Archive

Dreams Conquer

“I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.”

Where Joy Comes From

“Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men but from doing something worthwhile.”

All You Need

“Never underestimate the empowering effect of human connection. All you need is that one person, who understands you completely, believes in you and makes you feel loved for what you are, to enable you – to unfold the miraculous YOU.”

Inspiration & Perspiration

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

Strength in Survival

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

Illuminating the Path

"E.L. Doctorow said once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' … This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard."

The Only Way

"Say what you want about aging, it's still the only way to have old friends."

Very Personal Post

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

Turning Challenges Into Joy

"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

The Power Of Focus

"Your joy, your happiness, your satisfaction and your ability to dance with life, depends solely on what you pay attention to."

Nature's Bond

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

Create To Grow

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."

Turning Rocks Into Joy

"There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them."

Here and Now

"Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy."

Nothing Is More Valuable

"There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend."

The Power of One More Try

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Speaking Through Creation

"In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent"

It's What You Want

"Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want."

Connect With The Force Inside

"It's important to know what you're going to spend your life on, and the only way you're going to find that is by connecting with the force inside yourself."

Mild Ecstasy

"There is a curiously sharp sense of joy - or perhaps better expressed, a sense of mild ecstasy - that comes when you find the particular form required by your creation."

Can You?

“I love those who can smile in trouble.”

You Both Win!

"Help someone in distress and you lighten your own burden; the very joy of alleviating the sorrow of another is the lessening of one's own."

Expand Connection

"Connecting to another is one of the most important things in the world and you can keep expanding that connection - one person, a family, a community, a country, a society, a culture."

You Will Never Know

"Whatever is powerful to you can be translated into something which will matter to somebody that you will never know."

A New Path

"If you are going down a road and don't like what's in front of you, and look behind you and don't like what you see, get off the road. Create a new path!"

Space To Enter

"Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter."

What It Is To Be Human

"We need to remind ourselves of the beauty of human connection and of nature and pull ourselves out of devices for a moment and appreciate what it is just to be human beings."

No Rules

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."

The Tide Will Turn

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

Ingredients of a Joyful Life

"I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude and inspiration"

Connecting Joy

"Release the joy that is inside of another, and you release the joy that is inside of you."

Our Dreams

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Move The Small Stones

"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."

Look In The Right Places

"It is looking for the joys that come in small, precious packages and making the most of them, knowing that big packages of joy are few and far between."

What! You Too?

"Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .""

Great People Make You Feel This

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

How Civilizations Heal

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

A Good Grasp On Life

"A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life."

People Never Forget This

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Floating Bi-OH!

There are more openly bi people in 2025 than there were openly LGBT people in 2017!

It's Not Impossible

"All things that are truly great are at first thought impossible.”

Take Charge

“Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you.”

Where The Joy Is

"Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself"

Invest In These

“When you understand that being connected to others is one of life’s greatest joys, you realize that life’s best comes when you initiate and invest in solid relationships.”

The Incalculable Wealth

"Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty."

You Keep Going

"Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going."

You Can't Copy It

"A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe."

Depth of Friendship

"Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance."

Einstein Approves!

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

Did You Unplug?

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

Resolve

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”

You, But Better!

"Connecting to your passion is being you, but better."

Words Can Be Limiting

"You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing-- what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that."

The Next One Is Easier

"Life is getting through the moment…Get through the first trouble, you'll probably make it through the next one."

Nature's Most Beautiful Gift

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."

Defining Connection

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

Pure Joy

"Creativity takes courage, but it also returns the reward of pure joy."

Face It!

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Give It Away To Keep It

“Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.”

Directly & Indirectly

"Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

Challenge Your Assumptions

"Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in."

Strong Lives

"Strong lives are those that are marked by a sense of purpose, connectedness, resilience, and fulfillment."

Invent Imaginary Letters

"Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way."

A Human Being Must Learn This

“A human being must learn at a very young age how to connect to other human beings.”

You Can't Use It Up!

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

Anger

“Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that —

We Defy The Storm

"It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it."

The Awareness That Brings Joy

"True joy results when we become aware of our connectedness to everything."

Take a Shower - Have an Idea!

"Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference."

Underlying Advantages

"Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a believe that they can influence life events; a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil; and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences."

Everything Comes Out of Nothingness

"Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life."

The Essence of Happiness

"Connecting with the people who are meant to be part of your own North Star is much more important than any aspect of business. It's the essence of happiness, the full realization of your potential for joy."

Every Civilization Begins With Art

“There is no civilization that did not begin with art, Whether it was drawing a line in the sand, painting a cave or dancing.”

Strength

“Out of resistance comes strength.”

3 Steps to Paradise

"I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed."

Collecting, Connecting, & Sharing

"Collecting the dots. Then connecting them. And then sharing the connections with those around you. This is how a creative human works. Collecting, connecting, sharing."

Art

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Enough

"Effort + the courage to show up = enough."

Do Lots of THAT!

"Figure out what fuels your joy, then do lots of that!”

Connecting the Dots

"Quotes are like prompts. A way of searching, connecting the dots."

A New Way of Looking at Things

“One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”

It's The Grain of Sand

“It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe."

Queer Joy is the Goal!

"Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity."

Welcome to Joyful Queer

For those of us who know adversity so well it feels like an old roommate, joy isn’t just an act of resistance - it’s an act of survival. It’s the thing you grab when the floor falls out beneath you. Sometimes, it’s the only thing.

Transcending Differences

“The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”

The True Kingdom

“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.”

Intuition Will Tell You

“Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you – work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you.”

Might As Well Dance

“You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.”

Your Strongest Ally

“There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.”

Bringing The Universe To Order

“Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.”

Keep Calm & Include

"We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity."

Resilience Through Identity

“Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

Letting Joy Find Us

“Joy bursts in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.”

Wear Your Cape!

“I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers — every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.”

How To Judge Me

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”