The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and effort and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty little unsexy ways every day.

I am not an angel I asserted and I will not be one till I die I will be myself. Mr. Rochester you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it any more than I shall get it of you which I do not at all anticipate.

Its probably not just by chance that Im alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me unless hes terribly strong. And if hes stronger than I Im the one who cant live with him. Im neither smart nor stupid but I dont think Im a run-of-the-mill person. Ive been in business without being a businesswoman Ive loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men Ive loved I think will remember me on earth or in heaven because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. Ive done my best in regard to people and to life without precepts but with a taste for justice.

When you settle for anything short of the best life God wants to offer you then you have been tempted to remain safe and the accountability for not changing your life becomes your prison of regret.

Never mistake the uncomfortable feeling of insecurity and the fear of the unknown with the Holy Ghosts promptings. Sometimes those feelings are simply Satan keeping you stuck where you are because he knows you will have a half-life there. He knows that you will spend half of your life disconnected discontented and convincing your mind of what its heart will never accept. He knows when you have settled gave up and didnt try. Inaction is his greatest weapon while regret is his second.

However small we are we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I dont mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swordsI mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look perhaps we might all work togetherand break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood.

Its sad to see them staring wistfully through the window when the door isnt locked.

And in that moment of sun and joy Lupe knew why she loved and also hated Salvador. He gave her wings. He didnt try to lock her in as had Jaime and the other boys shed known. No she could dream her wildest dreams with him and so she loved him for this but she also hated him because it made her fearful. No one in her family was like this. They were always very cautious.

The hoopoe said Your hearts congealed like iceWhen will you free yourself from cowardiceSince you have such a short time to live hereWhat difference does it make What should you fearThe world is filth and sin and homeless menMust enter it and homeless leave again.They die as worms in squalid pain if weMust perish in this quest that certainlyIs better than a life of filth and grief.If this great search is vain if my beliefIs groundless it is right that I should die.So many errors throng the world - then whyShould we not risk this quest To suffer blameFor love is better than a life of shame.No one has reached this goal so why appealTo those whose blindness claims it is unrealId rather die deceived by dreams than giveMy heart to home and trade and never live.Weve been and heard so much - what have we learnedNot for one moment has the self been spurnedFools gather round and hinder our release.When will their stale insistent whining ceaseWe have no freedom to achieve our goalUntil from Self and fools we free the soul.To be admitted past the veil you mustBe dead to all the crowd considers just.Once past the veil you understand the WayFrom which the crowds glib courtiers blindly stray.If you have any will leave womens storiesAnd even if this search for hidden gloriesProves blasphemy at last be sure our questIs not mere talk but an exacting test.The fruit of loves great tree is povertyWhoever knows this knows humility.When love has pitched his tent in someones breastThat man despairs of life and knows no rest.Loves pain will murder him and blandly askA surgeons fee for managing the task -The water that he drinks brings pain his breadIs turned to blood immediately shedThough he is weak faint feebler than an antLove forces him to be her combatantHe cannot take one mouthful unawareThat he is floundering in a sea of care.

True leaders are willing to die for their dreams. They dont oppress with ignorance they impress with visions. They live like Martin Luther King Jr Nelson Mandela...