Inventing Life

"To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."

- Bill Watterson

Secret of Life

"One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others."

- Lewis Carroll

(heard on Criminal Minds, 10/17/12)

Top of the World

I've tried to cut these corners

Try to take the easy way out

I kept on falling short of something

I coulda gave up then but

Then again I couldn't have 'cause

I've traveled all this way for something

Now take it in but don't look down

'Cause I'm on top of the world,

I'm on top of the world

Waiting on this for a while now

Paying my dues to the dirt

I've been waiting to smile

Been holding it in for a while

Take it with me if I can

Been dreaming of this since a child

I'm on top of the world. 

- Imagine Dragons, "On Top of the World" 

Stay Hungry

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

- Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005
Rest in Peace

Good Life

When you're happy like a fool
Let it take you over
When everything is out
You gotta take it in

Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
This could really be a good life
A good, good life

- One Republic, "Good Life"

Today

"Today — do not be angry.
Today — do not worry.
Today — be kind to yourself and others.
Today — be honest to yourself and others.
Today — work diligently."

– Usui Sensei, 1865-1926

Sailing

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

- William Arthur Ward

Fickleness

"Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated," he says. "But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss."

- Plutarch, from the book "Mockingjay", the third in the Hunger Games Trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins

Know Life

‎"The way to know life is to love many things."

Vincent Van Gogh

Past

"Bring the past only if you are going to build from it."

- Doménico Cieri Estrada

Dues

"After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life."

- Sophia Loren

Jump Rope

There'll be a bump and there will be a bruise
There'll be alarms and there will be a snooze
There'll be a path that you will have to choose
There'll be a win and there will be a lose and

You gotta hold your head up high and
Watch all the negative go by
Don't ever be ashamed to cry
You go ahead
Cause life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Remember life's like a jump rope


- Blue October, "Jump Rope"

Distance

"Regardless of how distant your dreams may seem, every second counts."

- Dean Karnazes

Understand Backwards

"Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel."

- From the book "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese

Magic

"Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in the magic will never find it."

- Roald Dahl

Destiny

"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

- Kung Fu Panda

Investing

"Where you invest your love, you invest your life."

- Mumford and Sons, "Awake My Soul"

Firework

You don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go, oh
As you shoot across the sky

"Firework", by Katy Perry

All At Once

There's a world we've never seen
There's still hope between the dreams
The weight of it all
Could blow away with a breeze
If you're waiting on the wind
Don't forget to breathe
Cause as the darkness gets deeper
We'll be sinkin' as we reach for love
At least somethin' we could hold
But I'll reach to you from where time just can't go

What about is gone
And it really wont be so long
Sometimes it feels like a heart is no place to be singin' from at all

- Jack Johnson, "All at Once"

The World

“The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald