Quotes from Jewel

If you are not present, you are unable to have an effect on that unique, fleeting moment called now that truly determines what happens next. Now is the only creative moment we have. Fear was causing me to project my past into my future, never allowing me to engage in the now. Worry and fear are thieves that rob us of our ability to change.

Collect beads of night / Fill your / skin with the dark weight of the / wet sky. Let boldness live in your heart / and I will recognize you / amongst the many / and claim you as my own

Helping others helps you get over yourself and your own problems.

For me, success was finding the courage to be true to myself, and holding on to a sense of humor along the way while refining my craft. Sean

It's pointless to focus on others, as we can only control ourselves. I set a high bar and then it is my own private race. No one knows I'm winning or losing but me.

I did not write love songs as a sixteen-year-old. I did not write about crushes or about mean girls. I wrote about my life—about the injustices and inequities and the search for answers and self-responsibility.

Upon the streets a kitten's mew and beggar's shoe are calling and the voiceless ask to borrow yours so sweet and always falling. — Awaken, Love

My grandmother had pale hands that looked like sturdy veins. She wrote poetry, too, and sang. Though she knew few lovers, I hope here breasts were admired as mine are two silver deities two shining steeples giving testament to the sky. — And So to Receive You

Therapy is expensive, and often the best facilities and practitioners are not covered by insurance, and so mental health becomes a luxury.

Life takes each of us to the anvil, shapes us with fire and hammer, and some of us break while some of us become stronger, more able to face the day. Even happy.

It was hard to bear your soul while someone was talking to their friend about a new sweater they bought.

The truth is that no one can keep you captive. No one can keep you unhappy. No one can keep you abused. Our lives rise to the level we accept.

We cannot always control or avoid what happens to us, but we can control what it does to our spirit. And the quality of our spirit becomes the filter through which we see life. And as the philosophers say, reality is our perception of it. I believe those words. Our reality is what we believe it to be. What we believe informs our thoughts. Our thoughts inform our actions. Our actions build our lives.

I can't tell you about the pain, and how my heart to this day screams to have a mom in my life. But I know that it is not safe with her. Every day I miss having a mom. But I don't miss Nedra. I will always want a mom, the concept of what a mom is. But I don't have that. I never did, no matter how hard I tried to fool myself. Nedra is not that. Reality wins, and I'd rather see the truth than stay in love with a fantasy.

Be pretty, but not threateningly pretty. Be a go-getter but don't threaten anyone or be a bitch. Caught in this web of contradictions, we have to be everything for everyone and we lose the ability to explore who we really are.

While the women in Alaska certainly knew they were physically weaker than most men, it never meant they weren't cleaver enough to find a way to get the job done

I cry now as I write this. So lasting are the scars of the child who never feels worthy of love. So many cycles in my life of having to learn that I am indeed worthy of tenderness.

True safety was not in having armor. It was in vulnerability.

I was so lucky to be raised believing in some part of myself—believing that if I put my mind to something, I should be able to figure it out.

They seemed disconnected, hollow somehow, deeply withdrawn.

We have been called naive as if it were a dirty word We have been called innocent as though with shame our cheeks should burn So We visited with the careful idols of cynicism to learn to sneer and pant and walk so as not to feel the scales of judgment rub wrongly But we say, some things must remain simple some things must remain untouched and pure

At school, at home, in bars, I was an emotional contortionist, alternating between awkward self-aggrandizing and trying to win favor so as to fit in. When I wrote, I let myself be dead honest, flaws and all. But I was myself, I felt real. I went inside myself when a pen was in my hand and enjoyed that space in there.

She looked u at me through tear-stained cheeks and stammered, "My dad won't give me a Porsche when I come home if I don;t get all A's." I was a bit stunned. IT was my first encounter with real wealth. I remember looking at her and thinking, Holy shit. Being spoiled is worse abuse that being hit. At least I knew that being hit is wrong, But being spoiled ruins you.

When the need for someone else's love or approval outweighs one's own, self-betrayal is near.