My belief assumed a form that it commonly assumes among the educated people of our time. This belief was expressed by the word 'progress.' At the time it seemed to me that this word had meaning. Like any living individual, I was tormented by questions of how to live better. I still had not understood that in answering that one must live according to progress, I was talking just like a person being carried along in a boat by the waves and the wind; without really answering, such a person replies to the only important question-'Where are we to steer?'-by saying, 'We are being carried somewhere.

Each of us has empty spaces in our heart that go through life being filled temporarily, by the various people we meet along the way. The trick is to find what needs to remain permanently filled in our soul and what needs to be filled occasionally through encounters.

Satnav will get us quickly and all-too-predictably from A to B, but the path of life is more interesting when we’re allowed to explore the side streets.

It does not matter where you are—from this very moment on you choose the direction of your life.

It is not until you change your identity to match your life blueprint that you will understand why everything in the past never worked.

We spend so much time trying to change others – in part – because we do not deeply believe in and embrace ourselves as we already are. And so more often than not we do not learn to trust and utilize our gifts and power whole-heartedly enough to pursue and fulfill our own passions, purpose and possibilities.

If I simply look at the map that I’ve so tediously created, it will explain why I’m laying at the bottom of this cliff looking up.

Nothing that happens to you was meant to be. The only thing about you that was meant to be is you. Blaze your own trail.

The land of possibility is a better place to make your home than the realm of expectation will ever be.

We grew up on the same street,You and me.We went to the same schools,Rode the same bus,Had the same friends,And even shared spaghettiWith each other's families.And though our roots belong toThe same tree,Our branches have grownIn different directions.Our tree,Now resembles a thousandOther treesIn a sea of a trillionOther treesWith parallel destiniesAnd similar dreams.You cannot envy the branchThat grows biggerFrom the same seed,And you cannotBlame it on the sun's direction.But you still compare us,As if we're still those twoKids at the parkSlurping down slushies andEating ice cream.Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun (2010).