good...

 

Source: Facebook - Donna Ashworth

Eagles - Take It To The Limit (Live 1977) (Official Video) [4K]

Disturbed - Don't Tell Me (feat. Ann Wilson) [Official Music Video]

Angel Band // Living Room Session

The Old Church Yard

David Gilmour - Between Two Points (with Romany Gilmour)

The value of your love...

 

Let them keep what they took from you ... 

If you gave them love and they walked away, let them keep it.

If you gave them time and they walked away, let them keep the memories.

If you gave them days, weeks, or even years of your life, let them keep all the love you gave them during that time.

Don't fight back. Don't say, 'You owe me'. Understand that the value of your love doesn't depend on what others do with that love.

Let them keep what they took. They must have needed it.

It must have impacted their lives. You can't take that away.

How beautiful is that? 

Even though they gave you pain in return for your love, you still left them with love.

By beloved author, Najwa Zebian 

ArtCredit| The painting, called "Donna Rouge", is associated with Alessandro Baricc. Im not sure if it is his original work.

Source; Facebook - A Friend

Accountability

 

Refusing to talk to someone you owe an apology isn’t “protecting your peace.”

It’s avoiding accountability.

Plain and simple.

You don’t get to hurt someone, walk away, and then wrap it up in a bow labeled “boundaries.”

That’s not healing.

That’s hiding.

Growth means admitting when you were wrong.

It means facing the discomfort, not ghosting the person you hurt just because it’s easier.

“Protecting your peace” has become a trendy excuse to avoid doing the hard, emotional work.

But real peace? It comes from making things right.

Not pretending the wreckage doesn’t exist.

If you caused harm, step up.

Apologize. Repair. Learn.

Then you can protect your peace with a clean conscience.

Because silence doesn’t heal wounds you created.

Accountability does.

Momming On Empty

Source: Facebook - Momming On Empty

Letting go

Forgiveness isn’t always about setting someone free—it’s often about setting yourself free.

I read somewhere, ‘You keep forgiving someone until you unlove them.’ And I felt that. Because when you love deeply, you want to believe in the best of someone, even when they keep showing you their worst. So you forgive. Again and again. Not because they deserve it, but because a part of you isn’t ready to let go.

But something happens over time. Each forgiveness chips away at the illusion. Every disappointment brings clarity. And one day, without realizing it, you wake up and the love that once felt unshakable has faded. Not out of bitterness, not out of anger—but out of exhaustion.

This is how some of us let go. Not in one sudden act, but in a slow unraveling, in the quiet realization that love should not have to hurt this much.

If you’re in this place, know this: Forgiveness does not mean you have to stay. It does not mean you have to keep the door open. It does not mean you have to keep setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.

Some love stories don’t end with fireworks—they end with a sigh of relief. And that’s okay. Letting go is its own kind of love—the kind that finally includes yourself. 

 Ella

Source: Facebook - Rebel Thriver

Mister Romantic - What'll I Do?

Betrayal

Never trust anyone who is friends with your enemy. That’s not loyalty, that’s betrayal disguised as neutrality. Anyone who genuinely cares about you would never find comfort in the company of someone who disrespected you, hurt you, lied about you, or tried to break you. Friendships built with your enemies are silent declarations of where their loyalty truly lies. If they can laugh with the same people who plotted against you, then believe me—they were never really standing with you. People like that don't bring peace; they bring confusion, mixed signals, and drama masked as diplomacy.

Real loyalty doesn’t need to be questioned. It shows up in silence, in absence, and in presence. It shows up when someone refuses to associate with those who once tried to tear you down. Because anyone who respects you, protects your name behind your back. They don’t get close to the people who wanted to see you fail and then pretend they’re still your friend. Pay attention. Sometimes the snake isn’t the one who bit you—it’s the one who handed them the opportunity and smiled while they did it.

Credit to the artist via Pinterest

Source: Facebook - My Endless Love

Stanley Brothers, The Rank Stranger

I’m okay being alone now.

 

I’m okay being alone now.

I’ve learned that peace isn’t given—it’s built. Protected. Earned.

Too many people entered my life like guests in a home they never intended to clean after themselves. Some looked soft. Spoke sweet. But left broken pieces behind anyway.

I gave access too easily—like it didn’t cost me anything.

But it did. It cost time . Trust . Energy .

They took more than they ever returned.

And I cleaned up their mess alone. Again and again.

Now?

Now I don’t open doors just because someone knocks.

I wait. I watch. I listen.

Solitude no longer feels cold—it feels sacred. A place where I finally feel full. Where I sit with myself and know, deeply, that I don’t need chaos disguised as connection.

You want a seat at my table?

Bring consistency. Bring truth. Bring something real in your hands—not just promises you won’t keep.

Because this peace?

It’s mine.

And I will burn every bridge before I let anyone take it from me.

Source: Facebook - Shattered Emotions

No, this isn’t about weakness.

 

No, this isn’t about weakness.

Someday these tears in your eyes won’t feel like bullets loaded into the chamber of a gun anymore. They will feel like delicate blue eggs trembling right before they hatch.

Someday tears of yours will smell like sweet vanilla french toast on the griddle.

Someday your tears will be a salty waterfall of all of the sunshine and all of the thunder and all of the courage and all of the grace and all of the redemption that has ever existed in your story.

Someday your tears will form rosary beads between your fingers and saints of old will line up to help you count your prayers.

Someday scientists will study your tears under microscopes to observe the unmistakable DNA of how you survived the dark night hidden inside of them.

Someday you won’t hold back your tears anymore and you will become a fountain of raw human authenticity that dreamers will throw coins in.

Someday a tear is going to slide off the slope of your nose down onto the soil beneath your bare toes - and if you stand really still, an hour later you will be planted in the middle of a rosebush.

Someday a robot will be asked to cry to prove that it has a soul because I can’t think of any other way to figure that out.

Someday while you are softly crying during a funeral you will feel an invisible hand lace itself inside of yours. Then an unseen voice will whisper in your ear “Baby, we go on and on and on.”

Someday instead of shaking hands at the start of a conversation we will just rest our palms on each other’s cheeks and feel the grooves that the tears have formed in our faces hum for one another.

Someday my tears will sing “Amazing Grace” while they pour down my cracked and wrinkled face.

Someday when our souls leave our bodies our spirits will float up to heaven on a wave consisting of every single tear that we have ever produced.

Someday we won’t cry when relationships end, but we sob at the very moment they begin.

Someday the best lesson you will ever learn will come from a single fat daddy teardrop that is resting somewhere between your cheek and chin.

No, this isn’t about weakness. Tears are the strongest element I know.

~ john roedel

Art by The Art of Jennifer Yoswa

Source: Facebook - John Roedel

I got this wound for caring

 

don't let your

skin become

so thick that

nothing can

hurt you anymore

getting wounded

is part of the experience

the scars you

collect are all

part of your story

take off your armor

and give vulnerability

a chance to paint

your naked form

feel the sunlight

on your shoulders

let the wind move

through your hair

give your tears a

chance to be counted

allow us to be swept

up in your smile

~ you see, my love,

you weren't born

to be hidden behind

a towering wall

you were formed out

of an ancient whisper to

become a natural wonder

where we all visit to

listen to the songbirds

sing through the pines of

your evergreen beauty

you were given this skin

to be kissed softly

- don't let it grow scales

you were given your eyes

to reflect starlight

- don't close them to keep us from

seeing your soul

you were given your hands

to lace inside another hand

- don't keep them constantly

folded in your lap

my love,

I know this world

can be a sharpened spear

that will often pierce you

but

when given a choice

bleeding is always

better than apathy

someday when we

meet in the moving

cosmic river that exists

on the crawling fringe

of everything

let's take turns

washing each other's

scars while saying

the same prayer

over and over:

"I got this wound

for caring and I

got this one for

having an open heart

but that is the cost

that comes from being

a living work of sacred art."

~ John Roedel

(art by Siv Storøy)

Source: Facebook - John Roedel

Truth

 

I had the courage

 

''I have not been able to feel regret at the loss of any man in my life. I've always thought that people leave, that's how they are. Even I have left the lives of many. However, the only time I regretted it was when I lost myself. Where? I don't know either. Maybe among so many fake people who poisoned my soul. And I never found that naive, dreamy girl who believed in love and dreams. Instead, I had the courage to reinvent myself. ''

Ali McGraw 

Ai art by me

Alice in Wonderland

 

"Do you love Me?" Alice asked.

"No, I don't love you!" replied the White Rabbit.

Alice frowned and clasped her hands together as she did whenever she felt hurt.

"See?" replied the White Rabbit. "Now you're going to start asking yourself what makes you so imperfect and what did you do wrong so that I can't love you at least a little.

You know, that's why I can't love you. You will not always be loved Alice, there will be days when others will be tired and bored with life, will have their heads in the clouds, and will hurt you.

Because people are like that, they somehow always end up hurting each other's feelings, whether through carelessness, misunderstanding, or conflicts with themselves.

If you don't love yourself, at least a little, if you don't create an armor of self-love and happiness around your heart, the feeble annoyances caused by others will become lethal and will destroy you.

The first time I saw you I made a pact with myself: 'I will avoid loving you until you learn to love yourself.' "

- Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

Source: Facebook: Matthew Knott

We underestimate...

 

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” 

Leo Buscaglia

Artist: hermakitching 

Pairing by Whispers from the Heart

Source: Facebook - Whispers from the Heart

But I haven’t achieved anything today,

 

“But I haven’t achieved anything today,” she said.

And yet she’d bought an extra coffee for the man sat on the street outside the cafe.

She’d donated some books to charity on her way into work.

She’d sponsored her niece for the marathon she was running and she’d bought cakes for her colleagues ‘just because’.

She’d made people feel seen, valued, cared for.

She had achieved something so productive that it had the power to make someone’s day.

She had achieved kindness.

And the best part was…

she didn’t even realise

how well she’d done it.

*****

Never underestimate the power of your kindness

Becky Hemsley

Art ~ Pinterest

Source: Facebook - Bring Side

Kate Smith's Heart-Stirring 'God Bless America' - This Is the Army (1943...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, August 28, 1749

Died March 22, 1832

Quotes:

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way as us."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Oh, I envy you!" he cried. "You are still nourished by yesterday's alms, but yesterday's happiness no longer nourishes me."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities)

"The most original authors are not so because they advance what is new, but because they put what they have to say as if it had never been said before."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." 

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"

"What is uttered from the heart alone will win the hearts of others to your own. 

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Woe betide those," I said, "who use the power they have over someone's heart to rob it of the simple joys that are in its nature. All the presents and attentions in the world cannot make up for that moment of natural pleasure that the tyrant's envious cruelty has soured."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther)

The Lie said to the Truth

 

"The Lie said to the Truth - "Let's take a bath together, the well water is very nice."

The Truth, still suspicious, tested the water

and found out it really was nice.

So they got naked and bathed.

But suddenly, the Lie leapt out of the water

and fled, wearing the clothes of the Truth.

The Truth, furious, climbed out of the well

to get her clothes back.

But the World, upon seeing the naked Truth,

looked away, with anger and contempt.

Poor Truth returned to the well and

disappeared forever, hiding her shame.

Since then, the Lie runs around the world,

dressed as the Truth, and society is very happy.

Because the world has no desire to know

the naked Truth."

~ unknown

Painting: Truth Coming Out Of The Well,

Jean-Léon Gérome, 1896

Source: Facebook - Poet's Corner / Esquina Poetica

Sticks and stones may break my bones

 

Sticks and stones may break my bones

But words will cut me deep

They’ll keep on hurting long after

The breaks and bruises heal

Because the sticks will meet my skin,

The stones may hit my bones

But words will carve their way beneath

And make my soul their home

And this gives them the power

To control me and to win

‘Cause now I’ve words of worthlessness

From outside and within

See stones are thrown in anger

But our words are thrown in spite

And whilst they’re easier to pitch

They’re more difficult to fight

Because we cannot run away,

We cannot just unhear them,

Because their echoes resonate

Long after we are near them

And if we are not careful

Then those words become our voice

One that learns to shout the loudest

And to make the biggest noise

So do not be the reason

Someone hates their own reflection

Or thinks they are not worthy

Or deserving of affection

And when you pick your words

Weigh them awhile between your palms

Consider whether hurling them

Will heal or hurt or harm

Yes, sticks and stones may break a bone

But words can break a heart

And they can be the reason

Someone tears themself apart

So if you wouldn’t break their bones

By throwing stones and sticks

It’s likely for the best

That some words do not leave your lips

****

Becky Hemsley 2022

Artwork by Femke Muntz

Source: Facebook - Bring Side