Sue Gray

“I’ve never been in favour of equal opportunities.’ ‘No?’ ‘Of course not. I’ve always thought women should be in charge.”
― Christopher Fowler, The Water Room

“But the “hut” turnedout to be a passage between two great rocks. At last utterexhaustion compelled us to rest. The site was not in the leastfit for camping; the exceedingly narrow trail skirted a stony,natural wall, and, on the other side, ended perpendicularly.We lay down on a rocky mattress whose roughness we unpleas-antly felt through our clothes and endeavoured to remembereven in our sleep that we were perched on the edge of a preci-pice whose depth was unfathomable in the night. In such wise we spent the second happy night of our wonder-ful adventure. Day had not yet broken when Yongden and1 loaded our burdens on our backs and continued the trampthrough the forest. More than twenty-four hours had nowelapsed since we had eaten and drunk. We had not yet becomeaccustomed to prolonged fasts, and this first one was hard tobear.”
― Alexandra David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

“When you connect with your Being – your sense of presence and aliveness, the unchanging context to the forever shifting content of your life – doubt and insecurity disappear. You don’t have to prove your existence, it is a fact. When you anchor yourself in your Self, there you are. Nothing to prove, nothing to hide. You are enough, simply in your Being, because you are alive. Ahhh...”
― Arjuna Ishaya, CHASING MORE AND FINDING ENOUGH

“Unconditional love is loving yourself first. It’s bringing your attention inward into yourself first and discovering your peace in there. It’s the love of realizing that there is nothing lacking in you and you are indeed worthy. It’s then the love that moves out from that place and illuminates everything and everyone without judgment. The sun doesn’t judge who it shines on -- it just shines. So does the pure, gentle, even love that is the expression of life itself. More than an emotion, unconditional love is the recognition of all things in your universe as perfect just as they are. All the ugliness has divine order. All the judgment pales as you find nothing to judge in yourself. Only when you can love all the bumps and burps that make up who you are can you truly love someone else. Otherwise there are always your insecurities trying to make a relationship. But the ultimate of unconditional love, in the recognition of all things as perfect and in Divine working order, is recognizing that the divine order”
― Jaya Ishaya, Born to Fly: Choices 2