All posts filed under: Quotes

A LITTLE BIT OF INSPIRATION

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I’ve been following artist/author Adam J. Kurtz on Instagram for quite some time and love that his work is simple, yet powerful. His words make you feel not so alone, especially in quarantine as you bake your fifth banana bread, finish your umpteenth Netflix original series, and wait for this dreadful COVID-19 to just GO AWAY! Today in Adam’s newsletter he included printable quotes and worksheets you can fill out. Since I have nothing else going on I decided to participate. If you’ve seen my apartment tour you will recognize the first quote below as I have it hanging in my bathroom, above the toilet (it’s a good daily reminder). If you want in on more inspirational worksheet fun, you can check it all out here.

DR. FORD SPOKE UP TO PROTECT US

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“I will tell you something because I am a sexual assault survivor and the truth is, Trump the other day was speaking in a rally and said, ‘she has no memory of how she got to the party, should we trust she remembers the assault?’ And the answer is, yes. I’ll tell you exactly why. I also know this woman is smart because she’s a psychologist, she’s no dummy. If someone is assaulted or experiences trauma, there’s science and scientific proof, it’s biology that people change, the brain changes and literally what it does is takes the trauma and puts it in a box and files it away and shuts it so that we can survive the pain. It also does a lot of things, it can cause body pain, baseline elevations of anxiety, it can cause complete avoidance to remember or think what had happened to you but what I believe, what I have seen is that what this woman saw that Judge Kavanaugh was going to be possibly put in the highest position of …

WHEN LOVE ARRIVES

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When Love Arrives is a spoken word poem written and performed by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye. I stumbled upon the video tonight and the words touched ma wittle hart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Love is not who you were expecting, love is not who you can predict. Maybe love is in New York City, already asleep; You are in California, Australia, wide awake. Maybe love is always in the wrong time zone. Maybe love is not ready for you. Maybe you are not ready for love. Maybe love just isn’t the marrying type. Maybe the next time you see love is twenty years after the divorce, love is older now, but just as beautiful as you remembered. Maybe love is only there for a month. Maybe love is there for every firework, every birthday party, every hospital visit. Maybe love stays- maybe love can’t. Maybe love shouldn’t. Love arrives exactly when love is supposed to, and love leaves exactly when love must. When love arrives, say, “Welcome. Make yourself comfortable.” …

THE HATE U GIVE – ANGIE THOMAS

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas follows Starr, a teenage girl who witnesses a fatal shooting of her best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. The title actually derives from the rapper Tupac’s philosophy of THUG LIFE (The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody). True. Very, very true. From the moment I opened the cover I breeeeeeeezed through this novel. I couldn’t put it down! I admired the mention of African-American history and culture. Some references I knew such as the acknowledgement of  Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American from Chicago who was murdered for flirting with a white woman. But there were others I had to Google search (my history teachers would be so disappointed..) such as the Ten-Point Program, which was a set of guidelines written by The Panther Party, and Nat Turner, an African American who led the most effective slave rebellion in America. These references were essential to the novel because it gave Starr’s character (and myself) further of understanding of race and police brutality in America. What I loved most, however, was the resilience of Starr’s …

THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN RUN BY MEN

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“The world has always been run by men, and it still is today. Only thirteen countries and 6 percent of Fortune 500 companies are run by women. Just 13 percent of police officers are women, and only a few hundred are police chiefs. And less than 20 percent of the U.S. Congress is female. These numbers reveal a power structure that has marginalized women and others for far too long. We need to see more women in these roles – and more people of color, LGBT individuals, and members of religious minorities and underrepresented groups of all kinds. We are seeing what happens when power is held nearly exclusively by men. It gives rise to an environment in which, at its worst, women are treated as bodies to be leered at or grabbed, rather than peers entitled to equal respect. It wouldn’t solve all the problems we face if more women were in power – although I believe we could get quite a lot of good done. But one thing’s for certain: many fewer people …

BEARTOWN – FREDRIK BACKMAN

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Finally! After many months, I have finished reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman. This novel was a pretty intense read and covers topics relevant to society today – peer pressure, homophobia, rape, integrity, etc. To sum it up, Beartown is a small community who lives, eats, and breathes their junior hockey team. The team could potentially give this town recognition, sponsorship money, and opportunities for players to get into the NHL. As an important game approaches, one of the star players comes under fire when he is accused of leaving a young girl traumatized. People of the town become divided and readers witness how society can quickly brush disturbing events under a rug when it comes to protecting the reputation of a town rather than a value of a single person. The ending left me confused as hell (I won’t give away any spoilers), but it’s a good confusion. I’m constantly reflecting back on EVERYTHING that has happened and if you are a super sleuth you can probably figure it all out, but I haven’t, yet. All of this won’t make …

BAD DAY? READ THESE FAKE TWEETS FROM CHANCE THE RAPPER

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Did you know you can become an expert at creating fake Twitter accounts? AND make money from it? This is the world we live in. These tweets from Chance The Rapper aren’t actually from the American singer, but a 17-year old high school senior from Minnesota named Danny Diaz. Lucky for Diaz, Chance (the real one!) approves these messages. Even though these affirmations didn’t come from Chance himself, I still appreciate the simple messages of positivity and thought you could use them in your life too.

LIFE GOES IN CHAPTERS

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“Life goes in chapters. Sometimes you feel stuck or lost or heartbroken, but things always change. I’ve been a bookish little girl; a ballet-loving teenager; a college student in love; a brokenhearted new grad; a miserable law student; an anxious twentysomething searching for a path; an intern, an assistant, an editor, a boss; a happy friend; a blissed-out newlywed; an exhausted new mother; a thirtysomething woman writing this post. Hard times can feel endless, but they always always end. Who knows what lies ahead?” – Joanna Goddard Must-read: How Old Are You?

SHOE DOG – PHIL KNIGHT

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Have you ever finished reading a book, closed the cover, held it close to you, and sat still. Reflecting on words you read and how they have forever affected your thoughts on the world, entrepreneurship, yourself, etc. If you love a good coming-of-age story, then I highly recommend the memoir by Phil Knight (the inventor of Nike) called Shoe Dog. Knight’s journey started when he was fresh out of business school, having this Crazy Idea. At 23 he embarked on a backpacking trip around the world. It was a dream of his to experience, “what the Chinese call Tao, the Greeks call Logos, the Hindus call Jnana, the Buddhists call Dharma.” He emphasized throughout his memoir how his travels enhanced his Crazy Idea and intertwined his experiences with the names of his designs, fabrics, and how it helped him cater to athletes and customers around the globe. There were quirky stories of his trials and tribulations that made me laugh out loud, hardships and setbacks that made me shed a tear or two, and most importantly, I now feel inspired x100 to …

I AM THAT GIRL – ALEXIS JONES

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I don’t remember how I stumbled upon I Am That Girl by Alexis Jones but I purchased the book on Amazon alongside Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. I was immediately intrigued when I took a peek inside and read Jones’ That Girl Manifesto which stated “I am enough. I have enough. I do enough.” It got my thinking. Often times we don’t give ourselves enough credit and put pressure to be 10 stages ahead of where we are now. Say it with me now: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Someone whom I love dearly had to slap those words in my face when I was in an environment where I was told repeatedly that I’m not confident enough, not smart enough, not cool enough. It wasn’t until I got the eff out of there I realized that my enough was actually exceptionally enough all along. Reading further into the epilogue it seemed Jones (who was once a contestant on the reality TV show Survivor) and I had a similar outlook on life. Throughout the book she gave real, no bull life advice and I appreciated her …

A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING – BILL BRYSON

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I first came across Bill Bryson while browsing the interwebs and stumbled upon this quote from his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. “To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It’s an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence.” Pretty powerful stuff, huh? I read the first few pages on Amazon and immediately put the book into my cart and hit the purchase button. This is the type of book EVERYONE needs to get their hands on to simply get a better understanding of our universe and how we have ended up where we are now. I learned that the universe is vast …

WISE LIFE ADVICE FROM A VOGUE EDITOR

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I stumbled upon a Vogue  article written by Contributing Editor Molly Guy about the 40 things she’s learned on her 40 years on earth. I loved her honesty and rawness and wanted to share a few of my favs. 1. Smoking cigarettes is the stupidest thing you can do. 2. Don’t believe the hype about high school sex. Anything you learned about losing your virginity is a marketing ploy invented by Aaron Spelling to make your 14-year-old self feel ugly and in need of new breasts. In two decades a lady named Lena Dunham will appear on the scene and relieve gals everywhere of the burden to be a mute hairless newt with no subjectivity during sexual intercourse. In the meantime, if it doesn’t feel good, say no and stop. 3. Miracles happen. That girl you thought would never fall in love will fall in love. That sibling who pledged to never speak to you again will speak to you again. Your friend with three failed rounds of IVF and two miscarriages will soon call you …

WE ARE THE SUM TOTAL OF OUR EXPERIENCES

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“You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.” – Dr. Thomas Gilovich Ya need to read this post: The science of why you should spend your money on experiences, not things