Astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about the Voyager Satellite

When a five-year-old expressed her worry for the Voyager satellite, this was astronaut, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield’s, response:

"Voyager is so happy, because it’s the bravest satellite of all. It has gone the furthest. And it’s not lonely, because it’s talking to us. It phones home. And it tells us all about the wonderful things that it’s seeing. …There’s a whole universe to explore, and it’s just leaving our Solar System right now. It’s very brave and very lucky to be doing what it’s doing, so it’s not going to get lost. It’s traveled further than anything we’ve ever built has traveled before. It’s actually showing us the way. …

It might have been safer for it to just stay home, and stay inside a building, but then it would have been sad forever, because it never would have done its purpose. It never would have discovered things. It’s all a wonderful story of great discovery and success, and it couldn’t have happened if Voyager hadn’t been brave…

It’s not really the fact that everything always has a start and an end, it’s what happens in the middle that counts. What do you while you’re alive? What do you do while you’re laughing? And I think we’re doing exactly what makes Voyager joyful and as happy as it could be.

Think about the fact that you’re a little bit like Voyager. In that you’re going to go see the world, and you’re going to call your mom on the phone and tell her about the wonderful things that you see. … You wouldn’t want to spend your whole life hiding under your bed and never seeing anything in your whole life, you want to be able to do what makes you happy and joyful and learn about things to discover. You might be the person that discovers something really important for everybody else on the world, but you can never discover that if you just hide and only do things that are safe. So think about yourself a little bit like Voyager. What makes you laugh? It’s not just staying, hiding underneath your bed safely at home."

from: Source

“Godmother” by T. Kingfisher

You came to me in your cloak made of tatters, with the dog made of bone at your side.

You came to me and demanded to know why—why hadn’t I been there? Why her, and not you?

What had she done to earn fairy gifts to smooth her way? What did she do to earn the golden dresses and the silver shoes, the care of old women and the kindness of princes?

Why did she get to dance, when you had to carve your path of thorns, and bleed for every inch?

I told you that fairy godmothers are a little less than angels. We are given only enough power to hold in our two hands. There is not enough to go around.

I told you that we spend it very grudgingly, and only on those who cannot succeed without our help.

Quote from the book, “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded”, by Lewis Carroll

 

"Bruno’s World!" I pondered. "Yes, I suppose every child has a world of his own–and
every man, too, for the matter of that. I wonder if that’s the cause for all the misunderstanding there is in Life?"

~Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

 

**Because every person believes they are the center of their own world, even if they don’t. There’s something to be said for trying to walk in another person’s shoes or see through another person’s eyes.

An excerpt from “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke

“Things are not nearly so comprehensible and sayable as we are generally made to believe. Most experiences are unsayable; they come to fullness in a realm that words do not inhabit. And most unsayable of all are works of art, which –alongside our transient lives- mysteriously endure.

~From Letter #1, Letters to a Young Poet

Quote from the book, “Soulforge”, by Margaret Weis

 

"’The magic is in the blood, it flows from the heart. Every time you use it, part of yourself goes with it. Only when you are prepared to give of yourself and receive nothing back will the magic work for you.’"

~From the book “Soulforge”, part of the DragonLance series

Quote from Gail Godwin

 

"[People] keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive. You must be constantly on your guard against congealing."

Gail Godwin, American Novelist

 

**I’ve been working hard at trying new things in my life, to create the life I dream about. Are you? If so, how’s it going?

Excerpt from “Big Questions from Little People”

"You don’t fall in love like you fall in a hole. You fall like falling through space. It’s like you jump off your own private planet to visit someone else’s planet. And when you get there it all looks different: the flowers, the animals, the colours people wear. It is a big surprise falling in love because you thought you had everything just right on your own planet, and that was true, in a way, but then somebody signalled to you across space and the only way you could visit was to take a giant jump. Away you go, falling into someone else’s orbit and after a while you might decide to pull your two planets together and call it home. And you can bring your dog. Or your cat. Your goldfish, hamster, collection of stones, all your odd socks. (The ones you lost, including the holes, are on the new planet you found.) And you can bring your friends to visit. And read your favourite stories to each other. And the falling was really the big jump that you had to make to be with someone you don’t want to be without. That’s it.

PS You have to be brave.”

~~Jeanette Winterson, from Big Questions from Little People

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Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) by Don McLean

Lyrics:

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Quote by Walt Whitman

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me.
The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose. Henceforth, I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune. Henceforth, I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing."

~Walt Whitman

**This reminds me to push forward. I make my own fortune, and should not excuse myself anymore. What have you been putting off?