‪The things we see, watch, hear, and listen remain permanently etched in our memories, continuing to influence what we think, how we feel, who we are and who we become—like invisible hands moving puppet strings above the stage of our lives.‬

To hold a grudge is to tie and tighten a noose around your own neck. At some point you grow unconscious and fall off the stool whether you intended to or not.

We all are misunderstood. The tragedy is in building entire movements based on feeling misunderstood rather than seeking to understand.

Don’t talk down to your elders. They’ve lived circles around you. Don’t talk down to children. They’ve made fewer mistakes than you.

Weigh what others say based on bigger pictures, clearly intended meanings, and actual points made rather than slips of the tongue and poor word choices that we all are prone to make.

A little self control is like a steady wind that catches your sail and carries you far.

Those jutting rocks that make you stumble and lift your feet high on the way up serve as footholds on the way down.

It’s important to recognize the vast number of things we have and enjoy because someone else is going out of their way for them. Because whatever we don’t go out of our way for will go away. http://time.com/5389782/boyan-slat-plastic-ocean-cleanup/

All of our family road trips were never really about seeing the sights, learning about history, or having fun. They were about building faith, family unity, warmth, joy, and belonging unbounded by time or space. They were about lingering and laughing, loving and being truly present. I still see those things in my children’s eyes.

Sometimes you wake up and find yourself walking on water, and you recognize it for the miracle that it is. ~August 15, 2015

It’s my dad’s birthday today. The day I always eat something with apples in his honor. He would be 97. August has always been hard for me. So fraught with losses and heartaches. More so each year, to the point that I can hardly face this innocent, bountiful month of early harvests and endless summers….

I cannot wrap my mind around the lives of people I love who have been constant in my life since the day I was born being reduced to just an obituary—47,304,000+ minutes condensed to a few short paragraphs. It doesn’t begin to represent the loss.