A Taste of Your Own Medicine

 "No mater what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind."

-Taylor Alison Swift

A Taste of Your Own Medicine

Don't give them a taste of their own medicine. They already know what it feels like. Give them a taste of YOUR own medicine. If they lied, let your medicine be maturity. If they lied, let your medicine be honesty. If they played with your emotions, let your medicine be maturity. If they broke you, let your medicine heal. If they made you cry, let your medicine make them smile. These remedies of yours may take years to work, but they work. And they last. So be patient. Stay true to yourself. And remember this: it is better for people to value you for who you are, not for who you pretend to be. Who you are lasts a lifetime. A forever. Who you pretend to be changes like the seasons. Don't be afraid to be yourself, even if it means removing yourself from lives that you want to be in. You are, no doubt, worthy of being valued for who you are. So be who you are. The beautiful. The kind. The lover.  

I hope that someday when I am gone, someone, somewhere, picks my soul up off these words, and my book, my journals, the pages and thinks 'I would have loved her.

"Kindness is one of the most underrated trials in the world. We focus so much on material things and attention, but forget that it is kindness that brings us a fulfillment that warms our soul."

"When you hear people make hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate and you could open their eyes."

-Taylor Swift

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your kindness."

-Maya Angelou

"... Atticus, he was real nice..."

"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Happiness is the new rich.

Inner peace is the new success.

Health is the new wealth.

Kindness is the new cool."

"Choose calm over chaos.

Serenity over stress.

Peace over perfection.

Grace over grit.

Faith over fear."

"The key to happiness?

Focus on your own journey & spread kindness, love, & hope."

"Happiness is not easy to find running straight for it. It is usually too elusive, too ephemeral, too subtle. If you haven't learned it already, you will learn it in the years ahead that most times happiness comes to us when we are least expecting it, when we are busy doing something else. Happiness is almost always a by product of some other endeavor."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked in on."

"There's no lemon so sour that you can't make something resembling lemonade."

-This Is Us

Smile at strangers, lovelies.

We are all in this together.

<W/L3 C

Alive Poets Society

I am more than anyone knows

None of the darkness around me can take me out

The brilliant, beautiful, blinding light that glows

inside of my heart displacing any doubt

When life gives you lemons, you. . .

I see love and my family in shades of white

Well why are you so blue?

We have to get down in these depths to appreciate the heights

I am worth it will always ring true

Who doesn't feel lonely once in a while whether it be lonely for a person, place, feeling, or thing? Sometimes we even feel alone in crowded rooms. Remember, the word alone has never lived inside the word lonely.

It's been a hell of a year for me [over a year]

A literal bit of hell

I didn't know how to bring back the heaven I built on Earth.

I felt surrounded by darkness that would be my constant and only companion.

People all around me tried to tell me that one day things would change. I would find the light again. I didn't want to listen though or more like I couldn't. When you're in the middle of grief it's like you're on another planet and nothing around you makes any sense. It's something you have to get through, push through, endure, fight. There is no shortcut and no way around it.

The light is inside of us.

I am the light.

You are the light.

We are the light.

We chase and search and claw for light like it's something we can find outside of us in someone else or in something. The reality is the light is inside of us all along. The problem is sometimes we let people dim our light to the point where we can't see it or feel it, but it's always there. Always. We are made of light. We have to nourish and feed that light. We can't neglect it. The best, beautiful secret is the more we share our light, the lighter and brighter it grows and glows.

One day, recently, I woke up and could breathe again. I began to not only like but love myself again. I realize I cannot change the past... nor do I want to. All I can change is myself. Now. This moment. I love me. Do I want to fall in love again and find my love story? I'd be a complete and utter liar if I told you anything but a resounding, roaring YES. I hope and pray that there's a man out there who will love and want me someday for forever. 

For now though, I'm surrendering and giving my heart to Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. They love me more than anyone. I am also surrounded by endless, unconditional love from my amazing-in-every-possible-unimaginable-magical way family and friends. And oh my goodness, how I love them all. In the words of my spirit animal Taylor Swift: "She lost him and found herself and somehow that was everything."

That is everything.

I SAVE ME.

(along with the Savior, of course)

I am ready

to take life in my hands (good&bad)

and make it beautiful and mine.

Hiding My Heart (Worlds Apart)

I went missing.

Disappeared.

Did anyone notice?

I missed you.

Where did July go? 

It vanished with me, or maybe I became invisible in it.

Either way, I am back.

I have soooo much inspiration & stuff to share & talk about. 

I feel tired and uninspired at times.

And I wrote this last night...

I want to catch a break but I'm only breaking down. Breaking apart. Broken. Falling, falling, forever. Falling to pieces. Fading. Invisible. Disappearing. Gone. And no one notices or cares. It's an effortless mess, my SOS, calling out to deaf ears in distress. The girl (me, I) is hopeless. She's open for suggestions and directions. She can barely breathe. Countless questions.  Is she wonderful? Do you wonder about her? Or is it any wonder [her fate]? Full of wonder. Wondering. Waiting. Is it mere coincidence the fact that fate rhymes with wait, or is it something deeper? I'm getting weaker. And you, you, you. You. It ends with you, or more accurately begins with you. Always you. Only you. Perfect you. The one. Will you come slowly or run? She can be found if only you look. Find me. Save me. Embrace me. Press me to you. Hold me. Tighter. Never letting go, or you'd fall too. Strength in two becoming one. Learn me. Feel me. Catch me. Memorize me. Love me. I am yours forever. Irrevocably. Unconditionally. Enduring. Wishing. Hoping. Dreaming. Living. Flying. Breathing. Like stars crashing into each other at the speed of our hearts in a cold, dark light-years-length, infinite galaxy, transforming into one radiant, bright, shining star bursting, glowing, filling the sky, and each other, with warmth, light, and electricity. We are a star. You are my star. Guide me home.

Yeah it's kind of rough and inconsistent and a mess, but it was from the heart. That's what matters right?

Okay August had better be amazing for all of us lovelies. Lets make it so... no matter what. 

 "Entwined. All that we are is defined by each others shipwrecked hearts and I shiver to think what would have been if I wouldn't have seen you in time... would we we pass by? Like parachutes and air balloons or satellites and lonely moons. We'd still be drifting far apart but thank the stars we are entwined. All that you are is mine. Your divine imperfections color the dark, and I shiver to see how fragile you are when the world's such a cruel place to be. Then you cut me free. Lets walk the tightrope together without a safety net and when we fall, and we will fall, lets fall forever... entwined."

-Jason Reeves

 "Life is the most fragile, unstable, unpredictable thing there is."

-Meredith Grey

 "All anyone needs is someone to step in and let us know we're not alone."

-Meredith Grey

 "The only time I don't feel like a ghost is when you look at me. You see me."

-Owen Hunt

 "Don't forget--no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell."

-Charles de Lint

 "Some people say home is where you come from. But I think it's a place you need to find, like it's scattered and you pick pieces of it up along the way."

-Katie Kacvinsky

 "That's what love is. It's some power greater than you and me that draws us to one special person."

-Jodi PiCoult

 "You have to take chances in life to get anywhere worthwhile."

-Me

 "Our paths keep crossing

but never quite touch

You're so close I can almost feel you

Yet impossibly out of reach

When will our parallel paths

become only one?"

-Me

 "You don't love someone because they're perfect. You love them in spite of the fact that they're not. Because they are perfect in your eyes."

 "Every now and then something amazing happens and best case scenarios seem possible. And against our better judgment, we start to have hope."

-Meredith Grey

"Sometimes the only way to catch your breath is to lose it completely."

-Tyler Knott Gregson

 Brie & CiCi on the 4th of July!

"You only make a once in a lifetime friend... once in a lifetime!"

-The Little Rascals

Have an amazing day lovelies... always remember that someone is (or will be) lucky to have you.

With love,

Charley Brooke

Life in a Glass House

"Please

hold onto your

hope.

It is in such

limited suppl

around the world

these days.

Hold onto it

and be proud 

that you

are one of 

the ones

that does."

-Tyler Knott Gregson

"Hope can be found in the smallest and most unassuming places if you only remember to hang on tightest when you want to let go the very most."

-Tyler Knott Gregson

"Do not doubt my love

for when all else falls apart

it will still remain."

-Tyler Knott Gregson

"I promise to be all you are not, because you are all I have never been."

"You can't stop loving or wanting to love because when it's right, it's the best thing in the world. When you're in a relationship and it's good, even if nothing else in your life is right, you feel like your whole world is complete."

"The hardest thing about growing up is that you have to do what is right for you even if it means breaking someone's heart. Including your own."

"When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad for the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps."

-John Lennon

"Even the simplest of words can change a person's life."

"Change is never easy. You fight to hold on, you fight to let go."

-The Wonder Years

"What becomes of words when they never find the eyes they were written for?"

-Tyler Knott Gregson

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."

-Washington Irving

"The unexpected always happens."

"Sometimes the one thing you are looking for is the one thing you can't see."

"You are all that I never knew I needed."

-The Fray

"Someday you'll find the right person, and you'll learn to have a lot more confidence in yourself. That's what I think. So don't settle for anything less. In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It's important to combine the two in just the right amount."

"Sometimes I think we waste our words, and we waste our moments... and we don't take the time to say the things that are in our hearts when we have the chance."

-Clay Evans, One Tree Hill

"I don't forgive people because I am weak. I forgive them because I am strong enough to accept the fact that people make mistakes."

"The best kind of kiss is one you can build a dream on."

"What comes easy, won't always last. And what will last, won't always come easy. But, those are the things that are always worth it."

"I love you. You're in me. It's like you're a disease."

-Lexie Grey

"The truth is, you can turn any 'what if?' into 'what is' if you take chances and drop your fears."

"Stand up boy, I shine so bright when you're around."

"His breaths, my breaths. His body, my body. We are so close there is no difference."

-Beatrice "Tris" Prior, Insurgent

"We're all right, you know," he says, "You and me okay?"

My chest aches, and I nod.

"Nothing else is all right," His whisper tickles my cheek. "But we are."

-Tobias "Four" Eaton, Insurgent

"Sometimes people just want to be happy, even if it's not real."

"I read somewhere, once, that crying defies scientific explanation. Tears are only meant to lubricate the eyes. There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion."

"People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them."

"I know I am not the only one that's broken."

"Awaking each day literally gives you a million reasons to smile."

"Don't ever let anyone make you doubt yourself. When the time is right you will prove them wrong."

"AFY: Anything For You"

"I am the broken,

the scarred, scattered & the lost;

but you love me still."

"My love, 

you are so busy

carrying

the weight of the world

that you have

completely forgotten

that the world

has always been

carrying

you."

"It's only when we decide that 'ordinary' is an insult, that we become the exquisite miracles we were born to be."

"I love you, in ways you've never been loved, for reasons you've never been told, for longer than you think you deserved and with more than you will ever know existed."

"I will build a home

on the feeling of your skin

pressed tight against mine."

"There's a light in your eyes

and I'll always be hoping

that it shines on me."

"I think I'd miss you even if we'd never met."

"It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time."