The Storm

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Sometimes We Need To Fall Apart

Sometimes We Need To Fall Apart


We don't always have to be strong.

Sometimes our strength is expressed in being vulnerable.

Sometimes we need to fall apart to regroup and stay on track.

We all have days when we cannot push any harder,

cannot hold back self-doubt,
cannot stop focusing on fear,
cannot be strong.

There are days when we cannot focus on being responsible.
Sometimes we cry in front of people.
We expose our tiredness, irritability, or anger.
Those days are okay.

Part of taking care of ourselves means we give ourselves
permission to "fall apart" when we need to.
We do not need to be perpetual towers of strength.

We ARE strong.

We have proven that our strength will continue if we allow us
the courage to feel scared, weak, and vulnerable when we need
to experience those feelings.

Today, help me to know that it is okay
to allow myself to be human.

Help me not to feel guilty or punish myself
when I need to "fall apart."

~Author unknown~

'Everyone loves' Lakeside homecoming queen crown | Columbia County News-Times

'Everyone loves' Lakeside homecoming queen crown | Columbia County News-Times

"When you affirm big, believe big and pray big, putting faith into action, big things happen."

Norman Vincent Peale

Refuse to fall down.
If you cannot refuse to fall down,
refuse to stay down.
If you cannot refuse to stay down,
lift your heart toward heaven,
and like a hungry beggar,
ask that it be filled,
and it will be filled.
You may be pushed down.
You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep you from
lifting your heart toward heaven.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
American Author, Poet and Psychoanalyst

You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day - it's the one day that is given to you, today. It's given to you, it's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life, and the very last day, then you would have spent this day very well.
Louie Schwartzberg
American Director and Producer