Birds are passing overhead. They are like stars in motion, music in the sky. As always, they remind me of Nikki.
    Nikki was a friend of mine, and very dear to my heart. She had cerebral palsy, and to all the world she looked like one of God’s cruel jokes. She could not walk unaided. Her legs were useless sticks; her arms, helpless bird wings. When she talked her head lolled and spittle dripped down her chin. Her voice was a grating and unintelligible bray.
    More than once I saw parents in supermarkets turn their children away when they saw her coming. She was a reminder of their darkest fears about life gone terribly and irretrievably wrong.
     I used to love to talk to Nikki — not out of some twisted motive of self-congratulation, or because she was a dark mirror of my own good fortune, but because she was so full of life. She had a mischievous twinkle in her eye and a reservoir of joy that was deeper than anything I could imagine.

An excerpt from Hard Times Require Furious Dancing by Alice Walker:

The World Has Changed

The world has changed:
Wake up & smell
the possibility.

An excerpt from The Instant Millionaire by Mark Fisher:

“So ask yourself the question: If I were to die tomorrow, what would I do with the last hours of my life? Would I agree to go on being a shadow of my true self, lacking in self-respect, forcing myself to do something I hate? Imagine you invite a friend over to your house to help you do some chores. Would you give the dirtiest ones to your friend? Of course not. So why force on yourself tasks that you find so degrading? Why be your own worst enemy? Why not become your own best friend?”

In the completely updated 10th Anniversary Edition of A Writer’s Book of Days: A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for the Writing Life, beloved author and writing coach Judy Reeves evokes the muse in writers from all walks of life through engaging exercises and practical instruction in a friendly and accessible style that makes writing fun.

These ten daily habits that make a (good) writer are excerpted from the book:

Andrew Lang (1844-1922), a prolific Scots author best-known for his popular "color" books of fairytales, wrote a book on dreams that is one of my favorites. Titled The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, it was first published in 1897. Lang affected a cool skepticism towards this subject material, which allows him to slide readers cunningly into the deep end, as he recounts case after case of timefolding and interdimensional travel in dreams.

An excerpt from Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain:

Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life. There is nothing at all new, strange, or unusual about creative visualization. You are already using it every day, every minute, in fact. It is your natural power of imagination, the basic creative energy of the universe, which you use constantly, whether or not you are aware of it.