"The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.  Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of the day. The content of your character is your choice.  Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become."  
 -Heraclitus

Why I Wake Early 
Hello, sun in my face. 
Hello, you who made the morning 
and spread it over the fields 
and into the faces of the tulips 
and the nodding morning glories, 
and into the windows of, even, the 
miserable and the crotchety –
 
best preacher that ever was, 
dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe 
to keep us from ever-darkness, to ease us with warm touching, 
to hold us in the great hands of light – good morning, good morning, good morning. 
Watch, now, how I start the day 
in happiness, in kindness.” 
― Mary Oliver

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?  Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the good, the light, that is w/in us.  It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Marianne Williamson

A dog comes to you and lives with you in your own house, but you do not therefore own her, as you do not own the rain, or the trees, or the laws which pertain to them ... 

A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing. . .” 
                                                                                 ― Mary Oliver