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You got to learn how to fall
Before you learn to fly And mama, mama it ain’t no lie Before you learn to fly Learn how to fall You got to drift in the breeze Before you set your sails Oh, an occupation where the wind prevails Before you set your sails Drift in the breeze Oh and it’s the same old story Every since the world began Everybody got the runs for glory Nobody stop and scrutinize the plan - Paul Simon, an American songwriter To think of the immense well of potential hidden deep within our being, to understand that the nature of mind is fundamental purity and kindness, and to meditate on its luminosity, will enable you to develop self-confidence and courage.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful… We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.
- Alice Walker, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist, from her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Color Purple" One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
- Carl Sagan, American astronomer, professor, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Evidence shows psychotherapy clearly works, and some therapies are a better match for certain individuals or circumstances. Some therapies are also designed to create meaningful change – improvements in people’s relationships, work life, sense of self, self-understanding, and capacity to navigate life’s ups and downs. These therapies help people get to the root of themselves and their struggles, as well as providing symptom relief. They may be more intensive, but for many, they create meaningful change.
Psychotherapies of depth, insight and relationship are powerful, evidenced-based, and long lasting, and include specific perspectives on learning, healing, and growth:
- The Psychotherapy Action Network, an organization dedicated to humanizing mental health policy and practice Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open to the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, read desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.
- Simone de Beauvoir, French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist, from her "Ethics of Ambiguity" There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder the firm resolve of a determined soul.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author and poet When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as "the great soul" for his non-violent, non-cooperative approach to ending colonialism in India. The unhappy person is one who has his ideal, the content of his life, the fullness of his consciousness, the essence of his being, in some manner outside of himself. The unhappy man is always absent from himself, never present to himself. But one can be absent, obviously, either in the past or in the future. This adequately circumscribes the entire territory of the unhappy consciousness.
- Soren Kierkegaard, widely considered the first true existential philosopher Grace works to soften the vicissitudes of your emotional states. As you grow older, the sharp edges of extremes are made softer by experience. All that remains is the light of understanding, which grows within and illuminates the eyes. Capturing your journey of a thousand miles in this way, no matter the trial, everything always works out.
The monuments you build to commemorate the past can become prisons. In proportion to your unwillingness to leave them, you will experience the power of grace. If you measure the vicissitudes of life, all things become equal over time. Grace is a message of optimism without judgment or the silver lining you have yet to see. On the pathway, you will discover: it is all good. - Kari Hohne, from her Cafe au Soul |
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February 2026
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