Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road

“If you build it, they will come…”  (slightly adapted from Field of Dreams)

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently…because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.” Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall (for Apple)

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. ” – J.R.R. Tolkien, Writer, Poet, Philologist, University Professor

“I have tried, too, in my time, to be a philosopher; but, I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.” Oliver Edwards

“For we constantly deal with practical problems, with moulders, contractors, derricks, stonemen, trucks, rubbish, plasterers and what-not-else, all the while trying to soar into the blue.” Augustus Saint-Gaudens

“Sometimes life’s gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” Steve Jobs

Solvitur ambulando (“In walking it is solved.”)  St. Augustine

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.” Emile Zola

“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making your life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” Kurt Vonnegut

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Albert Einstein

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” Kurt Vonnegut

‎”The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” Henry Miller

Carpe diem…seize the day!!!

“On with the dance. Let joy be unconfined!” Lord Byron

Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor and teacher of writing and literature based in Silver Spring, Maryland.  She teaches literature courses in Paris and Hawaii for the Education Abroad program at Queens College, CUNY, and twice a year she offers Writing from the Heart workshops in a beautiful little village in the Champagne region of France.