Somebody failed you but you will not fail. Somebody looked in your eyes and saw the sun - blazing - and got scared. Somebody broke your heart but your love remains perfect. Somebody lost their dreams and thought you should too, but you mustn’t.

Do you remember the story of the jar of life?

trees, slender bare bodies all resilience and braveness

And for a moment, my denial, arrogance and ego all slink away, and I can hear the unblemished reality of my blindness, tolling with the mournful clarity of an ancient bell, and I’m even more afraid of losing who I am.

Just between us Rebelles, nobody completes anybody. Love is rarely perfect. Only we perfectly imperfect human beings make it so...so perfect!

Ultimately, Love leads a timeless existence. Love is not measured in minutes or hours, not days or weeks, but in beats, breaths, notes, and shared melodies.

...if we are completely clueless about our desire, then this sutra means just taking one step, period...in any direction. Knowing what we don't want has a habit of very quickly taking us into feeling what it is that we do want -- stepping into a pile of poo is not always a bad thing, so to speak!

Do not give into believing the lies that love is always romantic, orgasms are always easy, and that problems are solved at the end of a twenty-two minute segment after an orange juice commercial. This is real life.

You are my idee fixe, My barometer, My North, South, East and West.

One of the hardest things dealing with both epilepsy and my spine is accepting and understanding that both these ‘conditions’ are not going to ‘totally heal’, whatever that means.

I know you, and your darkness and your shadow and all the things for which you practice self-flagellation. And I still see you as good, and true and strong and powerful and exquisitely present in this world.

It is not about quick fixes – it is about stability and incrementally getting better. This requires patience and tolerance with ourselves. We are powerless to change that which we will not accept. Self-acceptance is the key to self-control.

Such a face! Such features that she had in her youth believed all must envy her, must sit in awe of her lover, her husband and look upon their own lovers and husbands as second best!

It is difficult for me to put an end to these conversations because I tell myself that I should be able to suck it up and handle them. How am I ever going to succeed in my life if I cannot hear other people's opinions and graciously accept feedback?

here’s a little secret of mine: I throw apples on her window

Abandonment and rejection were patterned into my system, even in the presence of other fun-loving characteristics. The vibration of unlovableness was absorbed by me, and with more tears, I continued to release this ancestral pain from both sides of my family.

She obsessed over her soft spots and jiggle. He loved her jiggle, her softness, her warmth.

She will not let me forget, Fragile and pale though she is now, How it felt to soar, and fall with grace...

The experiences of your past brought you to this present moment, and within this moment a choice. You can live with that box and all the lies that infects your soul or you can pick it up and toss it out. You are stronger than you think.

My eye-fingers try to reach, reflexively, like babies’ fingers reach, but they have forgotten. They are webbed and numb; they brush only ghosts.

For me, it's really important to remember the pain… to revisit the places that were painful to me… because when you look healthy and good like I do now, that sometimes seems to discredit what you went through. I think that's why people stay sick. They continue having to prove that what they're going through is real when people don't take them seriously and only see disease.

By Bethany Lerch. Smashed, cracked, and shattered, you are.Broken but beautiful.You exquisite creature, you. Exasperated and impatient,A stranger to too much too soon.You exquisite creature, you.Reckless, wild, and rash, you are.Fiery but fascinating.You exquisite creature, you.Desirous and hopeful,All-consuming all at once.You exquisite creature, you.Brave and brimming with spirit, you are.Completely imperfect and whole.You exquisite creature, you.Soulful and bold,A living ‘Once upon a time.’You exquisite creature, you.   *****  Bethany is an independent writer based in Leipzig, Germany. Of the fiery, no-nonsense variety, she’s an advocate of bold language, meaningful action and the kind of writing that moves. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students of American Studies at the University of Leipzig and loves to travel, run, and read when she is not...

Let me see you. Let me behold you. Let me lay down the old gifts of war to truly soften into you...

I am not saying this to make anyone feel bad about what results they are seeing in their lives. I am saying this as a reminder to remember that if we do not LIKE our results, WE CAN CHANGE our results.

I feel more in touch with my vulnerability than ever, the shattering my heart experiences every day.

When you have worked up enough bravery, when you have acknowledged that you are in a limbo of greatness and can recognize your feelings, you will know that these spaces, this pause, these moments are also full of magic.

“Are you at risk of harming yourself?” she asked. He shook his head. His long sleeves hid his scarred wrists. Eventually, she’d pry his history from him, but not today.

You can heal the deepest scars. You can let them go. They can leave without leaving any imprint at all. Our experiences are constantly being recorded by the body and recreated over and over and over again by the mind.

Down with everything the word actually stands for -- the hatred of women. Why do we women call ourselves this? Why do we call each other this? Why do we keep using the word in scholarly and mass-market publications about the topic of woman's third phase of life? How is this respectful or uplifting?

6 universal similarities spiritual people have in common.

I do require two things: a functioning brain and a functioning heart. Preferably in the same person. What do I mean by 'functioning'? Courageous, not contrite. Authentic, not pretending.

I do not remember my mother ever lecturing me on the need to forgive others, even when we believe that what they have done is unforgivable. Instead, in a way no words could have, she showed me the need for, and the power of, forgiveness by demonstrating this truth.

I had no idea what I said yes to.

Stand bleeding and pale in the whipping winds, thunder cracking the earth and shaking your bones

I know why the caged bird sings of freedom.

Every year, the same thing. I remember the beings I love...I feel that love tattooed onto my skin, carved into my marrow, my bones.

When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed that, with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes the rose.

If you are saying you are too fat or not slim enough, then you are making anyone your size wrong with you. You are also making those on the other end of the scale equally unacceptable -- too thin, too slim, not 'fat' enough. So when we judge ourselves, we automatically judge others too.

Apparently, I am not alone in my useless fear. It is estimated that roughly 50 percent of all women and nearly 25 percent of all men are said to suffer from this sometimes debilitating fear.

Love at its very purest state, is an energy, a vibration and a way of being – we come from love and it is love to which we will return. Our earliest impulse is to love and our last fleeting moments will be spent in a state of love. Love cannot be bought or sold – You cannot own love, you cannot acquire or lose it – We cannot look for love in the hope that it will complete us, because we are made of love – it is, at our very essence, who we already are.

What characterizes someone as a Vampire or Zombie, and, more importantly, how can we protect ourselves from the destructive energy they bring into our lives?

The hold of the Golden Age of Hollywood on the imaginations of many is pure nostalgia for a fantasy that’s no longer possible. It might be more accurate to call it the Age of Fool’s Gold in Tinseltown. But this is only my opinion at this point in time. Maybe after I’m in my coffin for half a century, I’ll be ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.

I want to finally love someone I'm scared to lose, instead of losing someone I'm scared to love.

It was as if everything both exploded and imploded simultaneously in my reality, which resulted in a completely abstract sense of perfection.

The world simply mirrors our own life condition. When we change; the reflection changes. It is incredibly simple and incredibly profound at the same time.

Jealousy, a robust and tenacious seed, It knows its goal, Who are you to stand in its way?

We are broken you and I, together as one and individually.

Our minds are trained to function solely on the basis of what we can see with our physical sight. We have long forgotten that another form of vision exists... It’s time to remember that we can see far beyond what our eyeballs and brain can process.

If we look at life in its true nature, a unifying perspective, why would we choose to forget its beauty? Do we really wish to turn away from it to numb ourselves through inactive behaviors, fear or anger? What really matters?

I can’t compete - With the noise of this place - So let me whisper. - Sit, sit with me here - Let us not speak - It has all been said. - Let’s make room - For silence now.

I am here to tell you that is not going to happen. Your dreams will not come true... I am here to tell you no one cares. Not even Tinker Bell... Are you ready to hear the truth?

There are no words or explanations that can clearly articulate such a connection. It is a magnetic energy, an intuitive knowing and it just seems right. There is no matter of space or time, you have found your way to one another.

If we want to grow daughters who possess the confidence to change the world, we must begin by changing the conversations we have with ourselves.

Only the moon still speaks with her black dressing gown; only the sky still weeps, lightning screams, thunder groans.

Not being worthy is the biggest underlying fear of all.

You are designed to float (psychologically and emotionally, as well as physically).

Choose to lose the prisons that you use to keep us pinned to your imitation of reality...

I know he was terrified, and I was saddened that this was his lot in life. That he was now married to a woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. His little wife, who had given birth to his two wonderful children, was in a dire situation, and neither of us knew what came next.

Therein lay Picasso’s gift; he could turn a common bird known to spread disease and detritus and present it as something greater. It was what he saw.

There is an old paradigm of love that proscribes self-sacrifice, apathy and a-forget-about-it mentality that does not really feel like love to me...