hey, smile.

"1. Learn to know them. Watch their facial expressions, watch the way their body twists and bends...."

"1. Learn to know them. Watch their facial expressions, watch the way their body twists and bends. Notice the freckles along their noses, their arms, their back. Listen to their laughter, listen to the way their voice cracks when they're upset. Find their weakness, their broken points, their darkness. Find their light. Find the things unique to them. Ask them about their childhood, ask them about their favorite place to read, ask them what their last words would be if they could choose. Know them.

2. Let these things blossom beneath their skin like flowers, like bruises, so every time you see them, it will be a reminder. Let those bruises shine like moons in every phase and the smaller things shine like stars. They are your night sky, and you are the astronomer.

3. Show them the constellations you have found and let them find a glowing world beneath their skin. Ask them to read you their favorite poem or sing you their favorite song. Learn to love their passion for whatever it is they enjoy. Learn to love their shooting stars."

- Kelsey Danielle, "How to Love Someone" (via chaoswithinus)

"I think that one of these days you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then..."

""I think that one of these days you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there.""

- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye  (via thesecretsits)

"I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in..."

"I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good, either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be."

- Roald Dahl (via thewastedgeneration)

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"Can you see me? All of me? Probably not. No one ever really has."

"Can you see me? All of me? Probably not. No one ever really has."

- Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (via paintmefiftyshadesofgreen)

"That's how you know you love someone, I guess. When you can't experience anything without wishing..."

"That's how you know you love someone, I guess. When you can't experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too."

- Kaui Hart Hemmings (via xokrista)

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aseaofquotes: Daphne Du Maurier, "The Lover"

aseaofquotes:

Daphne Du Maurier, "The Lover"

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"At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or..."

"At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough."

- Toni Morrison (via larmoyante)

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thelipsofthegrave: You write sobeautifully, theinside of yourmind must be aterrifying place 

thelipsofthegrave:

You write so
beautifully, the
inside of your
mind must be a
terrifying place 

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"Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don't even recognize that growth is happening...."

"Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don't even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we in fact in the process of change, of actually becoming larger, spiritually, than we were before. Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening[…]Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize that we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of the personality is about to be revealed."

- Alice Walker, with a quote for every classroom wall. (via caitsmeissner)

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