It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving caring human being.

I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different and with being this alive this intense. xxvi

There aint no way you can hold onto something that wants to go you understand You can only love what you got while you got it.

As a mother you need to remember that a loving and compassionate God is one hundred percent aware of your childs situation.

I have leveled with the girls - from Anchorage to Amarillo.I tell them that all marriages are happyIts the living together afterward thats tough.I tell them that a good marriage is not a giftIts an achievement.that marriage is not for kids It takes guts and maturity.It separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls.I tell them that marriage is tested dily by the ability to compromise.Its survival can depend on being smart enough to know whats worth fighting about.Or making an issue of or even mentioning.Marriage is giving - and more important its forgiving.And it is almost always the wife who must do these things.Then as if that were not enough she must be willing to forget what she forgave.Often that is the hardest part.Oh I have leveled all right.If they dont get my message BusterIts because they dont want to get it.Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocalsBecause nobody wants to red the small print in dreams.

She is free in her wildness she is a wanderess a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. Time for her isnt something to fight against. Her life flows clean with passion like fresh water.

England has her Stratford Scotland has her Alloway and America too has her Dresden. For there on August 11 1833 was born the greatest and noblest of the Western World an immense personality -- unique lovable sublime the peerless orator of all time and as true a poet as Nature ever held in tender clasp upon her loving breast and in words coined for the chosen few told of the joys and sorrows hopes dreams and fears of universal life a patriot whose golden words and deathless deeds were worthy of the Great Republic a philanthropist real and genuine a philosopher whose central theme was human love -- who placed the holy hearth of home higher than the altar of any god an iconoclast a builder -- a reformer perfectly poised absolutely honest and as fearless as truth itself -- the most aggressive and formidable foe of superstition -- the most valiant champion of reason -- Robert G. Ingersoll.

As for girls they must risk everything for freedom and give everything for passion... loving everything that their hearts and their bodies love. The only thing higher for a girl and more sacred for a young woman than her freedom and her passion should be her desire to make her life into poetry surrendering everything she has to create a life as beautiful as the dreams that dance in her imagination.

As I look back on my life I think of how few rules should be followed. As for men we must learn bravery and live for Pleasure and for Beauty. More important than those two things should stand only one thing for us... Honor. A mans honor should be more sacred to him than his life especially in our age a time when very few men know what honor is.

Beauty is not who you are on the outside it is the wisdom and time you gave away to save another struggling soul like you.