Rikarda Elsa

“I carry the dust of a journey, That cannot be shaken away. It lives deep within me, For I breathe it every day.”
― Greg Lake

“The fundamental thing is that everyone wants a happy, successful life. This is not only our goal but our legitimate right as well. The question then arises, how do we achieve this happy life? It seems that in these modern times, when technology and material facilities are so well developed and freely available, we get the idea that material things are the ultimate factor in the satisfaction of our desires and the fulfillment of our goals. Thus, we have too much expectation of material things and put too much trust in them; our strong materialistic beliefs give us false hope in that which truly lacks a firm basis. As a result, we neglect our inner values and state of mind. By relying so much on external things to make our lives meaningful, we move further away from basic human values. Of course, material development is essential and very useful, but it is wrong to expect that all our problems can be solved through external means. When material and spiritual development are combined, however, we can achieve our goal of a happy life.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience

“If we stay true to our stories and exactly who we are on a deeper level then the right people and circumstances will begin to effortlessly appear. There will be a certain pull. Resonance and familiarity. There will be connection. And there will be more ease.”
― Victoria Erickson, Edge of Wonder: Notes from the Wildness of Being

“There were the youngest children, small girls with leis, barefoot. There were watercress sandwiches, champagne, lemonade, peach-colored napkins to match the sorbet that came with the cake, peacocks on the lawn. She kicked off the expensive shoes and unpinned the veil. 'Wasn't that just about perfect,' she said when she called that evening.”
― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking