I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.
- Oscar Wilde ...

Your daily reminder to read. ❤️ 📖 ...

It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
― Rabindranath Tagore ...

Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you. 🦋
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars ...

#TravelTuesday

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ✈️
– Anatole France ...

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi ...

Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way.
They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I'm one of them.
- Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine ...

Tell me the story of Neville Longbottom, the other boy who lived.

Tell me the story of a boy who was born unimpressive, who could have been a chosen one had Snape listened longer at the door. Who had parents that loved and cherished him for far too short a time.
Who lost his mother and father to the cruelty of death eaters, who had to grow up with a family that always saw him as less than who he was, who he could be, because his magic remained hidden inside him, coiled like a snake.

Tell me the story of a boy who could never quite handle school, who could never muster the courage to raise his hand in class, who always messed up his potions somehow. Who sat in the Gryffindor common room as Hermione patiently went over her history of magic notes for him and wondered for the millionth time why he didn't end up a Hufflepuff.
Who never saw himself as anything special, not really, because there were other kids in his year whose stars burned brighter, while he struggled just to keep up with the bottom of the class.

Tell me the story of a boy who stepped up, who foresaw Hogwarts descending into darkness and refused to let it happen without a fight. Who became the next leader of their secret fight against the dark lord, rebelling against Snape and the carrows from within the castle.
Who led the surge to take the sword of Gryffindor from Snape's office; who took blow after blow from torturing Death Eaters to try and protect the first-years who didn't deserve any of this.
Who ended up hiding in the castle, creating a supply line to Hogsmeade and continuing to fight under threat of expulsion (and worse) because someone had to do it.

Tell me the story of the unchosen one, who went from a nervous little boy to the slayer of Nagini in seven years. Tell me about that Neville Longbottom. ...

#MondayMotivation

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
— Eleanor Roosevelt ...

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength.
Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you. 💜
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones ...

What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.
— Neil Gaiman, American Gods ...