Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Viktor Frankl
Even in these uncertain times, you can control more than you think.
Fill power is a measure of the loft or “fluffiness” of a down product that is loosely related to the insulating value of the down. The higher the fill power, the more air a certain weight of the down can trap, and thus the more insulating ability the down will have. Fill power ranges from about 300 (in³/oz) for feathers to around 900 (in³/oz) for the highest quality goose down. from Wikipedia
I received a wonderful, dare I say sensual, down comforter for Christmas this year. It has a 950 fill power and weighs less than two pounds. It is meant for fall and spring camping but since my house is quite cold at night, I couldn’t resist using it for sleeping in my bed as well.
Unlike my old comforter that was heavy, rough and prickly from duck feather barbs protruding through the cotton covering, this quilt is light, soft and smooth. I love being enveloped by the luxury of its airiness and warmth.
I began to compare this feeling of the new comforter to being around certain types of people: Some individuals are light, optimistic and well, happy – I might want to hug them, to envelop myself in their positivity, to be in their orb, while others are dark, pessimistic and irritable – like the prickly duck feathers, I want to give them distance. In the New Year, I seek to spend my time with the lighter and more positive fowls.
You show the lights that stop me turn to stone You shine it when I’m alone And so I tell myself that I’ll be strong And dreaming when they’re gone. lyrics from Lights by Ellie Goulding
I trust my inner light to lead me out of the darkness…
She wasn’t exactly sure when it happened. Or even when it started. All she knew for sure was that right here and now, she was falling hard and she could only pray that he was feeling the same way.
from Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
Is the love that takes your breath away too painful to bear?
…that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. from Ulysses by Lord Tennyson
Now and then I think of when we were together Like when you said you felt so happy you could die Told myself that you were right for me But felt so lonely in your company But that was love and it’s an ache I still remember. lyrics from Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
The word “alone” should not, for us, ring cold and hollow, but hot. Pulsing with potentiality. from Party of One, The Loner’s Manifesto by Anneli Rufus
I love being with you, but also revel in my time alone.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) from i carry your heart with me by e. e. cummings
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. from Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda, translated by Stephen Tapscott