Manali Joshi

“I am practicing being kind over being right.”
― Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

“Looking for Your Face

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
and you have made radiant
for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer”
― Rumi, The Love Poems of Rumi

“Stay on my six, he said, nuzzling the hair at her ear and breathing deeply the sweet scent of her.

You remember what that is, right?

It's your ass.”
― Lynn Raye Harris, HOT Pursuit

“Newsflash she already has body image issues. 
It's an intrinsic part of being a woman. Every woman in the world has some part of herself that she absolutely hates. 
Her hands are too small, her feet are too big, her hair is too straight, too curly, her ears stick out, her bums too flat, her nose is too big and, you know, nothing you can say will change how we feel. 
What men don't understand is, the right clothes, the right shoes, the right makeup it just... It, it hides the flaws we think we have. 
They make us look beautiful to ourselves. 
That's what makes us look beautiful to others.

Used to be all she needed to feel beautiful was a pink tutu and a plastic tiara.

And we spend our whole lives trying to feel that way again.”
― Richard Castle