Amanda Austin

“I did not know him, I knew my idea
of him.”
― Sharon Olds, Stag's Leap: Poems

“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.

You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.

To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.”
― Bill Watterson

“You must form the habit of living in the fourth dimension, “The World of the Wondrous.” It is the world where you do not judge by appearances.”
― Florence Scovel Shinn, The Secret Door to Success

“Spiritual development means the ability to stand still, or stand aside, and let Infinite Intelligence lift your burdens and fight your battles.”
― Florence Scovel Shinn, The Secret Door To Success