"If I were to write our love story, no one would believe it. My real-life story is unbelievable. I tell my friends, but they dismiss my love for you as puerile, inconsequential. I tell them what happened and they consider me foolish.  Perhaps I never manage to convey how much I loved you. I say it: I love you. I love you so much my heart aches, as physical hurt.  But what does it mean really?  Words, nothing but words. If I could show them how much I loved you, how much I love you still, they might see why I stayed, how I let the story unfold.  If I could show them, I would be able to explain how I let the cruelest man in the world destroy any remaining dignity I had."

All Possible Pain

Feelings seem like made-up things,
though I know they’re not.  
I don’t understand why they lead me
around, why I can’t explain to the cop  
how the pot got in my car,
how my relationship  
with god resembled that
of a prisoner and firing squad  
and how I felt after I was shot.
Because then, the way I felt  
was feelingless. I had no further
problems with authority.   
I was free from the sharp
tongue of the boot of life,  
from its scuffed leather toe.
My heart broken like a green bottle  
in a parking lot. My life a parking lot,
ninety-eight degrees in the shade  
but there is no shade,
never even a sliver.    
What if all possible
pain was only the grief of truth?  
The throb lingering
only in the exit wounds  
though the entries were the ones
that couldn’t close. As if either of those  
was the most real of an assortment
of realities—existing, documented,  
hanging like the sentenced
under one sky’s roof.    
But my feelings, well,
they had no such proof.

Brenda Shaughnessy

Instructions for Life by The Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
   -  Respect for self,
   -  Respect for others and
   -  Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
    think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.