Advice to Beginners by Ellen Kort

Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything.
Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie.
The older you get the more they’ll want your stories.
Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electric
fences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon. Learn
how to die. Eat moonshine pie. Drink wild geranium
tea. Run naked in the rain. Everything that happens
will happen and none of us will be safe from it.
Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night.
Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to the top
of the highest tree until you come to the branch
where the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast.
Wear them on your forehead. Lick the mountain’s
bare shoulder. Measure the color of days
around your mother’s death. Put your hands
over your face and listen to what they tell you.

~

iCiNG Manifesto by Gala Darling

iCiNG is written like a love letter, sealed with a glossy kiss, to all the girls & boys who have never wanted to be anything but themselves. iCiNG is a project, ever evolving. It is a process of exploration, encouraging us to discover ourselves, our needs & wants.

iCiNG is about dolling yourself up, inside & out. It’s for girls who read Nabokov & wear stilettos, boys who appreciate glamour & take style risks. It’s for anyone who wears false eyelashes, or has a zebra-print umbrella, or collects vintage sunglasses, or craves the sweet life. We are citizens of the world, from the streets of New York, Tokyo & Berlin, & while we all speak different languages, we are united by our love of life, our passion for beauty & our commitment to creating personal wonderlands.

iCiNG is for people who know who they are but are always open to learning more. It’s about asking questions, challenging the status quo, making a stand & choosing to live in accordance with what you believe. It’s about walking the walk, not just talking the talk. It’s about developing the tools to transform our own lives.

iCiNG celebrates the right to be yourself — your wonderful, imperfect self — & being surrounded by people who accept you the way you are. It’s about having the guts & the courage to be a true individual. We embrace the fact that we are all different, & that our distinct views & opinions only serve to enrich our minds.

iCiNG is about doing the best you can, making an effort, being proud of yourself. iCiNG inspires us to think bigger, dream more colourfully & welcoming things which are a little bit weird or strange. iCiNG is about seeing the positive side of life, even when it’s difficult. It’s about making our own rules & definitions.

This is our secret clubhouse — where the password is “Louboutin” & we feed one another cupcakes. We live boldly — one-person symphonies of colour & light. We revel in breaking up monotony; we are full of delight. We cause a scene when we walk down the street. We are unapologetically true to ourselves. We are full of love & enthusiasm & committed to living a beautiful life.

~

You Learn by Alanis Morissette

I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone
I recommend walking around naked in your living room
Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)
It feels so good (swimming in your stomach)
Wait until the dust settles

[...]

I recommend biting off more then you can chew to anyone
I certainly do
I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time
Feel free
Throw it down (the caution blocks you from the wind)
Hold it up (to the rays)
You wait and see when the smoke clears

[...]

Wear it out (the way a three-year-old would do)
Melt it down (you're gonna have to eventually anyway)
The fire trucks are coming up around the bend

~

When You Live by Damone

When you live
Live with your soul
Not with your time
When you love
Love with your heart
Not with your mind
When you wanna be something the world can't define
Open up your eyes

~

Taking Chances by Celine Dion

What do you say to taking chances,
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below
Or hand to hold, or hell to pay,
What do you say,
What do you say?

And I had my heart beaten down,
But I always come back for more, yeah.
There's nothing like love to pull you up,
When you're laying down on the floor there.
So talk to me, talk to me,
Like lovers do.
Yeah walk with me, walk with me,
Like lovers do,
Like lovers do.

~

Gala, on Being Happy

~

The Rules by Gala Darling

♥ Do what makes you happy.

♥ Avoid gossip.

♥ Appreciate every day. Live in the moment.

♥ Focus on the bigger picture.

♥ Be gracious.

♥ Only spend time with people who make you feel good.

♥ Be sincere, be dorkily earnest — tell people you love them, that they are beautiful, that you appreciate their presence in your life.

♥ Show love towards everyone & be unafraid of any possible repercussions.

♥ Don’t dwell on problems; tap them out as soon as they appear.

♥ Practice right speech (only say things which are helpful, positive & constructive).

♥ Don’t just walk; strut!

♥ Listen to great music & dance every day.

♥ Always take your camera & business cards!

♥ Never get involved with someone with a substance abuse problem or a pessimistic world view, OR someone a friend has been involved with/interested in previously!

♥ Finally, treat people as if they were what they ought to be, & you help them to become what they are capable of becoming. (Thanks, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe!)

~

Be Your Own Superhero by Gala Darling

Stop looking outside yourself for people to emulate. Stop waiting to meet someone who is going to “make you happy”.

Be your own superhero.

You are your own greatest untapped resource. Knowing that you can rely on yourself, that you can pull yourself out of bad moods, that you have the ability to direct your life wherever you want it to go — is one of the best things you could ever do for yourself.

Aim to ‘wow’ yourself daily.

Learn how to put together an amazing outfit, get your pilot’s license, learn Mandarin, give yourself an incredible orgasm, speak in public, throw a stonking party, write a book, paint a masterpiece… You are the only person who can change your life. Hop to it!

~

Being Okay with who you Are by Audrey

The most difficult lesson I’ve had to learn is also the most simple, cliché rule — to be okay with who you are. Now, this is a lesson that I could probably write a whole ten page thing about, but I won’t. We’ll just skim the surface of the topic.

It’s a big thing to accept the fact that you’ll never be able to please everybody. Even as incredible and amazing as someone is, there’s still a billion other people in the world that think otherwise. Look at Justin Timberlake — he just played sold out shows over here in Australia, but I can list off over a dozen people right now who I know think he’s a tool. My point is that are so many different people, with different lives, and different tastes, and different ideas — you’ll never ever EVER please them all. More importantly though — you don’t have to. When it comes down to it, there’s only one person who really has to be okay with you, and that’s you.

[...]

The sooner you stop trying to walk to the beat of someone’s drum, and start dancing to your own rhythm, the happier you’ll be. And frankly, to hell with everyone else! They’ll deal with it.

Keep in mind though, part of knowing yourself is knowing where you draw the line and being comfortable with that. There’s a billion things I wish I could have or ways I could be, but I know that’s just not on the cards or realistic. In that way, I think it’s important to be able to admire someone’s abilities, or things that they have, and being happy for them without getting into some sort of jealous shame spiral. Comparing yourself to others isn’t going to accomplish anything. Try and identify the difference between comparing yourself to someone (bad bad bad idea) and admiring someone and finding inspiration in them (good good good idea!). You should never stop learning, and you should never stop trying to make yourself a better person.

It’s important to have goals. Even if they’re completely out there, wild and crazy — at least it’s something to shoot for. You could want to see the world, or invent some sort of supercar, or find the best cheesecake in all the land. If you always have something that you want to accomplish, then it’ll stop you from treading water anywhere.

It’s all about working out what it is that makes you happy, and just going for it. Of course we all have to do things we don’t like, but if it’s all part of some incredible plan for happiness, it’s not so bad. I don’t like getting up and going into an office all day, but elements of my job make me so incredibly happy because I’m interested and passionate about it — so it really doesn’t feel like work half the time.

Things happen for reasons, people come and go. You just have to think to yourself — what is it you want to sit back and remember when you’re older? Create memories you’ll want to have. Get out there and live.

~

The Manifesto by thinkAreté

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

OK...

So...uh...what exactly are you waiting for?

This isn't a dress rehearsal...

Wake up!

Here's the deal: What we can be, we MUST be.

Period.

There's no getting around that one.

So, turn off your TV. Put down your drink. Get off the medication.

Quit numbing yourself. The pain's not going away.

Not until you Think Areté.

Think Areté?

Yep.

Gandhi got it. Einstein got it. Mother Theresa got it.

Tiger gets it. Gates gets it. Oprah gets it.

The Greeks got it.

Get this: Guys like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle said that if you want happiness you better live with Areté--a word that literally means virtue or excellence but has a deeper meaning...something closer to “constantly striving to reach your highest potential.”

Areté.

How beautiful is that? It was one of the highest ideals of Greek culture.

It should be one of ours.

Tragically, it's not.

We seem to be more interested in resumes, accolades and 401k's.

Speaking of retirement...

Who came up with that? Work our asses off doing something we're not passionate about so we can accumulate enough money to pay the bills from our stress-caused illnesses while we bitch about what we should have done when we were still young.

Hmmm...can't quite figure that one out. Seems like it makes a bit more sense to go ahead and dare to live now...

Why not Think Areté?

Live to your highest potential--moment to moment to moment.

Not in the mood?

Fine. Then live with regret, anxiety, and disillusionment.

Your call.

Think about it. When do we feel most alive?

Exactly. When we're being ourselves--our highest selves.

You want happiness?

Think Areté.

Dream. Grow. Stretch yourself.

Rip off the tie. Jump out of the cubicle.

Dream. Think. Dare to be crazy.

What are you waiting for?

Think Areté.

Live. Love. Smile. Hug. Laugh. Dream. Do. Create.

Have fun. Be intense. Be audacious. Be unreasonable. Act impeccably. Breathe.

Be you. Be different. Get paid to do what you love. Dance in your underwear on your way to work...

Why not?

Ditch the tie. Escape the cube. Leave the 8-5. Trash the resume.

Ignore the critics. And the cynics. Burn the corporate ladders. Laugh at the ceilings.

Quit the bitching. Open your mind. End the laziness. Overcome the fear. Transcend the conditioning...

Why not?

Move the world.

Change the world.

Push the human race forward.

Whatever you call it, go out and do it.

When?

Now.

Not when you have enough money or once you do this or do that. That's nonsense.

It's not gonna be easy, but go out and live your dream. Now.

You deserve it.

And, if that doesn't move you: The world deserves it.

Think Areté.

~

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths by Philip James Bailey

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world

~

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

That night, they all ate linguini and clam sauce that My Secret Agent Lover Man made, and they drank wine and lit candles.

Weetzie looked around at everyone--she saw Dirk, tired, unshaven, his hair a mes; he hardly ever looked like this. But his eyes shone wet with love. Duck looked older, there were lines in his face she hadn't remembered seeing before, but he leaned against Dirk like a little boy. Weetzie looked at My Secret Agent Lover Man finishing his linguini, sucking it up with his pouty lips. Cherokee was pulling on his sleeve and he leaned over and kissed her and then put her onto his lap to help him finish the last bite of pasta. Witch Baby sat alone, mysterious and beautiful.

Weetzie's heart felt so full with love, so full, as if it could hardly fit in her chest. She knew they were all afraid. But love and disease are both like electricity, Weetzie thought. They are always there--you can't see or smell or hear, touch or taste, them, but you know they are there like a current in the air. We can choose, Weetzie thought, we can choose to plug into the love current instead. And she looked around the table at Dirk and Duck and My Secret Agent Lover Man and Cherokee and Witch Baby--all of them lit up and golden like a wreath of lights.

I don't know about happily ever after...but I know about happily, Weetzie Bat thought.

~

Baby Bebop by Francesca Lia Block

Stories are like genies, Dirk thought. They can carry us into and through our sorrows. Sometimes they burn, sometimes they dance, sometimes they weep, sometimes they sing. Like genies, everyone ha sone. Like genies, sometimes we forget that we do.

Our stories can set us free, Dirk thought. When we set them free.

~

A Note by The Universe

If you just whistle every now and then; skip every thousandth step or so; skim the odd stone across the odd pond; go dancing on the occasional blue moon, if only alone in the dark; dress up sometimes, even with nowhere to go... for simply stirring up some little bit of hope, no matter how silly or disconnected your actions seem to be with the rest of the world, magic flashes in the unseen, friends are summoned, connections are timed, stars are aligned, opportunities are crystallized and serendipities are calculated, creating possibilities for new realities that cannot now even be imagined from where you presently stand.

Shazaam -
The Universe