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“What kind of person is void of compassion? A heartless one. But alas, compassion cannot exist without the endurance of afflictions.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“If we simply imagined that everyone who crossed our path was living out his or her very last day on Earth, we might treat people as kindly as we ought to each day they lived.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“The soft heart is not a thing to harden but a treasure to protect. For soft hearts extend mercy, compassion, refuge, and God’s redemption to the world.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Sadness is like sandpaper; it rubs at our sharper edges, softening and humbling us, making us ready for a coat of compassion.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“To be a rainbow in someone’s cloud is commendable, but I prefer to be the rain because it dampens cheeks and washes away tears.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Sympathy is imagining the pain. Empathy is having suffered through it first.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Empathy is a hand thick with scars offering you a bandage.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Kindness is going out of your way to perform favors regarded as wonderful by the recipient.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“If you dream your problems at night and live your problems by day, you are suffering the effects of paralyzing toxins delivered by the sting of worry, stress, and fear. You must detach yourself from these leeches if you do not wish to be irreversibly poisoned.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“At the core of love is validation. It is what gives love power.
For when love is given away, validation seeps in and expands in the heart of the recipient, filling up every empty, dark corner. It is a wonderful, light, consuming feeling we long for, and once found, we hope—even expect—it will forever remain. But there are times when that most precious love is revoked, and a hard scab forms over the empty hole. Though this scab is both healing and protective, it is the reason why validation from future love may not seep in so easily, no matter how wanting the heart.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Time is a power of its own, and it may be the only power by which some miracles come to pass.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Patience isn’t simply waiting, it is caring enough about the situation and those involved to remain calm and courteous throughout the wait.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Extraordinary power exists in a trial of patience. Few endure their trials well enough to discover this.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“How frustrating to think you can be lost to yourself. And yet how often it is that a stranger stares back at you from the mirror. Maybe in truth we never see ourselves as clearly as the thousands of eyes that daily take us in.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“The ears and the heart are connected, it’s true,
for when ears open wide, the heart opens up too.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“My shoulders, broad and sculpted thick, were designed for two useful purposes. The one, to carry heavy loads like cedar logs and beams of steel and now and then the careful transfer of an injured friend to a bed of safety. The other purpose I consider superior, and that is to be, in all circumstances and forever, your headrest and cry pillow whereupon you may leave your heaviest burdens.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Love is donating a chunk of your life to patch up holes in the life of another.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I felt sad.
I felt cold.
I felt hurt.
I felt forsaken and lonely.
I felt doubtful and hesitant.
I felt scared and deeply worried.
I felt different, unknown, and unwelcome.
I felt empty and woefully neglected.
I felt weak and intimidated.
I felt withdrawn and shy.
I felt utterly hopeless.
Then you held my hand,
and I felt better.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“A word of consolation
may sweetly touch the ear.
Now and then a quiet song
will clear the mind of fear.
A simple act of kindness
can ease a load of care.
Stories told in memory
diminish all despair.
A whispered prayer of comfort
draws angel arms around.
Counting blessings, great and small,
helps gratitude abound.
These acts, all sympathetic,
will kindly play their part.
But seldom do they dry the tears
shed mutely in the heart.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“It's frustrating when our best efforts to help people fail. But if we could see life through their weary eyes and experience their trials with the same frayed emotions, we might understand why.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“A box sits empty,
wanting to hold and protect.
Hollow tears it cries.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Bad habits are demons that often push us into isolation because they know that in our loneliness they stand little chance of being overcome.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“The most powerful and courageous heroes I know are those who bite their tongues when justification, validation, temptation, or vengeance would have them strike with truthful, hurtful words.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“The hero isn’t the one who is right, but the one who steps forward to take the blame—deserved or not—and apologize to save a relationship.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Heroes don’t have the need to be known as heroes, they just do what heroes do because it is right and it must be done.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“A hero is a person who, without a second thought, simply does the right thing because his conscience cannot live with any other choice.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“If I were to sit on the ocean floor and look toward the sky,
I might see a whale or electric eel or octopus pass by.
And if I decided to jump straight up and reach with open arms,
I might feel the pleasure of ocean flight propel me ’mid their swarms.
But if I were seated upon the shore and looking toward the stars,
I might see a comet or falling star near Mercury or Mars.
Then if I decided to jump straight up and reach with open hands,
I might feel despair when my feet refused to leave the shoreline sand.
And so I return to the ocean depths where swimming creatures fly,
For there I can soar with the whales and fish that daily touch the sky.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“It is a fight to let go of a past that refuses to withdraw its sticky tentacles from your present.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Life has me trapped in a cocoon of earth where I must grow and change until the day I sprout wings. And on that day I shall burst free, no longer marooned on a pebble of dust in a universe that only waits for me to find a means to fly.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Some things can't be taught; they can only be discovered.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“You cannot know what I do not tell you, yet you will be judged harshly for not knowing.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Curiosity killed the cat, but not before teaching her that honey bees are not sweet, tweeting birds are slow to react, mice can serve as both toys and food, big dogs like to snuggle, falling isn’t flying, cream drips from lazy cows, water should be avoided at all costs, baths don’t require getting wet, kindness and cruelty often fall from the same hand, and engines remain comfortably warm long after the motor dies.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I love you for a great many reasons and despite a great many others.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“When you love someone, you don’t care that she ate your sandwich. You only hope she found it delicious.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Love in its essence is unconditional. When conditions, exceptions, and ultimatums are cast into the mix, its purity changes. It is no longer love and should be referred to by a less-desirable name.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I sat in a box
With walls on each side.
Not too tall.
Not too wide.
To think.
To ponder.
To pray.
To hide.
I sat in a box and cried.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“If you often feel alone, ignored, or forgotten, think about this: closing the door and locking yourself in won't change anything—literally and figuratively.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I always envisioned myself as traveling the ocean of life in a rowboat where my mother was one oar and my father, the other. Having two good, solid oars made rowing much easier.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Validate my existence with your words and I will speak to you all the day long.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I am but the reflection in your eyes, the effect of your expressions, and the sum of your praise and criticism.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Integrity is more than truth and honesty; integrity is an unshackled mind, a happy heart, and a light spirit. Integrity is inner peace with a clear, clean conscience. Integrity is self-respect, honor, and credibility. Integrity is healthy and unfettering, and it is worth defending.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Too often we let others stamp a price tag on us, and we accept their appraisal of our worth, forgetting we are in fact priceless.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Many of us draw lines which we intend never to cross.
But life tests our resolve, mercilessly at times, and a foot budges, nudged past that thinly-drawn line. So we draw another, resolving never to cross this one. Days grow dark and fog creeps in to blind our view, clouding the reason for the line’s existence from our minds. We draw another mark, ashamed that the last was crossed with less coaxing than we imagined it would require. Shadows and doubts give further need to draw a new line, and then another and another.
Lines, I think, are too slim and obscure to be dependable deterrents for behavior. Too often, too easily, people stumble into places they later regret entering. What, then, keeps some individuals from crossing those narrow lines?
It is the power of values.
For if a person possessing values were to step one foot outside their line, they would be forced to release hands with those inflexible values and consciously abandon them. But their values are persuasive, keeping a tight grip, warding off the luring temptations beckoning one to test the line. Thus values maintained keep a person safely away from areas they dare not travel, steering a life between the lines, enhancing willpower and shaping mighty strength of character.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Life is not about having perfect days. Life is not about handling days perfectly. Life is about perfecting one’s character through the having and handling of every given day.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“It’s easy to be kind to friends who return your smiles and happily lend a helping hand. But the true test of good character is finding the will and desire to be kind and charitable to those who give us absolutely no motivation to do so.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Patience is real self-mastery.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Alas, impatience is but another form of unhappiness. It is true, it is true. I have never met a happy impatient person.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Happiness is never in a rush. If you move too fast, you leave it behind.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Impatience is racing at misery full speed.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“If kindness is beauty, patience is disarming elegance.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year