Abdel Kader Haidara, the librarian who saved Timbuktu´s ancient cultural treasures from Al-Qaeda.
Source - @reddit ...

#HappyBirthdayAgathaChristie
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
- Agatha Christie ...

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lay, an invincible summer. And, that makes me happy.
For it says, that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger…
~ Albert Camus ...

#ThingsItTakesAWhileToUnderstand

Many of us spend a life time avoiding our emotional pain and it does become more and more toxic as long as we keep it buried. It will literally make us ill, physically and mentally as Bessel Van talks about in the book, The Body Keeps Score. The little quip, 'What you resist, persists' has proven very true in my life.

The only way out of that trap is to stop avoiding and learn in whatever way makes sense to us as individuals to feel once again and to embrace and absorb and therefore transform the pain of our lives. This is how I am healing. Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives. What is split off, not felt, remains the same. When it is felt, it changes. Most people don’t know this. They think that by not permitting the feeling of their negative ways they make themselves good.

On the contrary, that keeps these negatives static, the same from year to year. A few moments of feeling it in your body allows it to change. If there is in you something bad or sick or unsound, let in inwardly be, and breathe. That’s the only way it can evolve and change into the form it needs.
—Monica Cassani, Healing the body/mind with the willingness to feel ...

So many books, so little time. ✨ ✨
― Frank Zappa ...

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
― Albert Einstein ...

Don't let someone tell you you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can't do something themselves, they're gonna tell you that you can't do it. You want something go get it. Period!

-Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness ...

#TravelTuesday

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
– Andre Gide ...

I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure.
I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
― Marilyn Monroe ...

Having to tell people directly what you need and want from them is actually an unavoidable part of healthy adult communication, not a sign that your friends or partner don’t genuinely care about you.

So stop waiting for people to read your mind and learn to speak up.
—compassionatereminders.tumblr.com #NoteToSelf ...

Admitting to yourself that there are days when you want to be just the vulnerable version of you doesn't make you less of a human—in fact, it makes you more of it; for humans tend to feel different emotions that include both the positive and negative feelings in this life.
If you are happy, laugh and smile; if you get hurt, cry and let them know you are in pain.

Honestly speak about your emotions deep within. We are done being deceived by the norm of wearing this mask just to show a front-act of being tough for always. We have learnt that both sides of us—the strong and the weak one—are equally parts of being a human.

—Ren Ednalig | 198th

Illustration: Keebs ...