Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,

Love is knowing I am everything,

and between the two my life moves.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

If you want to be at peace, then stop trying!

You don’t have to be the best

You only have to be yourself. You only have to be real. And speak from the heart. And know that you have the right to see how you see and think how you think and feel what you feel and desire what you desire. You don’t have to be a success in the eyes of the world and you don’t have to be an expert. You only have to offer what you offer, breathe how you breathe, make mistakes and fuck up and learn to love your stumbling and say the wrong thing and stop worrying so much about impressing anyone, because in the end you only have to live with yourself, and joy is not given but found in the deepest recesses of your being, so there can be joy in falling and joy in making mistakes and joy in making a fool of yourself and joy in forgetting joy and then holding yourself as you crumble to the ground and weep out the old dreams. Joy is closeness with the one you love: You. You don’t have to be the best. You don’t have to win. You only have to remember this intimacy with the sky, the nearness of the mountains and feel the warmth of the sun on your face and know that you are alive and that you are a success and victorious, without having to prove a damn thing.

– Jeff Foster

The things we love we have to learn to leave alone

I wouldn’t coax the plant if I were you.

Such watchful nursing may do it harm.

Let the soil rest from so much digging

And wait until it’s dry before you water it.

The leaf’s inclined to find its own direction; Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself.

Much growth is stunted by too careful prodding, Too eager tenderness. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.

Naomi Long Madgett

What you can do, or think you can, begin it!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin it, and the work will be completed

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe