«somewhere i have never travelled»

«She longed for the unquestionable certainty that the real feeling infuses into every inch of one’s being, obliterating the tiniest specks of doubts, that circle around one’s willingness to let the guard down, like hungry sharks waiting to feed on the prey.»

                                                              By Raquel R. in Short Story number 7 

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility: whose texture

compels me with the colour of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

e.e. cummings 

The meaning of life

«It had been a long journey and in many chapters of his life he doubted if he would ever reach a happy ending.»

                                                               By Raquel R. in Short Story number 6 

«I suppose I should wish you success, but that is too easy. I would like to wish you something that is harder to come by. So I am going to wish you meaning in life. And meaning is not something you stumble across like the answer to a riddle or prize in a treasure hunt.

Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you; out of your own talent and understanding, out of things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something, the ingredients are there.

You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account. »

                                                                                            Robert Garner 

                                                       (here)

«The Arrow of Time»

«He recognized that he was a receptacle for the flow of experiences and feelings collected along his way through life and that all of them converged together to shape the person he was now.» 

                                                    By Raquel R. in Short Story number 6

«I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.»

                                                                       Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 

                                                        (here)

Distant memories

«The first contact of his hands with its worn out cover instantly brought back distant memories of significant parts of his life.»

                                                    By Raquel R. in Short Story number 6

“Life is but a day:

A fragile dewdrop on its perilious way

From a tree's summit” 

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                              John Keats 

«Time is an illusion»

«He might as well surrender to the evidences, and accept the fact, that the concept of time has different meanings to men and women.»

                                                              By Raquel R. in Short Story number 6 

          «Time is an illusion.»              

                                                                                                      Albert Einstein

 

«The road is everywhere»

«For now, his journey was over but he knew that others will follow. When that moment arrived again, he would be ready to leave, carrying hope in his heart.»

                                                  By Raquel R. in Short Story number 5 

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.

It is not far. It is within reach.

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. 

Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” 

Walt Whitman

Nicolas Bouvier via Colossal

The quest

«He closed his eyes and recognized that every hazard he had endured throughout his perilous journey, was not in vain, for he had finally reached his destination. That conviction made the moment even more precious to him.» 

                                                   By Raquel R. in Short Story number 5 

 Life

Let me but live my life from year to year,

With forward face and unreluctant soul;

Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;

Not mourning for the things that disappear

In the dim past, nor holding back in fear

From what the future veils; but with a whole

And happy heart, that pays its toll

To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,

O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:

Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,

New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,

My heart will keep the courage of the quest,

And hope the road's last turn will be the best.

Henry Van Dyke

New Year - New Soul

«The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.»

                                                                                     G.K. Chesterton

Fresh page

 «Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.» 

                                                        Henry Ward  Beecher

The need to change

«In all those hopeless faces he recognized himself. And he questioned, what made those people, including himself, wander lost in the crowd, following the herd, without asking where the path is leading, and mostly, why are they walking it. »

                                               By Raquel R. in Short Story number 1

« Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.» 

                                                                                      Leo Tolstoy

What is your passion?

«Maybe it was time that he summoned again the old spark, which stubbornly, time and time again, ignited in his eyes, and this time let the voice speak loudly from his heart.»

                                                                   By Raquel R. in Short Story number 1

«There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.»

                                                                                          Nelson Mandela 

                                                                                via thekidshouldseethis.com

Listen to your heart

«Through the course of his life, he always followed the road map with accurate precision, but once in a while, a spark lightened up in his eyes and ignited, at the back of his mind, this blunt and piercing voice that seemed to tell him that life had got to be more than he was raised to believe.»

                                               By Raquel R. in Short Story Number 1

 «Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths.»

                                                                                       Henry Miller

The key to change our lives

«Like this colossal phenomenon of nature, life holds within an inherent duplicity. One side is luminous and visible; the other side is obscure and hidden. He was only experiencing the visible part of it, the one that laid above sea level. However, the biggest part of it, the most mysterious and the richest one, laid below the surface, far from the human sight, only reachable by ones imagination or will of power.»

                                                   By Raquel R. in Short Story number 1 

                                                                                   

«Impossible is nothing»

«Those seeds of hope, which should be nurtured and cherished, were left to die because he lacked the strength to fight against the current of thoughts, opinions and catastrophic predictions that were meant to keep him on the route outlined for his life.»     

                                                    By Raquel R. in Short Story number 1
 

                           

Lose Yourself

« In order to find happiness one must be willing to abandon the easiest and safest path and be ready to take the plunge into the unknown.»
                                               by Raquel R. in Short Story number 1

«Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.» 

                                                                                                Henry Miller

To live vs To exist

«He saw many discouraged people, unable or unwilling to let go the ever turning wheel of their life, executing meaningless efforts and mechanical gestures, striving to fulfill their imposed mission.» 

                                               by Raquel R. in Short Story number 1

 

«To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.» 

                                                                                               Oscar wilde