Inspiration

Take a Shot

/ dianathormoto

I love watching hockey and one of the greatest players (aka The Great One) was Wayne Gretzky. So because it is finally getting colder where I live, I thought a quote by The Great One would be appropriate.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." ~Wayne Gretzky

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky

I love this quote because you don’t have to be a hockey player to appreciate the advice. Whether you are an athlete, a writer, an artist, a student, or whatever identity you happen to be inhabiting at the time, it is important to remember that you have to show up and take a chance for anything to happen. Otherwise, you don’t do anything and have already failed. Starting is hard, trying and missing is hard, but it isn’t as hard as the regret of not trying. And, oh my goodness, when you make the goal or reach whatever milestone you have for yourself, you’ll be glad you risked the shot.

I hope you have a fantastic day and remember to be brave and take the shot. 🙂

Flying and Falling

/ dianathormoto

Autumn is definitely in the air around the Bay Area, which always makes it feel like a good time for change. I think it is something about school season being in full swing combined with the days getting shorter that makes me feel like both a new year is beginning (I feel my life will always revolve around the school calendar in some way) and that the year is wrapping up (and there is so much left to do!). I felt like this quote from Karen Goldman was particularly good for this time of year. (I even saw at least one person take a photo of it while it was posted on my door.)

"Risk the fall in order to fly" ~Karen Goldman

“Risk the fall in order to fly” ~Karen Goldman

It is a good reminder, especially when we are trying new things, that we have to risk falling if we are stretching ourselves and trying new things. We have to risk the scrapped knees, the rejection letters, the bruised egos, and the pain of failing and falling. It isn’t any fun, but it is a necessary risk. And it is only with that risk that we might be able to fly and doesn’t that feel good when we do? 🙂

So I’m going to continue to brave the fall so that I can fly and I hope you do, too.

Success and Grit

/ dianathormoto

It has been a tiring, hot, strange week here in the Bay Area. We are finally supposed to be on a cooling trend and hopefully this weekend (and the coming week) will be less tiring. This quote I wrote out for my door at work seems especially apt after this week.

"Success seems to be largely a matter of holding on after others have let go." William Feather

“Success seems to be largely a matter of holding on after others have let go.” William Feather

Talk about success and grit seems to be all the rage now. How can we teach our students to be grittier? How can we train ourselves to exhibit more grit in the face of obstacles and challenges? What allows some to struggle and persevere when others give up? I don’t know the answers to those questions, although some people are looking into the answers to those questions.  I’m looking forward to reading more of their results in the future, but until then I find this quote inspiring when I don’t feel so “gritty.”

Sometimes it is hard to continue to work, day in and day out, without any outward sign of progress or validation, especially when it seems like some people seem to be overnight successes. But it does seem, as I continue on in life and work and writing and calligraphy that success is about keeping on keeping on when others have given up and let go. If we keep learning and growing and working, then success will probably come. It’s not a guarantee (but then few things are in life), but we have a better chance than if we give up our work we are passionate about, our dreams, our visions.

So I keep looking for inspiration in the everyday moments and keep learning and writing and challenging myself because it’s what I have control over. And, also, I’ll never have to wonder what might have been if I’d have just kept at it for a little while longer. (Also, who isn’t getting just a little excited for NaNoWriMo already? Or is it just me?)

I hope you have a lovely day full of whatever inspires you to keep working towards the goals in your life that keep you passionate, alive, and growing. 🙂

Stars and Passing Lights

/ dianathormoto

Here we are at the end of another month. It’s a bit hard to believe, but soon I’ve got to flip the calendar over to September and will be fall. While fall to me always means the start of school (even though I’ve not had to sit in a classroom as a student for a few years), I’ve lately been taken to seeing it as a time to reassess the year. This is an odd, roundabout way of getting us to the quote I’m sharing today.

"We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship." Omar Nelson Bradley

“We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” Omar Nelson Bradley

This quote reminds me about keeping in the forefront of my mind what is most important to me, instead of following every passing fancy, and to think about what I’m working towards in life. (Also, I’m rather happy with how the calligraphy came out, even though my pen was running out of ink.) Stars are bright and hopeful and for the purposes of a human lifetime, pretty darn stable. Good things to have as a point of reference for navigating a ship or a life. While sometimes they can get hidden by clouds or light pollution, stars remain shining up in the sky. So I hope I can remember to keep my eyes focused on the stars in my life and ignore distractions as I keep on this journey of writing.

I hope you have a lovey week and have found your guiding stars for life. 🙂

Wisdom…Sometimes

/ dianathormoto

Oh, my goodness! With traveling and visiting with family (and not carrying my laptop with me), I never got to posting a second time last week. I’m sorry and hopefully this post will make up for it (and I’ll see if I can’t get some posts in the queue, too). This week’s quote is another of my favorites from a wonderful author.

"Wisdom is better than wit." Jane Austen

“Wisdom is better than wit.” Jane Austen

I quite like this quote (and was fairly pleased by how my calligraphy turned out, though that does remind me that I need to bring some more calligraphy supplies to my office). I’m not one of those people who are always quick with a joke or a retort, so this quote gives me comfort that it is okay. And I do try to display some wisdom and hope I’m getting better with age. Or, to paraphrase Neil Gaiman, if you can’t be wise, just pretend and do what a wise person would do! (Good idea for another week’s quote to calligraphy, too!) 🙂

The best, of course, would be to have both wit and wisdom. But life is messy and hardly ever turns out as neatly as a story in the end, so all we can do is try. So try to be wise and who knows, maybe one day we’ll be witty, too.

I hope your July is going wonderfully well and you have time to relax and dream. Because, of course, in your great wisdom you know that relaxation is just as important as getting all your chores done and sometimes we all work better after a nap. 🙂

Building Doors

/ dianathormoto

Hello! I hope your day is going well. I know I missed last week in sharing a quote from my door, so I will post two this week. This is one of my favorite quotes and also one that challenges me.

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Milton Berle

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Milton Berle

I’m sure most of us have heard this quote before about how we have to make our own destinies/success/opportunities/etc. because opportunities aren’t just handed to us; they are a result of our own tenacity. Sometimes, I think that is true, and I do believe in hard work in order to achieve my goals. But we all know (or hopefully we do) that not everyone gets an equal shot at opportunities or door building or luck. Lots of opportunities depend on luck, just being in the right place at the right time or having the right connections.

So I use this quote to remind me to not wait for lucky breaks to come my way, but to be actively engaged in working towards the goals I have for myself. It also reminds me that I need to keep working to help create a world where everyone has the opportunity to build their own door to achieve their goals and dreams.

So what door are you building and what goals are you accomplishing? I hope you are moving forward in achieving your dreams and you are helping others along the way. I also hope you have a lovely day! 🙂

What You Are

/ dianathormoto

Happy first day of July! I can hardly believe that we are already into July. Second half of the year. Wow. I feel like I need to take a break to catch my breath and figure out what I’ve done with the first half of the year and what I want to do with the second half of the year. How has your year been going? I hope well.

This quote I had hanging on my door a week ago is something I sometimes have a hard time remembering, but I think is very important for everyone to remember, especially on those hard days when it seems like everything is going wrong and everything you say is getting misinterpreted.

"It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are." Anonymous

“It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.” Anonymous

I’ve been spending the morning writing and catching up reading all the articles I’ve marked coming over my RSS feeds as I’m going into work late today (working a late shift tonight). Many of the feeds I marked were about finding your authentic self, your true goals, and what matters to you in life. So this quote seemed especially appropriate to share today.

What matters is who we are and how we manifest ourselves in the world. Someone is always going to disagree with us, or think our dreams are silly, or our goals impossible, or our work irrelevant.  But that doesn’t really matter. It can hurt, but it’s more about them than us. Or, on the flip side, people might sometimes praise us excessively or decide our work is now hip and cool. Then we get hooked on the praise and can feel like we need it to survive. But neither the dismissal or the praise is what matters. Keeping true to our core values matters. And hopefully, we are wonderful, kind, flawed, dreaming, striving, helping, caring, human beings creating projects and things in the world that make it better through whatever gifts and talents and skills we have to share.

So let’s try not to let others’ opinions or thoughts about us matter so much and let’s just get busy creating the work and lives and world we want to see. Have a wonderful start to your July! 🙂

Doing Things

/ dianathormoto

I hope your week is going well and you get some time to enjoy a bit of summer relaxation. It is hard to believe we are already over half-way through June and even if it isn’t technically summer yet, it is sure feeling like summer to me. Hot weather makes me want to nap and not do much, but the more relaxed state of mind in summer also allows me to think & plan what I want to accomplish, thus this week’s quote.

"You've got your whole life to do something, and that's not very long." Ani Difranco

“You’ve got your whole life to do something, and that’s not very long.” Ani Difranco

This quote makes me take stock of what I’m doing and try to figure out if I’m moving forward in the right direction. (I know the spacing is a bit off between the first and second lines, but that’s what I get for freehanding it at work. I really need to bring in my T-Square and fountain calligraphy pens for when I do calligraphy on my break, but anyway…) Sometimes it seems like a year is so long and other times it seems like a year is hardly any time at all to create anything.

So I think about Ani Difranco’s thought that we don’t have a very long to do what we want on this planet, in this life. I hope that you are working towards what you feel is important with people who are important to you. Life’s about what we do and who we do it with, I think, and that’s true whether it is in the heat of summer or the cold of winter.

But remember, having a purpose and doing something don’t preclude us from having some summer fun and relaxation as well. Have a great one. 🙂

Stars Above Gutters

/ dianathormoto

Happy Wednesday! Last week was quite tiring, not exactly sure why. But the result was that I didn’t post my weekly calligraphy example. So this week I need to post two. Today is the first post and it is another one of my favorite quotes, this time via Oscar Wilde.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde

I love this quote because it reminds me that we all have a shared experience of knowing, feeling, and experiencing that sometimes life is just not fair, not pretty, and not fun. Life is hard. It might be hard in different ways for different people but it is still hard.

But, if that was all the quote was about that would just be depressing and disheartening and there is no way I’d post that on my door to see every day. But it ends with hope, which I think all stories and all lives should end with, because hope gets us through the hardness, the unfairness, and the pain that can make up our gutters in life. There are still stars, which let us know there is more to life and to the world than our current situation in the gutter.

And where there are stars, there is an opportunity to work and to reach them. And if that isn’t hopeful, I don’t know what is.

I hope you have a great day and I’ll be back to post my second calligraphy example later this week. 🙂

Still Learning

/ dianathormoto

So how is your week going? I’m having a busy and productive week. Happily it is a week that is less stressful than the last few and I’ve been able to go home (mostly) on time from work. I can’t complain and I wanted to share the latest quote I made for my door.

"I am still learning." Michelangelo

“I am still learning.” Michelangelo

I love this quote because it reminds me that no matter who we are and how far along our journey we’ve come, we should still be learning. As someone who teaches, it is important to remember that I should always be learning, too. I find it inspiring and not frustrating to still be learning. Sometimes the path is difficult and frustrating, but when I can tell I’m learning, I’m progressing, then it is all worthwhile. Life is learning, always.

So I hope that you’ve been able to learn something new this week and have shared what you’ve learned with someone else. I’m learning more each day about writing and reading. I’m in the process of revising some short stories to submit, again, so keep your fingers crossed. I am still learning, too.

Have a wonderful day full of many good things and I’ll write again soon. Thanks so much for stopping by.