Quote of the Day

It's axiomatic that the more troubled the family, the more it tries to block its members when they try to become healthy again.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 70

Quote of the Day

To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves -- there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect.

-- Joan Didion, "On Self-Respect," Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Quote of the Day

That visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

-- Audre Lorde

Quote of the Day

Joy comes to us in moments -- ordinary moments.  We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 125

Quote of the Day

At the bottom of things, most people want to be understood and appreciated.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 111

Quote of the Day

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
 
-- Alexander Graham Bell

Quote of the Day

I had already made a decision early on that I would be a plain girl with tons of personality, and accepting it made everything a lot easier.  If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be.  I decided early on it was not going to be my looks ... Decide what your currency is early.  Let go of what you will never have.  People who do this are happier and sexier.

-- Amy Poehler, Yes Please, p. 20-21

Quote of the Day

(She) found, as all blackmail targets inevitably do, that giving in once or twice doesn't end the blackmail, it only intensifies the demands.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 57

Quote of the Day

The scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.

-- Alan Cumming, Not My Father's Son, p. 292

Quote of the Day

Living by other people's definitions and perceptions shrinks us to shells of ourselves, rather than complex people embodying multiple identities.

-- Janet Mock, Redefining Realness, p. 249

Quote of the Day

To set down those lists of what we're supposed to be is brave.  To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 110

Quote of the Day

As rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, let your heart be untroubled by judgments and let your kindness rain on all.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 110

Quote of the Day

As someone put it the other day: Acknowledging the existence of twilight doesn't require rejecting the existence of day and night.

-- Rachel Held Evans, "God and the Gay Christian’ Discussion, Week 6 & Conclusion"

Quote of the Day

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.

-- William Wordsworth

Quote of the Day

Once blackmailers see that their target's guilt can serve them, time becomes irrelevant.  If there's no recent incident to peg their guilt and blame-peddling on, one from the past will do just fine.  There's no point at which a guilt-producing event is allowed to diminish and reparations are considered fully made.  Blackmail targets discover that whatever their real or imagined transgression may be, there is no statute of limitations -- no point after which an ancient "crime" ceases to be an issue, or a punishable offense.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 56

Quote of the Day

I believe if you're honest, true to yourself, and committed, and especially if you use humor as a tool as well as a balm, people will respect you perhaps more than if they agreed with everything you said.

-- Alan Cumming, Not My Father's Son, p. 227

Quote of the Day

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction.  The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

-- J. K. Rowling

Quote of the Day

Today, I look back and feel so grateful to women and men who have shared their stories with me.  I'm thankful for the people who were brave enough to say, "These are my secrets and my fears, here's how they brought me to my knees, and here's how I learned to stand in my worthiness again.

-- Brene Brown, Daring Greatly, p. 109

Quote of the Day

In times of difficulty take refuge in compassion and truth.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 109

Quote of the Day

It isn't how long you live that matters.  What matters is what you do when you're alive.
 
-- Andrew Sullivan, "A Note To My Readers"

Quote of the Day

I have realized that mystery is what keeps people away, and I've grown tired of smoke and mirrors.  I yearn for the clean, well-lighted place.  So let's peek behind the curtain and hail the others like us.  The open-faced sandwiches who take risks and live big and smile with all of their teeth.  These are the people I want to be around.  This is the honest way I want to live and love and write.

-- Amy Poehler, Yes Please, p. xv-xvi

Quote of the Day

All of us want to believe that we're good people, and the guilt that blackmailers evoke attacks our sense of ourselves as loving, worthwhile people.  We feel responsible for the blackmailers' pain, and we believe them when they tell us that we're compounding their misery by not accommodating their wishes.

-- Susan Forward with Donna Frazier, Emotional Blackmail, p. 54

Quote of the Day

Sometimes people do you a favor when they drop out of your life.

-- Alan Cumming, Not My Father's Son, p. 32