Why I love Northern Minnesota

I saw this sign by the side of the road in Elk River, MN. I couldn't pass it up, so here you are:

I don't like this part

breakups are awful, especially so when there is no incident that caused it. those moments in life when you look honestly at yourself and your partner and conclude that neither of you is at fault, you just aren't looking for the same things, or in this case, are looking for the same things, but can't compromise on how to get them. even if, in your heart of hearts, you know that both of you need things that the other can't give, it hurts to let go. not only am i losing him, i'm losing his family and most of the friends i have made through him. i am losing a man good with children, a generous heart, who has shown me that not all country music is evil, and who is motivated to make a comfortable and happy life for his future family. i want those things, but i also need someone who can respect what i believe and the choices i make, even if he doesn't understand or like them. bottom line: we will miss each other, but we will be ok. we will find people more suited to us, and hopefully can have a smile on our faces when remembering our moments together.

take care of yourself, i miss you

Not all those who wander are lost.

I'm definitely a-wanderin' at the moment - not technically lost, though, because I know where I am, but haven't yet figured out how to get to the place I feel I belong. In searching for the Tolkien quote, I found a plethora of others, some of which have been included here. My heart can't express itself at the moment, so I shall borrow words until I find my own.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
~J.R.R. Tolkien

One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943

translated from French by Richard Howard

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.

~Tad Williams

When "Why not do it?" barely outweights "Why do it?" - don't do it.

~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got.

~Janis Joplin

Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.

~Dandemis

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.... People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982

Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it.

~Author Unknown

You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages.

~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.

~Steven D. Woodhull

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

~Dr. Seuss

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

~Benjamin Disraeli

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.

~Sören Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

~Oscar Wilde