I believe...

Monarch Butterfly
Butterfly Conservatory, National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC

"I believe everything happens for a reason. People change so you can learn how to let go. Things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust yourself and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." Unknown

If you get caught between the moon and New York City....

I took this a few weeks ago -- the colors are a little oversaturated but I still love the skyline at sunset.

“What we are aiming at when we fall in love, is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that when we fall in love we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. On the other hand, we ask our beloved to correct all the wrongs that these early parents inflicted on us. So that love contains in it the contradictions, the attempt to return to the past and attempt to undo the past.”- Woody Allen as Professor Levy, Crimes and Misdemeanors

You have learned everything there is to know.

Once upon a time, a woman moved to a cave in the mountains to study with a guru. She wanted, she said, to learn everything there was to know. The guru supplied her with stacks of books and left her alone so she could study. Every morning, the guru returned to the cave to monitor the woman's progress. In his hand, he carried a heavy wooden cane. Each morning, he asked her the same question: "Have you learned everything there is to know yet?" Each morning, her answer was the same. "No," she said, "I haven't." The guru would then strike her over the head with his cane.

This scenario repeated itself for months. One day the guru entered the cave, asked the same question, heard the same answer, and raised his cane to hit her in the same way, but the woman grabbed the cane from the guru, stopping his assault in midair.

Relieved to end the daily batterings but fearing reprisal, the woman looked up at the guru. To her surprised, the guru smiled. "Congratulations," he said, "you have graduated. You now know everything you need to know."

"How's that?" the woman asked.

"You have learned that you will never learn everything there is to know," he replied. "And you have learned how to stop the pain."