant surprise, and her soothing words still console every setback, even if I have to call them up by memory.

... are we not, therefore, the product of all of our positive experiences too? Are we not carrying around the satisfaction of every heartfelt compliment and word of encouragement? Are we not resonating with every kind smile, every yet-to-be-realized dream and every moment of pure joy which linger inside of us, waiting to be recalled and re-lived to remind us of how amazing we really are? I believe that for every breakdown, there is a breakthrough. For every put-down, there is a great big hoist-up, and for every thunderstorm, there is a rainbow that follows.

Do you really think it's worse to not know, than to deeply regret a decision? Are you the I regret nothing because it got me where I am today type personality?

... I do not trespass, I am welcome. I am home. I am here.

And if being in the middle of our life journey is frustrating or overly challenging, then, so too, will be all of life.

It feels like those old carnival and amusement park rides, where you sit in a car that rides a track, and enter into a dark cave and everything smells like wet wood.

As life progresses, there is this proclivity to toil with the recollection of our sadness, leaving us amidst a talus of strife. I asked myself, could it be that the altar of happiness is built on the ruins of sorrow?

We, in paralysis of ruining our one chance at getting it right, are the reason why success is defined by terms that do not align with our deepest desires.

But I want them to know well the Selfish and the Selfless that lives within each of us, and the delicate dance between the two. To experience the wilderness of reclamation and the surrender of relinquishment that is a part of every negotiation we will walk as women who burn and ask and risk.

Deconstruction is a vital precursor to Construction. It’s time to acknowledge and release.

I felt like everybody was looking, and pointing, and talking about me. And most of the time it was true. It was Japan after all. I was gaijin.

These whispers revising my reality, muffling its cries. Sacrificing truth while this pain intensifies. Let me tell the truth before this sin smothers all the air I breathe.

Surrender the bad boy image and be a good man. Good men are undervalued in the shallow world of today but crowned in the kingdom. Besides, nothing is sexier than a good and honest man.

Our busyness, after all, is just a cover, an existential numbing agent, a cloak we use against emptiness. It allows us cover up the realization that a life unexamined, one without joy, love or beauty is meaningless.

All the definitions that have made me my outside self have blocked out my inner soul where no definitions reside. Definitions be damned. You are no longer safe on my page.

Moments end, and lives end, and marriages end, and sometimes deer take their last step and stop walking...

I may create my own fiction, but a city doesn't give you an iced up cupcake. It is raw batter.

It is a very powerful practice to journal with positivity and gratitude. When I write this way, I am writing affirmations for myself each time I write. The more I tell myself these positive messages, the more I see their truth emerge in my life – the power of positive thought and intention.

When we learn to accept change, we see that it’s truly beautiful; that amazing things unfold as we let go of our smallness and embrace the vastness of our potential.

Throw out the wrapping, but be careful with the box. The box is your body.

The world seems to be absorbed in a hedonistic rush to a more comfortable place with a more beautiful view occupied by more attractive people dressed in more expensive clothes and driving a more elite model car to a more private club to meet their friends who are just, well, better than yours.

I am incredibly fragile, yet my love for life, for myself and for others makes me unbreakable, maybe also unbrakeable (as in, unstoppable).

What you need to know about me is that I am acutely aware that life is a privilege. My life is a privilege. I want to share that privilege with you.

Lying in a hospital bed, having just tried to kill myself, with the nurses setting up a private phone-line to cater for all the love flooding in for me from friends, showed me that I deserved to know a different way of being in the world.

I thought for a while about whether it was possible for me to sit and talk to her without really saying anything. I have been so good at this in the past, and I am still a master at it with so many others.

What if we didn't have to dive all the way in to full silence? What if we were allowed to approximate silence in a way that feels like a paper cut or a brush-burn, instead of a stabbing wound in the gut? Why must it be Total Silence, as though that's the only way magic happens?

There are many that believe when we leave this earth we go to heaven. Maybe we do. Maybe we don’t. Maybe we return as a rabbit. Let me show you my magic hat as I attempt to pull a rabbit out for you, and offer some thoughts that may change the direction you take as you review your travel plans.