VERSES
"A seeker of all things brave.
A doer of all things authentic.
A be-er of herself and only herself.
A lover of her life and not just of the flying but all the falling too.
(They both can free your unquenchable happiness " ~S.C. Lourie
"I grieved today for the times I have loved so much that I forgot about myself and my own needs. I grieved today for giving so much and forgetting that I should keep a little bit back just for me. I grieved today for getting so caught up in helping others that I overlooked I needed a little help as well. I grieved today for thinking I could just do it all, denying that I also have my limits. And sometimes having limitations is a holy thing. I just wanna love people in a way that makes me feel loved too. I don’t want to forget myself anymore." ~S. C. Lourie
“I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible;
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.” ~Dawna Markova
"beautiful moments,
glistening like
pearl drops
floating down
from the stars
themselves
fall into our laps
out of the blue.
And all we need
are open hearts
to receive them."
~S.C Lourie
"I wonder what this new and beautiful week
has in store for us all.
Let's have a blast, let's have a ball.
Let's make sure we have some fun,
dancing in the rain, chasing the sun,
some time to play,
going with the flow kinda days,
some time to reflect,
some time to collect
beautiful memories of smiley hearts and faces.
Let's find the preciousness of life in all the spaces we come across, directly or from surprise.
Let's make sure we take time to love our lives
with the things we do while on this great week's ride.
Let's enjoy ourselves,
making the most out of our lives.
Our real wealth is in our moments true,
All this week's wholesomeness I'm wishing you."
~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is written in your blood, that you will fly.
So let your heart bleed when it is struck by
the tendernesses of life or the whirling thunderstorms -
and let it burst open when it is drunk on too much pain.
Everything unresolved, let it come.
Do not hide.
Do not bandage your heart half in shame.
Let the tears rain from your eyes when all is stirred.
Let the messy goddess emerge with dead grass still in her hair.
The sky calls your wings.
Let your blood respond.
Soaring will come naturally, I promise.
But for some reason we must fall before we can fly.
We must hear again the song of our blood.
It is blood we all share and
the soil knows it as much as the sky.
They wrote it all together." ~SC Lourie
"Let's be explorers of each other's hearts.
Let's be adventurers of each other's souls.
Let's be travellers of each other's dreams.
Let's defy loneliness and
Lovingly walk each other home." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Life is in the living of it.
Not in the controlling of it,
or the preplanning of it;
life can only really be had in equally bearing
your heart to the sun and the rain,
the thunder and the rainbow. The storm, the gentle
breeze, all of it.
In feeling the pain as much as the joy
and regardless of whether your heart is raw
with vulnerability or bursting with the fire of love
you still every day get up to give yourself over
to the winds of the universe. Where they blow
is where you go. Let the winds decide." ~S.C Lourie
"My darling, your heart so beautiful, so creative, so true.
Let the world make nothing else out of you.
Do not compromise your uniqueness for a copy.
Value your special way of seeing the world,
do not be shy in telling your story.
Your life is yours so live it so.
Do not care for whether people agree.
And when they try to make you someone else, tell them no.
Stand strong in your originality.
The trees will stand with you.
All things wild, free and as they should be salute you.
You are not alone.
There are those that have stayed true.
Your path is a rarity.
And upon it you will find all of wonderful you."
~S.C Lourie
"My wings are my joy.
I don't want to hide
from you anymore.
My wings are my joy.
Why do I give time to
the things that imprison me?
My wings are my joy.
I want to spread them
rather than keep them at bay.
My wings are my joy.
They never give up on me.
My wings are my joy.
I will wait no longer.
My wings are my joy.
I can't fly like you
but I shouldn't feel
I have to.
My wings are my joy
and it's time for me to be happy.
They like the wind want
to take me across the sky,
with the sun on my back
and my worries below my feet.
My wings are my joy.
I was born in my smile,
and to feel my wings free.
My joy awaits me.
My wings are
and have always been ready.
No longer will the world fool me.
The things that wall me
collapse before me.
Yes, flying calls me.
My joy pulls me.
I am enthralled, says she...
as she jumps off the cliff
of merely existing into the sky
of feeling alive,
finally flying free."
♥*✿*•♥ S.C. Lourie ♥*✿*•♥
My wings, my wings.
They have always been there.
But only when I plunged
deep into the ocean of my life.
Only when I told the sea
I would no longer hide,
did I see them, there, beside me,
like remnants of angels love left behind.
I lived my emotions,
no longer speculating.
I drunk pain as much as I would joy.
I stopped saying
that I should only have the good stuff
and in accepting it all
I emerged...free
with 'perfection' no where to be seen.
I was truly free.
I forgave the journey of others
to bring me such storms.
More than that
I kissed their shadow in thanks.
For the storms have shown me
that I go on no matter.
There are friends everywhere.
Even in my dark messes.
They wait for me
with kindness in their eyes
if I dare to get lost.
The sun sunk into the sea
and lit it with gold
and I swam.
And now I am whole
and filling every time.
My wings,
they are my companions.
I sometimes use and then
sometimes I rest.
But I am here.
Finally, I am just,
and simply, here.
And so let it all be.
~S.C Lourie
Butterflies and Pebbles
"On special days like today
I just want to tell you
your wings are beautiful
whether you use them or not.
whether you believe in them
or not, you have them.
And you’ll find your
way with them. You’ll
realise one day that you’ve
always had wings.
and that they’ve
always been perfect
and beautiful.
It’s in the blood of every woman to find her wings and to realise her unique beauty. We all get there. And these days are about celebrating that whether it’s happened for you, now happening or just about to.
Happy 8th March 2014 proud-to-be-a-woman-day
(International Woman's Day)
♥ྀ ♥ྀ ♥ྀ Butterflies and Pebbles ♥ྀ ♥ྀ ♥ྀ
"She found her quiet.
As she sat in front of her hot tea,
there in the spirals
of the steam, was a special
moment. A moment
of extraordinary ordinary.
The stillness spoke to her
of the beauty always here."
~S.C Lourie
"She rose with the sun
in front of her
the possibilities of
the day fresh in the air.
The quiet of her soul
was the song in her lungs
as she took a breath.
Deep within, she gave her heart
to the day. It would be beautiful.
Both the sun and she
deep down knew that."
~S.C Lourie
"The ocean is such a romantic force in nature
Waltzing with the shores of the land
Every moment of the day.
Singing its song to the moon
Through the daytime and the night.
It is never ceasing in love
Even as the moon sleeps,
Still it's lullaby of love delights
The children that come to visit it,
And rests the weary hearts of the adults,
As it woos the sands until the moon
Comes out to play again."
~Butterflies and Pebbles
The Soul-fire Manifesto
It's my life to live. My path to walk.
My mistakes to make. My blessings to appreciate.
My song to sing. My dance to be dancing.
My wings to spread. My soul to be fed.
My journey to abound. My freedom to be found.
My essence to discover. My true face to uncover.
My love to explore. My healing to soar.
My sparkle to let shine. My courage, in faith, that I will find.
My wisdom to learn. My soulfire to burn.
The softest parts of my heart to empower.
My deepest dream to nourish from bud to flower.
And today I choose to walk this way.
-S.C Lourie
"there is a beauty in mist
i never knew was there.
it clouds all around you
so you can notice again
all beauty close to you.
the distractions lessen
so you can look deep into
the eyes of those that hold your hand.
in the mist blurring our stresses and ambitions,
we might find each other again.
we might just find ourselves."
~Butterfly and Pebbles
"What makes your heart flutter?
What makes your soul soar?
What makes your spirit dance?
Go do those things more."
~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When the wild life bird sings
inside your soul at the beginning
of each sunrise, whispering her truths,
where does she tell you to go?
What does she tell you to do?
Follow her guidance.
Your day is a gift to be opened,
an adventure to be unravelled." ~S.C Lourie
FEATURED VERSES
"I wish you bright mornings and warm, sunny days,
Soft shade to cool you from sweltering rays,
Raindrops, a few, from some cloud floating by,
Rainbows thereafter to colour your sky." ~Anon (B&P)
'You shine your light
So that I may find my way
No matter how dark it gets
I'll know where I can stay
Within the comfort of your arms
Your Love shows me hope
So I will come out to play
with a whole new outlook!'
~from Butterflies and Pebbles
From Babes' Mums Mouth On Wall Colouring Adventure Thread
"Paint is cheap. Looking into a little happy face is priceless." ~Tamara Lewis Griffith
"I'll never forget our first spring after we bought our first home and had a yard of our own for the first time. My oldest daughter was two at the time, and as I looked in dismay at the sea of dandelions, lamb's-ear, clover, and other "weeds," my daughter said, "Mama! It's just like Teletubbyland!" She loved all the pretty flowers and she saw them for what they were... flowers." ~Candy Montgomery
"The innocence of a child is magical. Look at it like the pencil marks our parents would keep on the doorways to mark our height. These are moments that will be gone in a flash ." ~Dianne Wilding
"and sometimes a home should be lived in, our kids are only small once, then they grow up and leave us..( just try to enjoy them now, fix everything later if you need to, happiness is...).~Michelle Anne Middleton
"The wonderful invention of magic erasers!!! If I had it to do all over again there would be a dedicated wall for drawing or at the very least a chalkboard wall!!" ~Donna Armstrong-Petersen
Quotes from B and P
“All you need in life is to know thyself; to live with the knowledge that it’s just life and that's the way it is. You need a sense of what your life means to you, the appreciation of yourself, your friendships and the love of others. You need a desire to grow as a person, to discover what your gifts in life are to yourself, others, and the world. You are the only you in the world. Embrace who you are....” ~James A. Murphy, The Waves of Life Quotes and Daily Meditations (Butterflies and Pebbles)
"An amazing thing happens when you get honest with yourself and start doing what you love, what makes you happy. Your life literally slows down. You stop wishing for the weekend. You stop merely looking forward to special events. You begin to live in each moment and you start feeling like a human being. You just ride the wave that is life, with this feeling of contentment and joy. You move fluidly, steadily, calm and grateful. A veil is lifted, and a whole new perspective is born." ~Jes Allen
"And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time." ~Libba Bray from Journey to Peace
"Anyone who takes the time to be kind is beautiful." -Richelle E. Goodrich from Butterflies and Pebbles
“Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” ~Chuck Klosterman
“Being a dreamer is not lost on this world. This world is lost in the wrong dreams. It is only our golden shakes and heart-shaped shouts which can free us into another iteration. Wild one, your dreams ache and arch inside of you, they beg to tumble out.” ~Robin Lee from SC Lourie
"Being happy never goes out of style." ~Lilly Pulitzer (B&P)
“Books are many things: lullabies for the weary, ointment for the wounded, armour for the fearful and nests for those in need of a home.” ~Glenda Millard, The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk (SC Lourie FB Page)
"Call your mother. Tell her you love her. Remember you're the only person who knows what her heart sounds like from the inside." ~Rachel Wolchin from Butterflies and Pebbles
"Children are the ones that know exactly what's going on in the world. They see more than adults, believe in more, are honest and will always, always let you know where you stand." ~Cecelia Ahern
“Dance. Smile. Giggle. Marvel. TRUST. HOPE. LOVE. WISH. BELIEVE. Most of all, enjoy every moment of the journey, and appreciate where you are at this moment instead of always focusing on how far you have to go.” ~Mandy Hale
“Do the things you used to talk about doing but never did. Know when to let go and when to hold on tight. Stop rushing. Don't be intimidated to say it like it is. Stop apologizing all the time. Learn to say no, so your yes has some oomph. Spend time with the friends who lift you up, and cut loose the ones who bring you down. Stop giving your power away. Be more concerned with being interested than being interesting. Be old enough to appreciate your freedom, and young enough to enjoy it. Finally know who you are.” ~Kristin Armstrong
"Don't give up. Normally it is the last key on the ring which opens the door." ~Paulo Coelho
"Each moment is its own reward." ~Tony Parsons
"Every life comes with a story ... and a possibility of adventure." ~Kobi Yamada
"Fall has always been my favourite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale." ~Lauren DeStefano
"Falling in love you remain a child; rising in love you mature. By and by love becomes not a relationship, it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in love - Ne you love!" ~Osho
"I believe certain people cross your life as guardian angels and some connections can't be explained by words alone. It's more of a soul thing, a feeling." ~Overly Exclusive
"I do not belong inside the concrete jungle where the air grows thick with fumes and destruction. I belong where I can feel the earth with my bare feet and the rivers flow peacefully beneath the lush trees and their melodic friends. I belong with nature." ~Anon (from Waking Wonder)
"I love music. For me, music is morning coffee. It's mood medicine. It's pure magic. A good song is like a good meal ― I just want to inhale it and then share a bite with someone else." ~Hoda Kotb
"If hatred knocks at your door, greet it with a smile, but tell it it has come too late, for love is already having tea inside." ~Nasim Asgari
“IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." ~Fred Rogers from Butterflies and Pebbles
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even
if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the "good" living room
and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather rambling about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day
because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculped like a rose before it melted
in storage.I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television, and more
while watching life.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the
earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical,
wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every
moment, realising that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance
in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said,
"Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."
There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's"
. . . but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute . . .
look at it and really see it . . . and never give it back.” ~Erma Bombeck
"I've always like the time before dawn because there's no one around to remind me who I'm supposed to be, so it's easier to remember who I am." ~Brian Andreas
"I've just discovered that vivid sweet dreams are written on love letters." ~Rekindling the Fire
“I have the deepest affection for intellectual conversations. The ability to just sit and talk. About love, about life, about anything, about everything. To sit under the moon with all the time in the world, the full-speed train that is our lives slowing to a crawl. Bound by no obligations, barred by no human limitations. To speak without regret or fear of consequence. To talk for hours and about what’s really important in life.” ~Anon
“I know it isn’t easy, being who you are in a world hell-bent on making you fit into something made by somebody else. Don’t let them shave off your beautiful edges. Don’t let them rip you from the arms of your Soul.” ~Alison Nappi from SC Lourie
"I need to be startlingly clear. This thing of finding your authentic voice, expressing your blessed weirdness and revealing your soul isn’t an elegant process. You don’t do it to be cool. It’s only real when it is ruthless, relentless and inevitable. But it is also a matter of personal and collective survival. Yes, it’s that important. You are that critical" ~Jacob Nordby
“...I remember thinking how often we look, but never see...we listen, but never hear...we exist, but never feel. We take our relationships for granted. A house is only a place. It has no life of its own. It needs human voices, activity and laughter to come alive.” ~Erma Bombeck from Waking Wonder
"If you are giving more than you are receiving, you will feel drained, tired, resentful and depleted. Your energy levels will be thin on the ground. It might be time to do an energy stocktake, to look at where your energy is going and what is coming in... If its not in balance, it is time for you to take time out for yourself, to recharge your batteries and give to self." ~Michelle O'Brien / Divine Directions
"In order to know the Truth, you have to be out of your Mind." ~Vivian Amis (Waking Wonder)
“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” ~Hugh Laurie from SC Lourie
"It's alright to do things the way you want. There is no map to life, no blueprints to survival, you can create your world day by day if you have a clear vision and an unwillingness to give up." ~John O'Callaghan (B&P)
“It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.” ~Frances Hodgson Burnett
“It's much easier to not know things sometimes. Things change and friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody. I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everybody was, especially me. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and than make the choice to share it with other people. You can't just sit their and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is. And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn't do or what they didn't know. I don't know. I guess there could always be someone to blame. It's just different. Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there. Because it's okay to feel things. I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite. I feel infinite.” ~Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
"Just when you thought your light was about to go out, you saw a little flicker, fed it with love and watched it reignite again! Feed your soul daily with faith and love and you will never stop shining!" ~Shari Alyse
"Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose." ~Mary Ann Radmacher (B&P)
"Let us pray for your.
For your bones.
For your sacred hands.
May you learn to love
What is holy in you.
May you learn to love
What is not."
~Caitlyn Siehl
"Life really is that simple. It's the mind that complicates it." ~Anon (B&P
"Limits only exist in our minds." ~Judy Culgan
"Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul." ~John O'Donohue
"Love is a meeting of two souls, fully accepting the dark and the light within each other, bound by the courage to grow through struggle into bliss." ~Anon (B&P)
"Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Maturity is that time when the mirrors in our mind turn into windows and instead if seeing the reflection of ourselves, we see others." ~Anon (B&P)
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." ~Neil Gaiman
"Only three things can change our lives: dreams, suffering and love." ~Paulo Coelho
"Perhaps strength doesn't reside in having never been broken, but in the courage required to grow strong in the broken places." ~Ruthie Dean
"Relationships aren't here to make us happy (for happiness is only found within). They are here o make us profoundly conscious." ~Eckhart Tolle
"Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames." ~Rumi
"She dances to the songs in her head, speaks with the rhythm of her heart, and loves from the depths of her soul." ~Dean Jackson
"She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
“She understood that the hardest times in life to go through were when you were transitioning from one version of yourself to another.” ~Sarah Addison Allen, Lost Lake
"She was a wild, wicked slip of a girl. She burned too bright for this world." ~Emily Bronte
"So let your heart sweet heart be your compass when you're lost. And you should follow it wherever it may go." ~Lady Antebellum
"Some days gently ask us to leave the to-do list blank, to spend time stretched out, eyes closed, on the couch beneath an open window listening to the world rise into spring, feeling the tickle of a cool-warm breeze on our face and finally-bare legs and arms.
Some days want us to simply be quiet." ~Heidi Baker
"Some days, just when we think all is healed, Sadness arrives. Unannounced, uninvited, he floats in, bringing tears, regret, pain, emptiness. He reminds us of the Unpleasant Past and the Unresolved Present. My dear, do not be afraid. The presence of Sadness does not equal the absence of Healing. Healing is always working her wonders. Sadness is merely a cleansing Visitor." ~Amy Denson from Project Butterfly Free
"Something will grow from all you’re going through and it will be YOU." ~Anon
"Sometimes you have to stop worrying, wondering, and doubting. Have faith that things will work out, maybe not how you planned, but just how it’s meant to be." ~Anon (The Ruby Gateway)
"Sometimes you've got to be able to listen to yourself and be okay with no one else understanding." ~Christopher Barzark
"Sometimes you just gotta be there for yourself no matter what is happening in the busy world around you." ~Christopher Barzak
"Speak your heart. If they don't understand, the message was never meant for them anyway." ~Yasmin Mogahed
"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable." ~John Cheever
“The entire world is a mirror. The only thing you can ever experience is yourself. Everything you think, feel, do, and see is you. Your thoughts, feelings, ideas, values, philosophies, and opinions create your world. Everything you experience is as it is because that’s how you experience it. We experience the world the way we do because of who we are, not because of how it is:.” ~Cheri Huber
"The greatest battle is not physical but psychological. The demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet, the steady dignity that simply refuses to give in. Courage. We all suffer. Keep going." ~Graeme Fife
"The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too." ~Vincent van Gogh
"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire oceAn is affected by a pebble." ~Blaise Pascal
"The place where passion remains undaunted and emotion is lived rather than observed..." ~Anon
"The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things." ~Hans Christian Andersen
"There is peace even in the storm"... ~Vincent Van Gogh
“There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others. When that happens, you do it. Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else. Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it.” ~Judith McNaught, Remember When
"To have faith is to have wings." ~J. M. Barrie
"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are." ~Kurt Cobain
"We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars." ~Carl Sagan
"We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation, lies within ourselves." ~Francis Braceland
"We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open." ~Jack Kornfield (B&P)
"We sometimes choose the most locked up, dark versions of the story, but what a good friend does is turn on the lights, open the window, and remind us that there are a whole lot of ways to tell the same story." ~Shauna Niequist
"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us." ~Anon
"When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she always had been. But she had wings." ~Dean Jackson
"When someone's happiness is your own happiness, that's love." ~Lana Del Ray
“When tears come, I breathe deeply and rest. I know I am swimming in a hallowed stream where many have gone before. I am not alone, crazy, or having a nervous breakdown…. My heart is at work, my soul is awake." ~Mary Margaret Funk from Butterflies and Pebbles
“When they ask me about my future wife, I always tell them that her eyes are the only Christmas lights that deserve to be seen all year long. I tell them that she has a walk that can make an atheist believe in God just long enough to say, ‘God damn’. I tell them that if my alarm clock sounded like her voice, my snooze button would collect dust. I tell them that if she came in a bottle, I would drink her until my vision is blurry and my friends take away my keys. I tell them that if she was a book, I would memorize her table of contents. I would read her, cover to cover, hoping to find typos, just so we could both have something to work on, because aren’t we all unfinished?” ~Rudy Francisco
"When we allow ourselves to Be, we allow everyone to Be." ~Sus Kongsbak Larsen
"Where there is understanding there is Love" ~from Elaine Paphides
"With Freedom, Books, Flowers and the Moon, who really could not be happy?" ~Oscar Wilde
"You are a piece of the puzzle of someone else's life. You may never know where you fit, but others will fill the holes in their lives with pieces of you." ~Bonnie Arbor
“You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner.
You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single second of every single day. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colors fill your mind until there is nothing left to do but explode. There are no wrong answers. Inspiration is everything. Sit back, relax, and take it all in. Now, go out and create something.” ~Jac Vanek
"You can't calm the storm to stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass." ~Timba Hawkeye
"You can't outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don't play at all. And if you don't play you can't in." ~Judith McNaught, Paradise
"You carry away with you a reflection of me, a part of me. I dreamed you; I wished for your existence. You will always be a part of my life. If I love you, it must be because we shared, at some moment, the same imaginings, the same madness, the same stage. When your beauty struck me, it dissolved me. Deep down, I am not different from you. I dreamed you, I wished for your existence. I see in you that part of me which is you. I surrender my sincerity because if I love you it means we share the same fantasies, we share the same madness." Anais Nin (from B&P)
"Your body is not your masterpiece - your life is.... Your body is not your art, it’s your paintbrush. ...
Pick up your instrument and start painting this day beautiful and bold and wild and free and YOU.” ~Glennon Melton from Butterflies and Pebbles
"Your heart and my heart are old friends." ~Hafiz
"Your intuition is your pilot's seat of your soul. If you don't trust it, you'll keep missing the most important destinations of life." ~Kaiden Blake (B&P)
Quotes from SC Lourie
"A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life." ~B and P
"And if anything, if you can be gentle with the truth and not defend yourself madly against the onslaught of its love, everything will turn out okay. It will be beautiful. The mending will always happen. " ~SC Lourie
"And today, I choose to walk this way ; grateful in faith and not knowing where the hell I'm going. Such is life. Such is love. Such is adventure. Such is the truth of every new day. Wouldn't want it any other way." ~S.C Lourie
"As I've followed my heart over the years and become more acquainted with genuine spirituality, I thought I'd become like a rock. I thought I'd feel no pain, be all smiling, steadfast, oozing out love at every turn. But the truth is I cry more now than I did when I was tricking myself through the years. I feel so much more. In my chest. In my gut. And in that I feel alive. But I feel pain. I feel unsure. I feel passion. I feel empathy. Sometimes I don't smile and that's okay. Sometimes I don't have the answers I used to wrack my brains about and that's okay too. I think I kept my heart chained and hardened to avoid all I feel now. But life has shown me the only way to really live is to feel it all, including the pain, the loss, the sting of every goodbye. I think my goodbyes will always be painful despite however much I spiritually understand. I reckon my thousands of tears will be for all the gratitude I have for the thousands of moments I've had with my loved ones. I think my pain will be a sign that what I have now is so good. And I'll be okay with not being okay. That's what I have learned the most so far. It's okay not being okay. It's just as beautiful and healing in its own way." ~S.C Lourie
"Because even on the hardest of days, I try to remember my life is precious." ~S.C. Lourie
"Both time and silence are now luxuries." ~B and P
"Choose to speak the things that often go unspoken. Choose to say the things most important in your heart. We're all scared of saying the things that matter. But they matter far more than our fear." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Coffee is the magic formula that brightens all the mornings around the world." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Days will get more and more beautiful. And nights will get more and more peaceful, ..." ~S.C Lourie
"Don't be so hard on yourself for not having it together all the time, for not knowing all the answers. You don't always have to be sure of who you are, otherwise there' be nothing left to discover. You don't have to know where you're headed or have a clear vision of the bigger picture. Sometimes taking one tiny step at a time is more than enough. Sometimes slowing down just to feel the wind blow against you is the beauty of life right there. Wander, be unsure when it is natural to be. Let yourself breathe. We're all rushing for no reason anyway." ~S.C Lourie
"Don't give up your peace for someone else's noise." ~B and P
"Don't let the waves of others drown out your own ocean song. Hold your heart as though it was a seashell. And listen to it. Listen tot it's music. To the whispers of your ocean within. and then swim. Swim to your own ocean music." ~S.C Lourie
"Do not measure me by the width of my waist and the size of my clothes but by the width and depths of my heart and my willingness to live my life no matter what." ~S.C. Lourie
"Don't pick yourself apart anymore. It's as crazy as a flower plucking its own petals out because it feels unworthy. You wouldn't let a flower do that to itself. You would stop it and tell it how beautiful it is. You would show it its beautiful life. The sun shining on it so that it can marvel at its beauty some more, the winds kissing it so it might feel so close…well..you are beautiful, in that very same way. So let your petals be. They will blossom for you if you do." ~S.C. Lourie
"Do you love me enough so that I can give up on always being strong? That rather bring push and strain every muscle in my body I might just sit with you and let all the tension fizzle away ... so that you might see the mouse in me, rather than the lion I often cling to out of fear." ~SC Lourie
"Dreaming of being by the sea is never a wasted dream, a wasted time." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Each breakdown in my past meant that after it I got back up to my feet and mended me. I may breakdown in the future but one of the many things the past has taught me is that I don't stay broken down forever." ~S. C. Lourie
"Each new sunrise is just one new day." ~SC. Lourie
"Everyone has music inside them. Treat your song with love and you'll find the voice to sing." ~S. C. Lourie
"Every time you step out the door, your life could change dramatically. Be open. Stay loose. Go where the wind takes you." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Everything has to be given back to its source at some point and all energy meets again in the sky." ~S. C. Lourie
"Everything looks like stardust from deep within. The light is crystal. The blue of the sky is bejewelled. Everything floats and orbits. My stars swim. I am most alive. I am most alive. As soon as we see the world beneath our skin, we wonder why we stayed on the surface for so long. But we cannot go back. And deep heart-sea diving becomes the way of our souls. We breathe underneath even freer than we did above sea. Our breathing comes from a different part of us. That part where we realise we can breathe free anywhere." ~SC Lourie
"Example is the greatest teacher of all." ~S.C. Lourie
"Fly above your clouds today and get lost in the skies of possibility." ~S.C Lourie
"Follow your instincts to the end. No matter what people think. No matter whether you can articulate it or not. The path your instincts want to lead you along is the path to your peace and your power. Your instincts exist to look after you. It m no difference whether people get it or not." ~S. C. Lourie
"For all the hard days, may my heart grow softer. For all the uncertain days, may my heart grow surer. For all the empty days, may my heart overflow. For all the days I have little, may my heart just simply grow. For all the plain days, may my heart grow in passion. For all the weak days, may my heart grow strong. For all the dark days, may my heart grow bright. And with every night that comes and goes may my heart know its true light." ~S.C Lourie
"For all the times you wanted to give up but didn't, I'm so proud of you. For all those times you thought you were better off dead, but kept on living, I'm so glad you did. Because of you, others will do the same, including me." ~S.C Lourie
"Home is wherever and whenever I say yes to my soul." ~S.C. Lourie
"I admire the people who drink from the water of the storms in their lives. And grow flowers in the most unlikely places because of it." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"I always found the road of becoming to be such a strenuous one. So much happier just being me and letting that unfold naturally." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I'm on the road of unhiding, of letting myself be. I will live my life in a way that let's my soul and skin breathe." ~SC Lourie
"I am slowly building my own little space. Bear with me as I seek to expand and make myself my own little independent haven of inspiration. I love fb but I want to be freer than I am here...so further into the world I go...I know not whether my little voice will get heard in this ocean of a million trillion voices. But I have a voice to sing, to speak, to rhyme, to express...whether anyone hears it or not, so let it all be." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I'm sure the daisy didn't realise how beautiful she would be when she was just a seed. Nor the power in watering her heart or facing towards the light. In tending to her needs naturally her beauty was soon becoming. So water your heart, turn toward the sunshine of love and I am sure you too will be surprised by the depth of your innate beauty, if you are not already." ~Butterflies and Pebbles, 28 September 2013
"I can see it! This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You're alive. And you stand up and see the lights and the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song in that drive with the people you love most in the world. And in this moment I swear we are infinite." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I deteriorated only when I told myself I wasn't enough. But even as I deteriorated, I was still breathing and breathing meant there was always possibility. As long as I was alive, I could always, always rediscover the beauty of living, the beauty of being me." ~S.C Lourie
"I don't think the daisy knew how beautiful she would be when she was just a seed. Nor the power of watering her heart daily and facing towards the light. But just by tending naturally to her needs her blossoming was becoming. So water your own heart, allow the sunshine of love to flood your life. And I'm sure Your own innate beauty will soon surprise you too, if it doesn't already." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I found my edge once my fear melted away. Fear is only a condition of perspective. Once I got a different perception of the world, there was no more fear to paralyse me." ~S.C. Lourie
"I grieved today for the times I have loved so much that I forgot about myself and my own needs. I grieved today for giving so much and forgetting that I should keep a little bit back just for me. I grieved today for getting so caught up in helping others that I overlooked I needed a little help as well. I grieved today for thinking I could just do it all, denying that I also have my limits. And sometimes having limitations is a holy thing. I just wanna love people in a way that makes me feel loved too. I don’t want to forget myself anymore." ~S.C. Lourie
"I had so many holes, so many heart bruises. Life was asking me to stop avoiding them. To no longer despise them or make them prettier than what they were. For all the times I censored myself, denied my heart, rejected my gut, the holes had come, the bruises had appeared and some I hadn't even stopped to notice. When the moment came for me to start being true to my soul, my holes, my wounds were my passage. And strangely it was in the heart of that passage that I met with the beauty of my inner world, the freedom we are all born with. I found a new love for all my living scars and I realised that often in the heart of our bruises and our holes is where we meet the beauty and the greatness of our souls. Through them we can reconnect and make home in our souls forever." ~S.C Lourie
"I have a song inside me that I don't know yet how to sing. But I know it will emerge from my heart as I continue to trust my brave wings. As I choose to soar in this new week my essence is stirred, my passion awake. I will continue to discover my depths and my song I'll find through every step I take." ~S. C. Lourie
"I see your true colours shining through, sweet soul. Your life is your art. Always be true to the colours of your soul." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I think night time happens so we can actually stop, slow down and look at the stars and all things beautiful. Cos when you look around, you realise for yourself that this life is pretty amazing. And when you rest, you get to feel the amazing ness of life too." ~S. C. Lourie
"I think we break so that we can love all those little pieces of ourselves we haven't loved for a long time." ~S. C. Lourie
"I think what partly makes someone dying so difficult is that you feel so helpless with it all and sometimes you don't get the opportunity to say goodbye and that really makes it difficult." ~B and P
"I want a life where I am moving, learning, sinking deeper into my skin; a life that honours my heart rather than takes from it." ~S.C. Lourie
"I want to rid of myself clocks and live by the rising sun. To be guided by the moon and walk off the beaten path. To live on my own terms. And not be scared to fall in love with everyone I meet. To collect lots of stories. To pass them on. To make my own. To free my soul. To realise I've always been free. To be … To be alive in it all." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I will dance with life today...at times I will twirl like a princess and free the rhythm of my dreams...and in other moments I will stamp my feet, like a gypsy and bask in my freedom passionately." ~S.C Lourie
"I will take my daily dose of love, like the flowers do with sunlight. No matter what else needs to be done in the day, I will make sure love comes first." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"If you find peace inside...and outside will soon find it's harmony." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"In a world full of caterpillars it takes courage to be a butterfly. It takes you knowing that as long as breathe you deserve to fly." ~SC Lourie
"In stillness, the earth's beauty sings." ~Waking Wonder
"In us becoming conscious and attentive to our pain, it is no longer toxic for those around us. So we do not need to get rid of it, we do not need to rush the process. Because pain brings beauty, sensitivity, a deeper appreciation and awareness of life. And something that can bring such sacred gifts needs not be feared as much as we fear it, nor does it need to be gotten rid of. But its when we avoid our pain, pretend it not there, that's when it is toxic for people around us. As soon as you start calling things for what they are, you are safe. We are all safe and there the journey of healing begins." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is in herself she will find the strength she needs." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It's the things that keep you up at night. They're the ones that have your heart." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is well in the meadow of my soul. That secret place where only I can go. I always feel well after every visit there. It is well with my soul." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is written in your blood, that you will fly. So let your heart bleed when it is struck by the tendernesses of life or the whirling thunderstorms - and let it burst open when it is drunk on too much pain. Everything unresolved, let it come. Do not hide. Do not bandage your heart half in shame. Let the tears rain from your eyes when all is stirred. Let the messy goddess emerge with dead grass still in her hair. The sky calls your wings. Let your blood respond. Soaring will come naturally, I promise. But for some reason we must fall before we can fly. We must hear again the song of our blood. It is blood we all share and the soil knows it as much as the sky. They wrote it all together." ~SC Lourie
"Just because someone desires you does not mean they value you." ~B and P
"Let us dance through out the night and make friends with all the stars." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Let us make our own footsteps and the stars will light up the
path when we can't see our way." ~S.C Lourie
"Life is a constant balancing act. So if you're wobbling right now in life, you're probably well on your way to finding balance. You can't have the balance without some wobbling beforehand." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Life is whole. Live all your life. Even the things that hurt. They are still your life, and still they can yield you something beautiful. Live entirely. Live in your entirety. You are whole already. You must just dare to feel it. To experience your whole self. In doing so you will see how beautiful you are." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Listen to the quiet of your heart. It wants to share deep truths that cannot be understood through words." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Live your life like a butterfly. Take a rest sometimes but never forget to fly." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Look at your life through the eyes of your heart and you'll soon know what to do. It's following what you see through that takes the most courage. But your wings are brave, sweet soul. You can do it all." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"May my heart blossom into my soul and leave my mind behind." ~S. C. Lourie
"May we find such peace with our own past so that we can celebrate our scars and realize the treasures within them."
~S.C. Laurie
"No matter what is happening in life, I refuse to not feel alive and enjoy the life I have inside of me and around me." ~B&P
"Nothing stays forever. But that's okay because all beautiful things come around again and again." ~S.C Lourie
"Often we mistake effort for worry and we confuse worrying as something necessary for us to do. But in such a high percentage of life, things will happen regardless and I have never known a moment in my life where worrying yielded me something worthwhile. So in turn, we should replace worrying with breathing, with laughing, with falling in love and noticing beauty as and when it arises. Rather than worry, better for our hearts to accept things that cannot be changed and live out our deepest instincts because to live rather than exist is probably the most precious gift we can give ourselves." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"One night my goddess spoke to me. She whispered in my ear that she had always been in my heart. All I had to do was trust it again and there she would guide me. To open it, she whispered, let the softness be. She said that all divinity is found in an open heart. It never get more complicated than that." ~S.C Lourie
"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right." ~Waking Wonder
"Once she had stopped rushing through life she was amazed at how much more of life she had time for." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Our lives are music in the making. You make your music. I'll make my music and our melodies will have us soaring together." ~S.C Lourie
"Over the years I've found the key to real success ultimately comes down to not how hard you work but actually how much you rest your soul. When the soul is rested, there is no end to your creativity, resourcefulness, and aptitude. Your vision is strong and fresh. Your passion is endless. And your energy is renewed regularly. So this night and every night is important. It is important for you to rest your soul, if you really want to experience what you're capable of. Because when your soul feels renewed, there is no end to what you may experience. By all means work proactively but take your rest sacredly. It's what is missing in most our lives. May your soul rest tonight." ~S. C. Lourie
"See to your heart's constant longing and all else will fall into place. Worry's medicine is to listen to the heart and act on it's guidance. That's how we lessen our anxiety. That's how we diminish the burden it sometimes feels to live. We must not quench our hearts. We must not stifle our deepest loves. We must allow our deepest inclinations to breathe. We must encourage them in each other." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"She carefully gathers the minutes of her life and lives them with intention." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"She took a deep breath and let it all go. Free from her grip, Life started to dance amongst her and at the sight of freedom from the worry, her heart finally smiled...again." ~S.C Lourie
"So sweet soul come with me to the sea. Let us imagine ourselves there. Let us remember the feeling of sand beneath our feet and that unforgettable sea breeze blowing through our hair." ~S. C. Lourie
"Some people look for that beautiful place out in the distance. Others make whatever they find themselves that beautiful place." ~Waking Wonder
"Sometimes I just want to let it all be. There is no greater peace than to realise you don't need to always get things your way." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us." ~B&P
"Sometimes tough moments come so we can pay attention to something that needs our time. Often beautiful things happen through them." ~Waking Wonder
"Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sometimes you just gotta be there for yourself no matter what is happening in the busy world around you." ~Butterflies and Pebbles, May 4, 2014
"Take the time to listen to those things that speak without words. Your heart is one of them." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The beat of your heart plays like the song of my soul. We were always gonna be. Like the inhale to my exhale. Always." ~SC Lourie
"The beauty of life is found in our just simple being. We are everything we need." ~S.C. Lourie
"The human heart is an incredible expression of life. It can be broken a thousand times and will live again a thousand and one times. That is true and unflinching beauty." ~S.C Lourie
"The journeys we have gone on to be who we are today. The battles we have emerged from, wounded but not finished. The levels of hell we have endured because we believed a peaceful day was coming. It has been such a labour of love, blood, sweat, tears to get to where I am today. When I do eventually die one day, all I want to really say is that I have lived. I have loved. I have given everything to my life, to the sense of being here awake in this world. I kept on when I could have stopped. I just want my battery to be totally empty when my time comes. All my fuel spent on a life that I put my whole heart into exploring and expressing and giving and relishing. Feeling grateful right now, just to be here. I hope you celebrate who you are today too. It's all been worth it up to now and what lies before us is even more wonderful than all the things we leave behind in every new moment. Long may we continue and everything may we continue to give." ~SC Lourie, Butterflies and Pebbles, 22 June 2014
"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." ~S.C. Lourie ("Butterflies and Pebbles)
"The ocean is where my heart naturally goes to at night time. I am longing for the seashores knight." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The more time I spend in my heart, the more I think my heart is really where I should live from." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The night is so beautiful.
It comes so that our hearts may rest.
It sets the sky alight
With a million little suns.
The lights of all those we
Have loved and lost shine bright.
Our hearts rest because
We feel their presence
In the stars."
~S. C. Lourie
"The song of the sea sings so perfectly the melody of our hearts." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The universe does a wonderful job of bringing the right people to you at the right time." ~S.C Lourie
"There are some days where you make the coffee and there are some days where the coffee makes you. My week is kinda full of the second more than the first." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"There's traveling around the world and then there's traveling around your worlds within. One you can do only once in a while if you're fortunate enough. The other you can do at any time on any day and each trip will yield you new and beautiful ways to see yourself, life and the immediate world around you that hopefully one day you can travel around too. There is so much within you to discover. You can begin a new journey by trying to see something in a new way...by letting go of something familiar and old....by doing something that scares you or have been putting off for a while. The most significant journey you will ever make is the one within. It will bring meaning to all other adventures you've ever had. Your heart is bottomless. There are always new places to find." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"There were the years when I was brave. When I was desperate to honour the planets swirling inside of me. And then there were the years where I sat back and replaced my roar with a hum of patterning, scheduling, fitting into the box of the frightened world. But my galaxies, they didn't leave me, they just went to sleep for a while to refuel their orbit. And they boomed one day and my chaos emerged like a giant, coming up to my surface, ready to expose the alien in all I was then attempting to be. But that was the day my stars were born. Millions of them. And I am still dancing with them now. Always let the chaos come." ~SC Lourie, Star-catcher
"There will be clear skies after every pouring down of rain." ~Waking Wonder
"To let my soul breathe, I simply am. I need nothing more." ~S.C. Lourie
"To live outside the pressures of time is a very beautiful thing and that's why I love Sundays. It gives me a peak into a deeper way of being and existing, one that resonates deeply with my dreams." ~S.C Lourie
"To love oneself is the beginning of all freedom." ~S. C. Lourie
"Tread gently and be kind. Ask someone if they are okay and really listen to their answer, it may not be in their words but hidden in their smile." ~SC Lourie
"Value the journey of your heart to this moment by being present in today as you are today, not as you were in your yesterdays. And breathe, live, speak, respond, walk and groove at your own pace. Only the rhythm of your soul are you supposed to dance to. Nothing need be rushed." ~S.C. Lourie
"We are all born wild and free. But we must make real our freedom in this sleeping world. We must make our dreams tangible.We must pursue the path our heart directs us on. And light the way with a passion that can burn the stars. We must follow the winds of our soul even to the ends of the earth. We must if anything always be true to ourselves. Wherever we find ourselves, we must always be true." -S.C Lourie
"We are all flower children. Of the earth. Facing the sun. Blossoming in season. Flowing with the constant changes of Life. May your day be peaceful and flower-powered." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"We journey through something all the time." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"What if each flickering star actually was the remnants of every prayer sent up for a loved one, and every kind wish sent across the ocean, and every smile given across a road? What if it was gestures of love that filled the sky at night? And every time we looked up at nighttime, we were visually reminded of what our love and light do in this world every day?" ~S. C. Lourie
"What if it was never about finding a happy ending? But about finding harmony with every chapter and realising that life doesn't ever end but is just in constant and meaningful change -- even if we have days where we don't understand its meaning..." ~S.C Lourie
"What if you were a gift to the day as much as the day is a gift to us? Unwrap your heart and give it to your day entirely. Be present and realise you are the present. " ~S.C Lourie
"What life really comes down to, peace in the mind, health in hand and love in the heart." ~Samantha C. Lourie
"Whatever's in your hands is enough. Give it the light of your faith and see it light up the sky of possibility." ~S.C Lourie (B&P)
"Whatever your past has been, you have a spotless future." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When I saw you I fell in love and you smiled because you knew." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When it's all finished you'll look back and see that none of it was random. And how everything fell into place at just the right time and that some of what you thought were mistakes were actually the most beautiful things to happen in your life." ~S.C. Lourie
"When it's your moment to shine, remember you're made of stardust...literally. It's in your blood to sparkle." ~S.C Lourie
"When life seems quite difficult don’t despair, it just means you have the right conditions for a miracle to happen." -S.C Lourie
"When you do a kindness for no reason at all you do a remarkable thing in this world. Earth becomes a little more like heaven." ~S. C. Lourie
"For all the hard days, may my heart grow softer. For all the uncertain days, may my heart grow surer. For all the empty days, may my heart overflow. For all the days I have little, may my heart just simply grow. For all the plain days, may my heart grow in passion. For all the weak days, may my heart grow strong. For all the dark days, may my heart grow bright. And with every night that comes and goes may my heart know its true light." ~S.C Lourie
"For all the times you wanted to give up but didn't, I'm so proud of you. For all those times you thought you were better off dead, but kept on living, I'm so glad you did. Because of you, others will do the same, including me." ~S.C Lourie
"We've all been there, we might often visit that place, and still we keep going...still we keep our heart open and trust that everything will be okay. For every time you don't give up, your energy goes into the world and inspires someone else to keep going. We affect each other. We need each other. We're in this world together and that's a beautiful thing. We may never know how much we inspire others but that's okay, as long as we have inspiration in the air, possibilities abound in great measure for us all." ~S.C. Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles"For at least one minute today walk outside, stand in silence, look up at the sky, and contemplate how amazing life really is." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Home is wherever and whenever I say yes to my soul." ~S.C. Lourie
"I admire the people who drink from the water of the storms in their lives. And grow flowers in the most unlikely places because of it." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"I always found the road of becoming to be such a strenuous one. So much happier just being me and letting that unfold naturally." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I'm on the road of unhiding, of letting myself be. I will live my life in a way that let's my soul and skin breathe." ~SC Lourie
"I am slowly building my own little space. Bear with me as I seek to expand and make myself my own little independent haven of inspiration. I love fb but I want to be freer than I am here...so further into the world I go...I know not whether my little voice will get heard in this ocean of a million trillion voices. But I have a voice to sing, to speak, to rhyme, to express...whether anyone hears it or not, so let it all be." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I'm sure the daisy didn't realise how beautiful she would be when she was just a seed. Nor the power in watering her heart or facing towards the light. In tending to her needs naturally her beauty was soon becoming. So water your heart, turn toward the sunshine of love and I am sure you too will be surprised by the depth of your innate beauty, if you are not already." ~Butterflies and Pebbles, 28 September 2013
"I can see it! This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You're alive. And you stand up and see the lights and the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song in that drive with the people you love most in the world. And in this moment I swear we are infinite." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I deteriorated only when I told myself I wasn't enough. But even as I deteriorated, I was still breathing and breathing meant there was always possibility. As long as I was alive, I could always, always rediscover the beauty of living, the beauty of being me." ~S.C Lourie
"I don't think the daisy knew how beautiful she would be when she was just a seed. Nor the power of watering her heart daily and facing towards the light. But just by tending naturally to her needs her blossoming was becoming. So water your own heart, allow the sunshine of love to flood your life. And I'm sure Your own innate beauty will soon surprise you too, if it doesn't already." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I found my edge once my fear melted away. Fear is only a condition of perspective. Once I got a different perception of the world, there was no more fear to paralyse me." ~S.C. Lourie
"I grieved today for the times I have loved so much that I forgot about myself and my own needs. I grieved today for giving so much and forgetting that I should keep a little bit back just for me. I grieved today for getting so caught up in helping others that I overlooked I needed a little help as well. I grieved today for thinking I could just do it all, denying that I also have my limits. And sometimes having limitations is a holy thing. I just wanna love people in a way that makes me feel loved too. I don’t want to forget myself anymore." ~S.C. Lourie
"I had so many holes, so many heart bruises. Life was asking me to stop avoiding them. To no longer despise them or make them prettier than what they were. For all the times I censored myself, denied my heart, rejected my gut, the holes had come, the bruises had appeared and some I hadn't even stopped to notice. When the moment came for me to start being true to my soul, my holes, my wounds were my passage. And strangely it was in the heart of that passage that I met with the beauty of my inner world, the freedom we are all born with. I found a new love for all my living scars and I realised that often in the heart of our bruises and our holes is where we meet the beauty and the greatness of our souls. Through them we can reconnect and make home in our souls forever." ~S.C Lourie
"I have a song inside me that I don't know yet how to sing. But I know it will emerge from my heart as I continue to trust my brave wings. As I choose to soar in this new week my essence is stirred, my passion awake. I will continue to discover my depths and my song I'll find through every step I take." ~S. C. Lourie
"I see your true colours shining through, sweet soul. Your life is your art. Always be true to the colours of your soul." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I think night time happens so we can actually stop, slow down and look at the stars and all things beautiful. Cos when you look around, you realise for yourself that this life is pretty amazing. And when you rest, you get to feel the amazing ness of life too." ~S. C. Lourie
"I think we break so that we can love all those little pieces of ourselves we haven't loved for a long time." ~S. C. Lourie
"I think what partly makes someone dying so difficult is that you feel so helpless with it all and sometimes you don't get the opportunity to say goodbye and that really makes it difficult." ~B and P
"I want a life where I am moving, learning, sinking deeper into my skin; a life that honours my heart rather than takes from it." ~S.C. Lourie
"I want to rid of myself clocks and live by the rising sun. To be guided by the moon and walk off the beaten path. To live on my own terms. And not be scared to fall in love with everyone I meet. To collect lots of stories. To pass them on. To make my own. To free my soul. To realise I've always been free. To be … To be alive in it all." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"I will dance with life today...at times I will twirl like a princess and free the rhythm of my dreams...and in other moments I will stamp my feet, like a gypsy and bask in my freedom passionately." ~S.C Lourie
"I will take my daily dose of love, like the flowers do with sunlight. No matter what else needs to be done in the day, I will make sure love comes first." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"If you find peace inside...and outside will soon find it's harmony." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"In a world full of caterpillars it takes courage to be a butterfly. It takes you knowing that as long as breathe you deserve to fly." ~SC Lourie
"In stillness, the earth's beauty sings." ~Waking Wonder
"In us becoming conscious and attentive to our pain, it is no longer toxic for those around us. So we do not need to get rid of it, we do not need to rush the process. Because pain brings beauty, sensitivity, a deeper appreciation and awareness of life. And something that can bring such sacred gifts needs not be feared as much as we fear it, nor does it need to be gotten rid of. But its when we avoid our pain, pretend it not there, that's when it is toxic for people around us. As soon as you start calling things for what they are, you are safe. We are all safe and there the journey of healing begins." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is in herself she will find the strength she needs." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It's the things that keep you up at night. They're the ones that have your heart." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is well in the meadow of my soul. That secret place where only I can go. I always feel well after every visit there. It is well with my soul." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"It is written in your blood, that you will fly. So let your heart bleed when it is struck by the tendernesses of life or the whirling thunderstorms - and let it burst open when it is drunk on too much pain. Everything unresolved, let it come. Do not hide. Do not bandage your heart half in shame. Let the tears rain from your eyes when all is stirred. Let the messy goddess emerge with dead grass still in her hair. The sky calls your wings. Let your blood respond. Soaring will come naturally, I promise. But for some reason we must fall before we can fly. We must hear again the song of our blood. It is blood we all share and the soil knows it as much as the sky. They wrote it all together." ~SC Lourie
"Just because someone desires you does not mean they value you." ~B and P
"Let us dance through out the night and make friends with all the stars." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Let us make our own footsteps and the stars will light up the
path when we can't see our way." ~S.C Lourie
"Life is a constant balancing act. So if you're wobbling right now in life, you're probably well on your way to finding balance. You can't have the balance without some wobbling beforehand." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Life is whole. Live all your life. Even the things that hurt. They are still your life, and still they can yield you something beautiful. Live entirely. Live in your entirety. You are whole already. You must just dare to feel it. To experience your whole self. In doing so you will see how beautiful you are." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Listen to the quiet of your heart. It wants to share deep truths that cannot be understood through words." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Live your life like a butterfly. Take a rest sometimes but never forget to fly." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Look at your life through the eyes of your heart and you'll soon know what to do. It's following what you see through that takes the most courage. But your wings are brave, sweet soul. You can do it all." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"May my heart blossom into my soul and leave my mind behind." ~S. C. Lourie
"May we find such peace with our own past so that we can celebrate our scars and realize the treasures within them."
~S.C. Laurie
"No matter what is happening in life, I refuse to not feel alive and enjoy the life I have inside of me and around me." ~B&P
"Nothing stays forever. But that's okay because all beautiful things come around again and again." ~S.C Lourie
"Often we mistake effort for worry and we confuse worrying as something necessary for us to do. But in such a high percentage of life, things will happen regardless and I have never known a moment in my life where worrying yielded me something worthwhile. So in turn, we should replace worrying with breathing, with laughing, with falling in love and noticing beauty as and when it arises. Rather than worry, better for our hearts to accept things that cannot be changed and live out our deepest instincts because to live rather than exist is probably the most precious gift we can give ourselves." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"One night my goddess spoke to me. She whispered in my ear that she had always been in my heart. All I had to do was trust it again and there she would guide me. To open it, she whispered, let the softness be. She said that all divinity is found in an open heart. It never get more complicated than that." ~S.C Lourie
"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right." ~Waking Wonder
"Once she had stopped rushing through life she was amazed at how much more of life she had time for." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Our lives are music in the making. You make your music. I'll make my music and our melodies will have us soaring together." ~S.C Lourie
"Over the years I've found the key to real success ultimately comes down to not how hard you work but actually how much you rest your soul. When the soul is rested, there is no end to your creativity, resourcefulness, and aptitude. Your vision is strong and fresh. Your passion is endless. And your energy is renewed regularly. So this night and every night is important. It is important for you to rest your soul, if you really want to experience what you're capable of. Because when your soul feels renewed, there is no end to what you may experience. By all means work proactively but take your rest sacredly. It's what is missing in most our lives. May your soul rest tonight." ~S. C. Lourie
"See to your heart's constant longing and all else will fall into place. Worry's medicine is to listen to the heart and act on it's guidance. That's how we lessen our anxiety. That's how we diminish the burden it sometimes feels to live. We must not quench our hearts. We must not stifle our deepest loves. We must allow our deepest inclinations to breathe. We must encourage them in each other." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"She carefully gathers the minutes of her life and lives them with intention." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"She took a deep breath and let it all go. Free from her grip, Life started to dance amongst her and at the sight of freedom from the worry, her heart finally smiled...again." ~S.C Lourie
"So sweet soul come with me to the sea. Let us imagine ourselves there. Let us remember the feeling of sand beneath our feet and that unforgettable sea breeze blowing through our hair." ~S. C. Lourie
"Some people look for that beautiful place out in the distance. Others make whatever they find themselves that beautiful place." ~Waking Wonder
"Sometimes I just want to let it all be. There is no greater peace than to realise you don't need to always get things your way." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us." ~B&P
"Sometimes tough moments come so we can pay attention to something that needs our time. Often beautiful things happen through them." ~Waking Wonder
"Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sometimes you just gotta be there for yourself no matter what is happening in the busy world around you." ~Butterflies and Pebbles, May 4, 2014
"Take the time to listen to those things that speak without words. Your heart is one of them." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The beat of your heart plays like the song of my soul. We were always gonna be. Like the inhale to my exhale. Always." ~SC Lourie
"The beauty of life is found in our just simple being. We are everything we need." ~S.C. Lourie
"The human heart is an incredible expression of life. It can be broken a thousand times and will live again a thousand and one times. That is true and unflinching beauty." ~S.C Lourie
"The journeys we have gone on to be who we are today. The battles we have emerged from, wounded but not finished. The levels of hell we have endured because we believed a peaceful day was coming. It has been such a labour of love, blood, sweat, tears to get to where I am today. When I do eventually die one day, all I want to really say is that I have lived. I have loved. I have given everything to my life, to the sense of being here awake in this world. I kept on when I could have stopped. I just want my battery to be totally empty when my time comes. All my fuel spent on a life that I put my whole heart into exploring and expressing and giving and relishing. Feeling grateful right now, just to be here. I hope you celebrate who you are today too. It's all been worth it up to now and what lies before us is even more wonderful than all the things we leave behind in every new moment. Long may we continue and everything may we continue to give." ~SC Lourie, Butterflies and Pebbles, 22 June 2014
"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." ~S.C. Lourie ("Butterflies and Pebbles)
"The ocean is where my heart naturally goes to at night time. I am longing for the seashores knight." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The more time I spend in my heart, the more I think my heart is really where I should live from." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The night is so beautiful.
It comes so that our hearts may rest.
It sets the sky alight
With a million little suns.
The lights of all those we
Have loved and lost shine bright.
Our hearts rest because
We feel their presence
In the stars."
~S. C. Lourie
"The song of the sea sings so perfectly the melody of our hearts." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"The universe does a wonderful job of bringing the right people to you at the right time." ~S.C Lourie
"There are some days where you make the coffee and there are some days where the coffee makes you. My week is kinda full of the second more than the first." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"There's traveling around the world and then there's traveling around your worlds within. One you can do only once in a while if you're fortunate enough. The other you can do at any time on any day and each trip will yield you new and beautiful ways to see yourself, life and the immediate world around you that hopefully one day you can travel around too. There is so much within you to discover. You can begin a new journey by trying to see something in a new way...by letting go of something familiar and old....by doing something that scares you or have been putting off for a while. The most significant journey you will ever make is the one within. It will bring meaning to all other adventures you've ever had. Your heart is bottomless. There are always new places to find." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"There were the years when I was brave. When I was desperate to honour the planets swirling inside of me. And then there were the years where I sat back and replaced my roar with a hum of patterning, scheduling, fitting into the box of the frightened world. But my galaxies, they didn't leave me, they just went to sleep for a while to refuel their orbit. And they boomed one day and my chaos emerged like a giant, coming up to my surface, ready to expose the alien in all I was then attempting to be. But that was the day my stars were born. Millions of them. And I am still dancing with them now. Always let the chaos come." ~SC Lourie, Star-catcher
"There will be clear skies after every pouring down of rain." ~Waking Wonder
"To let my soul breathe, I simply am. I need nothing more." ~S.C. Lourie
"To live outside the pressures of time is a very beautiful thing and that's why I love Sundays. It gives me a peak into a deeper way of being and existing, one that resonates deeply with my dreams." ~S.C Lourie
"To love oneself is the beginning of all freedom." ~S. C. Lourie
"Tread gently and be kind. Ask someone if they are okay and really listen to their answer, it may not be in their words but hidden in their smile." ~SC Lourie
"Value the journey of your heart to this moment by being present in today as you are today, not as you were in your yesterdays. And breathe, live, speak, respond, walk and groove at your own pace. Only the rhythm of your soul are you supposed to dance to. Nothing need be rushed." ~S.C. Lourie
"We are all born wild and free. But we must make real our freedom in this sleeping world. We must make our dreams tangible.We must pursue the path our heart directs us on. And light the way with a passion that can burn the stars. We must follow the winds of our soul even to the ends of the earth. We must if anything always be true to ourselves. Wherever we find ourselves, we must always be true." -S.C Lourie
"We are all flower children. Of the earth. Facing the sun. Blossoming in season. Flowing with the constant changes of Life. May your day be peaceful and flower-powered." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"We journey through something all the time." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"What if each flickering star actually was the remnants of every prayer sent up for a loved one, and every kind wish sent across the ocean, and every smile given across a road? What if it was gestures of love that filled the sky at night? And every time we looked up at nighttime, we were visually reminded of what our love and light do in this world every day?" ~S. C. Lourie
"What if it was never about finding a happy ending? But about finding harmony with every chapter and realising that life doesn't ever end but is just in constant and meaningful change -- even if we have days where we don't understand its meaning..." ~S.C Lourie
"What if you were a gift to the day as much as the day is a gift to us? Unwrap your heart and give it to your day entirely. Be present and realise you are the present. " ~S.C Lourie
"What life really comes down to, peace in the mind, health in hand and love in the heart." ~Samantha C. Lourie
"Whatever's in your hands is enough. Give it the light of your faith and see it light up the sky of possibility." ~S.C Lourie (B&P)
"Whatever your past has been, you have a spotless future." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When I saw you I fell in love and you smiled because you knew." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When it's all finished you'll look back and see that none of it was random. And how everything fell into place at just the right time and that some of what you thought were mistakes were actually the most beautiful things to happen in your life." ~S.C. Lourie
"When it's your moment to shine, remember you're made of stardust...literally. It's in your blood to sparkle." ~S.C Lourie
"When life seems quite difficult don’t despair, it just means you have the right conditions for a miracle to happen." -S.C Lourie
"When you do a kindness for no reason at all you do a remarkable thing in this world. Earth becomes a little more like heaven." ~S. C. Lourie
"When you have done everything and it still don't make you sing... Maybe it's time to move on to a new thing. " ~SC Lourie, April 18, 2021
"When you meet someone from your soul tribe, you get so close so quick. Being with them is like food for the soul. Your dreams are nourished just by your paths meeting." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When you open your heart to the earth, the earth opens her heart to you." ~S.C Lourie
"With every rising of the sun, think of your life as just begun." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You're a diamond dear.... If fire made you, nothing can break you. So live on. be bold and let the light dance with your soul." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"You cannot do both at the same time. You either compromise yourself or value yourself. You are worthy of all value. May you know that to the very top and bottom of you." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You could have grown cold, but you grew courageous instead. You could have given up, but you kept on going. You could have seen obstacles, but you called them adventures. You could have called them weeds, but instead you called them wildflowers. You could have died a caterpillar, but you fought on to be a butterfly. You could have denied yourself goodness, but instead you chose to show yourself some self-love. You could have defined yourself by the dark days, but instead through them you realized your light." ~S.C Lourie
"You have beautiful hidden worlds inside you. They are closer than you might imagine. You are not as lost as you reckon and your rediscovery is nearer than it seems in your mind." ~S.C Lourie, Butterflies in the Gutter: The Miracle Awaiting You in Life's Dark Moments
"You never know when the tide is going to change and there is a little or a lot of the wonderful things everywhere." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You will be too raw for some. You will be too loud, too big, too fierce, too quiet, too deep. These are not your people." ~Samantha C. Lourie
"You will never find your place in the world by being like everybody else." ~S.C Lourie
"Your wings are beautiful, whether you spread them or not. but if you spread them you get to experience their beauty. And that's special. For you and the world." ~S.C. Lourie
PERSPECTIVES
"When it comes to pure, true love it needs no reason. When you think you're unlovable it still loves. Just like when you feel disenchanted, your heart still beats regardless. When someone else is unlovable, you still love them. Reasons to love come after. But love itself is always there first, mysteriously unconditional, limitless, beating as your very heart beat. You are love first. Reasons for expression come after but your heart is not dependent on them. It is dependent on nothing. It is a beautiful thing to realise that. When you realise you are love, you are free." ~S.C Lourie
THOUGHTS TO PONDER
"As I've followed my heart over the years and become more acquainted with genuine spirituality, I thought I'd become like a rock. I thought I'd feel no pain, be all smiling, steadfast, oozing out love at every turn. But the truth is I cry more now than I did when I was tricking myself through the years. I feel so much more. In my chest. In my gut. And in that I feel alive. But I feel pain. I feel unsure. I feel passion. I feel empathy. Sometimes I don't smile and that's okay. Sometimes I don't have the answers I used to wrack my brains about and that's okay too. I think I kept my heart chained and hardened to avoid all I feel now. But life has shown me the only way to really live is to feel it all, including the pain, the loss, the sting of every goodbye. I think my goodbyes will always be painful despite however much I spiritually understand. I reckon my thousands of tears will be for all the gratitude I have for the thousands of moments I've had with my loved ones. I think my pain will be a sign that what I have now is so good. And I'll be okay with not being okay. That's what I have learned the most so far. It's okay not being okay. It's just as beautiful and healing in its own way." ~S.C Lourie
"Here's the truth sweet soul: Your situation is never permanent. Life isn't solid. It's fluid. Life changes and that's a good thing, whenever you look back. The changing nature of life you're often more grateful for than you would expect. Trust it, stay loose and let it lead you. All will be well." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"May we celebrate the ins and outs, the labyrinths and smooth passages, the loops and twirls, the highs, the lows, the piercing truths along the way, all the rubble and the mire, the catharsis and the passion, the consuming, purging fire, the soft, falling rain, the glistening pearls and the shattered glass of our journeys. The endless strength of our souls to keep walking, crawling, moving, changing, evolving, simplifying, somehow eventually finding the way to let it all just simply be. The cuddles and the kisses, the slaps and the struggles. May we celebrate the rocks that cut our feet and the gentle tide of the ocean that soothed them again. May we revere the thunderous waves that came crashing against us, literally submerging our last breath, for us to then unknowingly arise like a force of the universe through the inner storm, as new creatures of life and light. May we think kindly upon the hypnotic golden dust swirling in the sunbeams of our tired afternoons where the tender air has whispered for us to stop and ponder on our lives and the direction we're walking in. Those blank spaces, the void, where we feel so in between, holding on, waiting for the stars to guide us home...let us celebrate it all. The melancholy, the sting of the bittersweet, the glimmers of wonder that tear open our closing hearts, the freedom of being okay with not always being okay, releasing the bondage of perfection, competition, comparison and self-rejection again and again and again. The unraveling of our freedom that we find again and again until we realise it can never be lost to us...We are what we are today because of everything before this moment. Bless it all. I bow my head in peace. It is an honour to be a being of humanness. I deeply thank the journey's every piece." ~S.C Lourie (11 July 2014)
"My list for this new week:
Calm in my mind to keep my vision clear.
Strength in my hand to make me able and brave.
Hope in my heart to keep me soft, open and my faith in life blossoming.
I wish you the same." ~S.C Lourie
"The journeys we have gone on to be who we are today. The battles we have emerged from, wounded but not finished. The levels of hell we have endured because we believed a peaceful day was coming. It has been such a labour of love, blood, sweat, tears to get to where I am today. When I do eventually die one day, all I want to really say is that I have lived. I have loved. I have given everything to my life, to the sense of being here awake in this world. I kept on when I could have stopped. I just want my battery to be totally empty when my time comes. All my fuel spent on a life that I put my whole heart into exploring and expressing and giving and relishing. Feeling grateful right now, just to be here. I hope you celebrate who you are today too. It's all been worth it up to now and what lies before us is even more wonderful than all the things we leave behind in every new moment. Long may we continue and everything may we continue to give." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles (11 July 2014)
"Sometimes we are just so hard on ourselves. Constantly pressuring ourselves to live up to some kind of standard that often feels out of reach. Constantly striving to be a better us. But what if as you are right now you are fine. You are beautiful and need no improvement. What if it was the stress and strife you go through to try and improve yourself that creates all the problems and complications anyway? I found that in letting myself be, the conflict within me that made me spill out in issues and problems slowly disappeared. In just allowing myself to be, the tightness I felt that led to me making more mistakes than natural for me slowly reduced too and so did the usual actions of mine that made me feel bad in the first place. I realised that it wasn't so much about changing me but more changing the mindsets that stopped me from just letting myself be. Once I did that an ease of living came into my life like a beautiful flowing stream and I've been swimming in it's flow ever since. I am not perfect. But I don't think of trying to make myself perfect either. I realised there was a huge yet subtle chain of self-consciousness and seeking the approval of others in my ideas of what being perfect is. There is a far deeper way to exist that I've found and it leaves the idea of perfection behind, it puts expectations to one side and all definitive labels. I am now far deeper than perfect. I am free. I am alive. I am constantly changing. And I am in love with life whether it fits my preferences or not. There are no full stops and constant surprises. And this all started from just allowing myself to be." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sunday: Take it slow and give your beautiful soul a chance to catch up with your beautiful body. Give your beautiful heart a chance to catch up with some beautiful friends. Give your beautiful being a chance to catch up on realising all the beautiful things you have in your life. Sunday: a day for recoop and reflection." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When you meet someone from your soul tribe, you get so close so quick. Being with them is like food for the soul. Your dreams are nourished just by your paths meeting." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"When you open your heart to the earth, the earth opens her heart to you." ~S.C Lourie
"With every rising of the sun, think of your life as just begun." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You're a diamond dear.... If fire made you, nothing can break you. So live on. be bold and let the light dance with your soul." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles
"You cannot do both at the same time. You either compromise yourself or value yourself. You are worthy of all value. May you know that to the very top and bottom of you." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You could have grown cold, but you grew courageous instead. You could have given up, but you kept on going. You could have seen obstacles, but you called them adventures. You could have called them weeds, but instead you called them wildflowers. You could have died a caterpillar, but you fought on to be a butterfly. You could have denied yourself goodness, but instead you chose to show yourself some self-love. You could have defined yourself by the dark days, but instead through them you realized your light." ~S.C Lourie
"You have beautiful hidden worlds inside you. They are closer than you might imagine. You are not as lost as you reckon and your rediscovery is nearer than it seems in your mind." ~S.C Lourie, Butterflies in the Gutter: The Miracle Awaiting You in Life's Dark Moments
"You never know when the tide is going to change and there is a little or a lot of the wonderful things everywhere." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You will be too raw for some. You will be too loud, too big, too fierce, too quiet, too deep. These are not your people." ~Samantha C. Lourie
"You will never find your place in the world by being like everybody else." ~S.C Lourie
"Your wings are beautiful, whether you spread them or not. but if you spread them you get to experience their beauty. And that's special. For you and the world." ~S.C. Lourie
PERSPECTIVES
"When it comes to pure, true love it needs no reason. When you think you're unlovable it still loves. Just like when you feel disenchanted, your heart still beats regardless. When someone else is unlovable, you still love them. Reasons to love come after. But love itself is always there first, mysteriously unconditional, limitless, beating as your very heart beat. You are love first. Reasons for expression come after but your heart is not dependent on them. It is dependent on nothing. It is a beautiful thing to realise that. When you realise you are love, you are free." ~S.C Lourie
THOUGHTS TO PONDER
"As I've followed my heart over the years and become more acquainted with genuine spirituality, I thought I'd become like a rock. I thought I'd feel no pain, be all smiling, steadfast, oozing out love at every turn. But the truth is I cry more now than I did when I was tricking myself through the years. I feel so much more. In my chest. In my gut. And in that I feel alive. But I feel pain. I feel unsure. I feel passion. I feel empathy. Sometimes I don't smile and that's okay. Sometimes I don't have the answers I used to wrack my brains about and that's okay too. I think I kept my heart chained and hardened to avoid all I feel now. But life has shown me the only way to really live is to feel it all, including the pain, the loss, the sting of every goodbye. I think my goodbyes will always be painful despite however much I spiritually understand. I reckon my thousands of tears will be for all the gratitude I have for the thousands of moments I've had with my loved ones. I think my pain will be a sign that what I have now is so good. And I'll be okay with not being okay. That's what I have learned the most so far. It's okay not being okay. It's just as beautiful and healing in its own way." ~S.C Lourie
"Here's the truth sweet soul: Your situation is never permanent. Life isn't solid. It's fluid. Life changes and that's a good thing, whenever you look back. The changing nature of life you're often more grateful for than you would expect. Trust it, stay loose and let it lead you. All will be well." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"May we celebrate the ins and outs, the labyrinths and smooth passages, the loops and twirls, the highs, the lows, the piercing truths along the way, all the rubble and the mire, the catharsis and the passion, the consuming, purging fire, the soft, falling rain, the glistening pearls and the shattered glass of our journeys. The endless strength of our souls to keep walking, crawling, moving, changing, evolving, simplifying, somehow eventually finding the way to let it all just simply be. The cuddles and the kisses, the slaps and the struggles. May we celebrate the rocks that cut our feet and the gentle tide of the ocean that soothed them again. May we revere the thunderous waves that came crashing against us, literally submerging our last breath, for us to then unknowingly arise like a force of the universe through the inner storm, as new creatures of life and light. May we think kindly upon the hypnotic golden dust swirling in the sunbeams of our tired afternoons where the tender air has whispered for us to stop and ponder on our lives and the direction we're walking in. Those blank spaces, the void, where we feel so in between, holding on, waiting for the stars to guide us home...let us celebrate it all. The melancholy, the sting of the bittersweet, the glimmers of wonder that tear open our closing hearts, the freedom of being okay with not always being okay, releasing the bondage of perfection, competition, comparison and self-rejection again and again and again. The unraveling of our freedom that we find again and again until we realise it can never be lost to us...We are what we are today because of everything before this moment. Bless it all. I bow my head in peace. It is an honour to be a being of humanness. I deeply thank the journey's every piece." ~S.C Lourie (11 July 2014)
"My list for this new week:
Calm in my mind to keep my vision clear.
Strength in my hand to make me able and brave.
Hope in my heart to keep me soft, open and my faith in life blossoming.
I wish you the same." ~S.C Lourie
"The journeys we have gone on to be who we are today. The battles we have emerged from, wounded but not finished. The levels of hell we have endured because we believed a peaceful day was coming. It has been such a labour of love, blood, sweat, tears to get to where I am today. When I do eventually die one day, all I want to really say is that I have lived. I have loved. I have given everything to my life, to the sense of being here awake in this world. I kept on when I could have stopped. I just want my battery to be totally empty when my time comes. All my fuel spent on a life that I put my whole heart into exploring and expressing and giving and relishing. Feeling grateful right now, just to be here. I hope you celebrate who you are today too. It's all been worth it up to now and what lies before us is even more wonderful than all the things we leave behind in every new moment. Long may we continue and everything may we continue to give." ~S.C Lourie from Butterflies and Pebbles (11 July 2014)
"Sometimes we are just so hard on ourselves. Constantly pressuring ourselves to live up to some kind of standard that often feels out of reach. Constantly striving to be a better us. But what if as you are right now you are fine. You are beautiful and need no improvement. What if it was the stress and strife you go through to try and improve yourself that creates all the problems and complications anyway? I found that in letting myself be, the conflict within me that made me spill out in issues and problems slowly disappeared. In just allowing myself to be, the tightness I felt that led to me making more mistakes than natural for me slowly reduced too and so did the usual actions of mine that made me feel bad in the first place. I realised that it wasn't so much about changing me but more changing the mindsets that stopped me from just letting myself be. Once I did that an ease of living came into my life like a beautiful flowing stream and I've been swimming in it's flow ever since. I am not perfect. But I don't think of trying to make myself perfect either. I realised there was a huge yet subtle chain of self-consciousness and seeking the approval of others in my ideas of what being perfect is. There is a far deeper way to exist that I've found and it leaves the idea of perfection behind, it puts expectations to one side and all definitive labels. I am now far deeper than perfect. I am free. I am alive. I am constantly changing. And I am in love with life whether it fits my preferences or not. There are no full stops and constant surprises. And this all started from just allowing myself to be." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Sunday: Take it slow and give your beautiful soul a chance to catch up with your beautiful body. Give your beautiful heart a chance to catch up with some beautiful friends. Give your beautiful being a chance to catch up on realising all the beautiful things you have in your life. Sunday: a day for recoop and reflection." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Take time to listen to tbose things that speak without words." ~Samantha C. Lourie, Butterflies and Pebbles
"The things we can't change in life we often can't change because they're in the process of changing us for the better." ~S.C Lourie
"There's traveling around the world and then there's traveling around your worlds within. One you can do only once in a while if you're fortunate enough. The other you can do at any time on any day and each trip will yield you new and beautiful ways to see yourself, life and the immediate world around you that hopefully one day you can travel around too. There is so much within you to discover. You can begin a new journey by trying to see something in a new way...by letting go of something familiar and old....by doing something that scares you or have been putting off for a while. The most significant journey you will ever make is the one within. It will bring meaning to all other adventures you've ever had. Your heart is bottomless. There are always new places to find." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Time heals mostly everything. But you gotta give time time to do its magic. Its quite a beautiful thing to ponder on, that we change as our lives go on" ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You know that moment, before the mind kicks in and the rush of the world starts knocking on our door, soon after we wake up and everything feels new for a short while, our hearts tender, not trying to get ahead, contented in now, impressions and stirrings so beautiful...that moment, remember it today. Keep it in your thoughts. That's your essence." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"We learn the value of things in loss, in messing up, in getting things wrong." ~S. C. Lourie
"Your new day is a gift to be opened, a new adventure to be unraveled. Emerge from the renewing dark of the night, brave and beautiful, with another day to live at hand and simply just go do that. Go live...not just merely exist but really and truly live. Your heart knows what to do. Trust it. Do something that fulfils it whether its a stroll through the park, or a few moments on your own to read a favourite book or write out some thoughts that have been fluttering inside you for a while. And know that all things of the heart root for you on this new day." -S.C Lourie
Source: FACEBOOK
Biography
Butterflies in the Gutter: The Miracle Awaiting You in Life's Dark Moments is an exploration through poetry and prose of the beautiful possibilities for spiritual freedom that hover over our lives in the heart of difficulty. Through honest self-reflection and gentle contemplation, the author invites the reader to consider challenging times from an angle that suggests darkness is not an enemy to conquer nor are the uncomfortable moments of life something we should try to avoid. By S. C. Lourie,
S.C Lourie is a writer and dance teacher, living in the outskirts of London with her husband and daughters, enjoying their simple and quiet life. She graduated from Kings College London in 2003, studying English Literature and Language and has been involved in teaching, creative writing and the performing arts ever since. She runs a couple pages on Facebook called Butterflies and Pebbles and writes on there daily. She can also be contacted on sclourie@yahoo.co.uk.
╔═════ ೋღ☃ღೋ ═════╗
"The things we can't change in life we often can't change because they're in the process of changing us for the better." ~S.C Lourie
"There's traveling around the world and then there's traveling around your worlds within. One you can do only once in a while if you're fortunate enough. The other you can do at any time on any day and each trip will yield you new and beautiful ways to see yourself, life and the immediate world around you that hopefully one day you can travel around too. There is so much within you to discover. You can begin a new journey by trying to see something in a new way...by letting go of something familiar and old....by doing something that scares you or have been putting off for a while. The most significant journey you will ever make is the one within. It will bring meaning to all other adventures you've ever had. Your heart is bottomless. There are always new places to find." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"Time heals mostly everything. But you gotta give time time to do its magic. Its quite a beautiful thing to ponder on, that we change as our lives go on" ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"You know that moment, before the mind kicks in and the rush of the world starts knocking on our door, soon after we wake up and everything feels new for a short while, our hearts tender, not trying to get ahead, contented in now, impressions and stirrings so beautiful...that moment, remember it today. Keep it in your thoughts. That's your essence." ~Butterflies and Pebbles
"We learn the value of things in loss, in messing up, in getting things wrong." ~S. C. Lourie
"Your new day is a gift to be opened, a new adventure to be unraveled. Emerge from the renewing dark of the night, brave and beautiful, with another day to live at hand and simply just go do that. Go live...not just merely exist but really and truly live. Your heart knows what to do. Trust it. Do something that fulfils it whether its a stroll through the park, or a few moments on your own to read a favourite book or write out some thoughts that have been fluttering inside you for a while. And know that all things of the heart root for you on this new day." -S.C Lourie
Source: FACEBOOK
Biography
Butterflies in the Gutter: The Miracle Awaiting You in Life's Dark Moments is an exploration through poetry and prose of the beautiful possibilities for spiritual freedom that hover over our lives in the heart of difficulty. Through honest self-reflection and gentle contemplation, the author invites the reader to consider challenging times from an angle that suggests darkness is not an enemy to conquer nor are the uncomfortable moments of life something we should try to avoid. By S. C. Lourie,
S.C Lourie is a writer and dance teacher, living in the outskirts of London with her husband and daughters, enjoying their simple and quiet life. She graduated from Kings College London in 2003, studying English Literature and Language and has been involved in teaching, creative writing and the performing arts ever since. She runs a couple pages on Facebook called Butterflies and Pebbles and writes on there daily. She can also be contacted on sclourie@yahoo.co.uk.
THANK YOU╚═════ ೋღ☃ღೋ ═════╝
