September 11th 2011

September 11th 2001.

A college freshman attending school in NYC would forever be changed that crisp, clear September morning. I can’t believe it has been ten years. When I close my eyes, it feels like it was yesterday…

No matter where you are today, or where you were ten years ago–grab someone you love and hug them. Smile at a stranger in the grocery store. Go on and buy the guy/girl’s coffee behind you. Add some extra light to the world, today and every day. Take a moment to slow down and appreciate the beauty that is still around you.

I’ve pulled a few quotes in honor of today, hoping they might touch your heart.

1.) “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

2.) “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
— Nelson Mandela

3.) “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.

4.) “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt 

5.) “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien

6.) “At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough.”
— Lemony Snicket

7.) “Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
— Mother Teresa

8.) “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

9.) “Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.”
–Rabindranath Tagore

10.) “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
— St. Francis of Assisi

11.) “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
— Mahatma Gandhi