Voyages are accomplished inwardly, and the most hazardous ones, needless to say, are made without moving from the spot. ~Henry Miller

Photo from From the San Diego Air and Space Ship Image Collection, published under a Creative Commons license.

Sitting down to write again in a long ignored journal, either online or off, can sometimes be overwhelming. Words swim around in my head for months, or even years, looking for a place to land — a permanent home. The intimidation of a commitment to write again is huge and the risk even larger. I want to organize my thoughts and have formulated a plan many times, only to abandon the idea before it’s even started. What happened to that once passionate person, I asked myself? “If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~Lord Byron

Are bad endings really just new beginnings?

I woke up to find a small heart-shaped sticker on my hand and smiled. When I looked again to peel it off and save it, it was gone. Hello 2013.

Photo from Smithsonian Institution, published under a Creative Commons license.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.  ~Buddha

Peace is its own reward.  ~Mohandas Gandhi

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.  ~Mother Teresa

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo by Alan Levine, published under a Creative Commons license.

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
Oh! Your Daddy’s rich and your Ma is good lookin’
So, hush little baby, don’t you cry . . .

One of these mornin’s you’re gonna rise up singin’
Then you’ll spread your wings, and you’ll take to the sky
But ’till that mornin’ there’s a nothin’ can harm you,
with Daddy and Mammy standin’ by . . .

But ’till that mornin’ there’s a nothin’ can harm you,
with Daddy and Mammy standin’ by . . .

Photo by Hartwig HKD, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

I am not sure I would always fight for my life.
Life might not be worth fighting for.

I am not sure I would always fight for my wife.
A wife isn’t always worth fighting for.

Nor my children, nor my country, nor my fellow-men.
It all deprnds whether I found them worth fighting for.

The only thing men invariably fight for
Is their money. But I doubt if I’d fight for mine, anyhow
not to shed a lot of blood over it.

Yet one thing I do fight for, tooth and nail, all the time.
And that is my bit of inward peace, where I am at one
with myself.

And I must say, I am often worsted.

~D. H. Lawrence

Photo by Chris Baskind, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

One day I found two pumpkin seeds.
I planted one and pulled the weeds.
It sprouted roots and a big, long vine.
A pumpkin grew; I called it mine.
The pumpkin was quite round and fat.
(I really am quite proud of that.)
But there is something I’ll admit
That has me worried just a bit.
I ate the other seed, you see.
Now will it grow inside of me?

(I’m so relieved since I have found
That pumpkins only grow in the ground!)

Today was good.
Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.

~Dr. Seuss

Photo by Cristeen Quezon, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

~Diogenes

Photo by Bob Jagendorf, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we’ll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.

~Richard Bach

Photo by Dundas Football Club, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.

- Wallace Stevens

Photo by Luz A. Villa, distributed under a Creative Commons license.