They say you can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats its prisoners…I believe the same can be said for how a country treats its children

It doesn't matter the materials but what you do and how you interact. Relationships are the most important in the art of teaching. A school can have the most beautiful "stuff" but it's the care and commitment of a teacher. What matters most is a true teacher with the real stuff inside and helping others discover that real stuff inside themselves.

An educator...a good one that is, inspires others to be even better than herself.

I work backwards with the ending in mind as I create art, stories, poems and books. Always in a process of becoming.

Be the kind of grown up you needed as a child.

Most often it is in heartache that we love more boldly.

Be simple. Be direct. Be clear. Don't worry about being correct. Worry about being real.

Create something. Create something ugly. Create something beautiful.  I don't care what it is. Create it.

People say they walk on the shoulders of giants. True, but have you ever walked like one?

Start each day asking, "How do I want others to feel?" Then act accordingly. xo

Education is not filling up a box but seeing what you can create with one and don't you ever forget that!

A poem a day keeps the doctor away.

Forget the American dream...whats your dream? The thing that keeps you up at night...the thing that makes you happy...the thing that keeps your spirit going. Do that thing. Don't label it a hobby or what you do in your spare time type of thing...label that thing you do the thing you love to do. The thing you were born to do. When you stop doing what you love you lose a huge part of yourself. Don't get lost.

I don't live to work. I work to live. Before I die I know I lived.

I never wanted a too die for house, or a too die for car. I always wanted a too die for life.If you were to die tomorrow would you feel like you did everything you wanted to? Loved everyone and meant it? Lived with honesty and integrity? Stood up for what you believed in? Did you work to live or did you live to work? Those that hurt you or upset you did you try to work it out? Did you still love them from a distance even if they hurt you so bad? If not work to change and make it right before it's too late.Remember the house, the car, the money and the material possessions you can't take with you when your gone. All you have is YOU and what YOU were about. Remember that.

Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt. Lies. Words hurt. The words we remember. Well, the hurt feeling the words caused stays with us forever.

The brain. Where words mean something. The heart. Where words feel something. When both work together. Kaboom.

A few lessons learned as a teacher: I've learned that if you whisper, children will listen...a scribble can be anything (I mean anything!) a monster, a cat, a mom, a dad--our job is to ask to find out and pay attention--usually the most challenging student needs the most challenges to keep them learning and engaged---most of all we must care and the rest handles itself. xo

Learning is not filling up a box but seeing and imagining what we can create with it.

I don't really enjoy experiencing pain. No one does. But we will become less human if we learn to detach ourselves from one another to the point that when we experience death of a beautiful being (our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, our soul mates, our friends etc.) that it will not bother us that we will not feel. But see that's suppression. It will bother us somewhere deep inside. So, love someone. Hold them tight. Don't fear the loss. Fear the part of being too afraid to love someone. Love Everyone. It's inevitable: we all die. Thats the ugly part of life. But Love and being alive is so beautiful and so strong that the love, the memories stay even in death. Life is love, life is being alive to feel pain. The love the beautiful love always remains. Love. Life. Joy. Peace

Imagine going a long time without seeing someone you love. Then after months or years getting the moment to see them and catch up. I think that's what death is like. Going a long time and missing them a lot, more and more each day. No matter how many years go by you miss them just as much as the first day they left. I miss my mom. Its been years. Its easier to manage but I miss her more and more. But I often think of the moment we will meet again and catch up again. In living life going a long time not seeing someone is tough then catching up right where you left off BUT imagine in death how powerful the feeling to see them again must be. Death is getting the chance to catch up and see them again. Experiencing the butterflies and that special high that is felt all over your body. Do not fear death. Embrace it as you do life. In life, love hard! Life moves fast. For when your time comes you have a chance to love hard again and catch up with those that left, those you've missed and those that missed you. Someone is there counting the days to seeing you again. Some you may not expect or some you've missed just as much. Don't fear what you think you're leaving behind. Don't fear at all. For what you leave is temporary, the living will too join you as you wait for them. And, that moment to catch up is worth the wait. You will pick up right where you left off as if time did not pass.

I wish we lived in a world where we'd be able to survive off our talents not money

Walls get made, walls crumble, buildings get built, buildings collapse, memories get made, memories last.

Yesterday I smiled, tomorrow never came and today is what I'm living.

Just do what makes sense.

We are all different. God made us that way. Drawing a line in the sand due to that is indeed unfortunate.

Running my fastest not from my past. Running from those who have hurt me in it. And, they can't catch me anymore. I escaped from the land of make believe.

The only thing we should scream into the world is love.

Start each day asking, "How do I want others to feel?" Then act accordingly.

The only reality is the now. Why live in the tomorrows and the yesterdays? Live now.

There is no way to clearly capture or sum up life...when fully lived.

I don't live to work. I work to live. Before I die, I know I lived.

Do the thing that scares you.

Write as though your life depended on it.

Love what you do and your heart will lead the rest of the way.

Some say they stand on the shoulders of giants. True. But have they ever tried walking like one?