The Choice: Embrace the Possible

We are hungry. We are hungry for approval, attention, affection. We are hungry for the freedom to embrace life and to really know and be ourselves.

Suffering is universal but victimhood is optional.

There is a difference between victimization and victimhood, victimization is external but victimhood is internal. We develop a victim’s mind—a way of thinking and being that is rigid, blaming, pessimistic, stuck in the past, unforgiving, punitive, and without healthy limits or boundaries. `

In my catalog of regrets, this one shines bright: that I didn’t reach for my sister’s hand. The uncertainty makes the moments stretch. There is always a worse hell. That is our reward for living. And now Magda is beside me in the grass. She holds her can of sardines. We have survived the nal selection. We are alive. We are together. We are free.

To be passive is to let others decide for you. To be aggressive is to decide for others. To be assertive is to decide for yourself. And to trust that there is enough, that you are enough. Our future is the sum of an equation that is part intention and part circumstance. When you have something to prove, you aren’t free

Anger, however consuming, is never the most important emotion. It is only the very outer edge, the thinly exposed top layer of a much deeper feeling. And the real feeling that’s disguised by the mask of anger is usually fear. And you can’t feel love and fear at the same time.

It’s okay to help people and it’s okay to need help—but when your enabling allows others not to help themselves, then you’re crippling the people you want to help.

Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life. … This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning

Taking risks doesn’t mean throwing ourselves blindly into danger. But it means embracing our fears so that we aren’t imprisoned by them.

Freedom lies in examining the choices available to us and examining the consequences of those choices

Strength isn’t reacting, it’s responding—feeling your feelings, thinking them over, and planning an effective action to bring you closer to your goal.