How to write the perfect Valentine's Card message

Unsure how to put your feelings into words? Take some inspiration from some of the best love letters of all time

By Adam Boult

What message will you be writing to your loved one this Valentine's Day?

If you're thinking of just putting "Happy Valentine's Day" and leaving it there - well, that's fine. Not all of us can be poets.

But if you wanted to go for something a bit more elaborate, why not take inspiration from some of the greatest love letters ever written?

A 2015 poll named the following letters as the most romantic of all time - so you're bound to be something here to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash

"We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.

"But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much."

2. Winston Churchill to Clementine Churchill

"In your letter from Madras you wrote some words very dear to me, about my having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love.... What it has been to me to live all these years in your heart and companionship no phrases can convey."

3. John Keats to Fanny Brawne

"My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving - I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you."

4. Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich

"I can't say how every time I ever put my arms around you I felt that I was home. Nor too many things. But we were always cheerful and jokers together."

5. Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine de Beauharnais

  Photo: CORBIS

"Since I left you, I have been constantly depressed. My happiness is to be near you. Incessantly I live over in my memory your caresses, your tears, your affectionate solicitude. The charms of the incomparable Josephine kindle continually a burning and a glowing flame in my heart."

6. Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor

"My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you. You don't realize of course, EB, how fascinatingly beautiful you have always been, and how strangely you have acquired an added and special and dangerous loveliness."

7. King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

"I beg to know expressly your intention touching the love between us. Necessity compels me to obtain this answer, having been more than a year wounded by the dart of love, and not yet sure whether I shall fail or find a place in your affection."

8. Beethoven to his "Immortal Beloved"

"Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm-love me-today-yesterday-what tearful longings for you-you-you-my life-my all-farewell. Oh continue to love me-never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours."

9. Gerald Ford to Betty Ford

"No written words can adequately express our deep, deep love. We know how great you are and we, the children and Dad, will try to be as strong as you. Our Faith in you and God will sustain us. Our total love for you is everlasting."

10. Jimi Hendrix to an unknown girlfriend

"little girl.....

"happiness is within you....so unlock the chains from your heart and let yourself grow—

"like the sweet flower you are.....

"I know the answer–

"Just spread your wings and set yourself

"FREE

"Love to you forever

"Jimi Hendrix"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12154694/How-to-write-the-perfect-Valentines-Card-message.html?sf20817400=1

40 Smart & Sexy Quotes from Marilyn for a Sassy Valentines

Via Sarah Norradon Feb 11, 2016

What isn’t commonly known about Marilyn Monroe is that she was one of Hollywoods most ambitious and hard working people.

What is also regularly overlooked is that she became an enduring American icon after a childhood where she was abandoned and abused.

With her wit, heart and determination she rose to the top of show business in the 50s when women were seen as primarily domestic engineers. Even after being type casted as a “dumb blonde” and underpaid for her work because she was female, she never gave up.

She turned away from what held her back then and began her own production company.

Marilyn used her body, but she also used everything else she had to succeed. She was a keen businesswoman, a sex-goddess, but most importantly to me, she was incredibly human. She struggled with depression, anxiety and heartbreak and was open about this at a time when feelings were to be kept unseen.

I admire her for her fearlessness. There is much that Marilyn can teach us, but for this Valentine’s Day, I would like to remember her for the fight that was in her soul.

I plan to pull out a few of her classy one-liners this weekend, sprinkle them into conversations and over friends’ heads. Because we all need a little encouragement to live big, especially around holidays that can get a wee bit heavy.

Thank you Marilyn, your words always make me feel sassy and strong:

#1) Always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don’t, then who will?”

#2) “I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure.”

#3) “I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.”

#4) “Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.”

#5) “It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.”

#6) “Fear is stupid.”

#7) “The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.”

#8) “All we demanded was our right to twinkle.”

#9) “She was a girl who knew how to be happy—And that’s important—you know ”

#10) “If I’d observed all the rules I’d never have got anywhere.”

#11) “If you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.”

#12) “Imperfection is beauty.”

#13) “It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.”

#14) “Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.”

#15) “It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

#16) “As for lovers, well, they’ll come and go.”

#17) “Who said nights were for sleep?”

#18) “It’s often just enough to be with someone. I don’t need to touch them.”

#19) “Dogs never bite me. Just humans.”

#20) “I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.”

#21) “Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.”

#22) “There is no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.”

#23) “I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural.”

#24) “It’s all make believe, isn’t it?”

#25) “I want to be an artist, not…a celluloid aphrodisiac.”

#26) “A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.”

#27) “I read poetry to save time.”

#28) “The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.”

#29) “What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.”

#30) “Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don’t feel like Spring. I feel like a warm red Autumn.”

#31) “I defy gravity.”

#32) “There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.”

#33) “Men who think that a woman’s past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid.”

#34) “One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman.”

#35) “Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.” 

#36) “I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about.”

#37) “I’m looking forward to becoming marvelous.”

#38) “I don’t digest things with my mind.”

#39) “I’ve been on a calendar, but I’ve never been on time.”

#40) “The ‘public’ scares me, but people I trust.”

Perhaps because of the time period she came from, Marilyn Monroe never considered herself an intellect, but she was most certainly an artist of sculpted wit, whose insights into love and life I find profound.

I hope these quotes lift our hearts this Valentine’s Day, wherever we are at, and inspire our spirit to be a little more fiery and bold.

 http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/02/40-smart-sexy-quotes-from-marilyn-for-a-sassy-valentines/

Favorite Wisdom Quotes

Via elephant journalon Feb 10, 2016

Some of them are classic, some of them are obscure, and some just might stop you in your tracks.

Here are 62 life-changing quotes, curated by you, our readers:

1. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus
2. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
3. “Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” ~ Voltaire
4. “If you wanna be somebody, if you wanna go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention.” ~ Sister Act 2
5. “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” ~ Dale Carnegie
6. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom.” ~ Anaïs Nin
7. The student asked the master: How do you walk around seemingly unafraid of anything?
   The master replied: The difference is, you see yourself in the world, yet I see the world in me. ~ Unknown
8. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ~ Ferris Bueller
9. “We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ~ Joseph Campbell
10. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
11. “This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.” ~ Walt Whitman
12. “The trouble is, you think you have time.” ~ Buddha
13. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ (not) Mahatma Gandhi
14. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
15. “You do not have to be good.
    You do not have to walk on your knees
    For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
    You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves.
    Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
    Meanwhile the world goes on.
    Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
    are moving across the landscapes,
    over the prairies and the deep trees,
    the mountains and the rivers.
    Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
    are heading home again.
    Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
    the world offers itself to your imagination,
    calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
    over and over announcing your place
    in the family of things.”
    ~ Mary Oliver
16. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” ~ John Lennon
17. “I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.” ~ Roald Dahl
18. “…everything has a past. Everything—a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.” ~ Chaim Potok
19. “You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.” ~ Johnny Depp
20. “Self love is not selfishness. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” ~ Eleanor Brownn
21. “To live well, to laugh often, to love much, to gain the respect of intelligent people, to win the love of little children. To fill one’s niche and accomplish one’s task, to leave the world better than one finds it whether by an improved flower, a perfect poem or another life ennobled. to never lack appreciation of earth’s beauty or fail to express it, to always look for the best in others, to give the best one has. To make one’s life an inspiration and one’s memory a benediction. This is success.” ~ Bessie Anderson Stanley (often misattributed to Emerson)
22. “I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learnt, from experience, that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us, in our minds, wheresoever we go.” ~ Martha Washington, letter to Mrs. Warren, Dec. 26, 1789
23. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami
24. “There’s no one to beat you, no one to defeat you, ‘cept the thoughts of your self feeling bad.” ~ Bob Dylan
25. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.” ~ Robert Frost
26. “To see a World in a Grain of Sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour.” ~ William Blake
27. “Everything matters, but nothing matters much.” ~ Kathleen Winsor
28. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
29. “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” ~ Max Ehrmann, Desiderata
30. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill
31. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
32. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (maybe)
33. “The only easy day was yesterday.” ~ U.S. Navy SEALs
34. “The blessing lies close to the curse.” ~ African Proverb
35. “At this point in my life
    I’d like to live as though only love mattered
    As if redemption was in sight
    As if the search to live honestly
    Is all that anyone needs
    No matter if you find it.” ~ Tracy Chapman
36. “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
37. “Do not forget in the darkness, what you have learned in the light.” ~ Joseph Bayly
38. “Because in the end, you won’t remember the time spent going to the office or mowing the lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” ~ Jack Kerouac
39. “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” ~ Andre Gide
40. “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” ~ Mark Twain
41. “We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” ~ Anaïs Nin (among others)
42. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
43. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ~ Helen Keller
44. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
45. “I am a human being; nothing human can be alien to me.” ~ Maya Angelou/Terence
46. “Live to the point of tears.” ~ Albert Camus
47. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” ~ Abe Lincoln
48. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” ~ A.A. Milne
49. “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” ~ William Ernest Henley
50. “When you know better, you do better.” ~ Maya Angelou
51. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke
52. “All suffering is caused by our inability to accept what is.” ~ The Second Noble Truth, kind of.
53. “Find your place in the world and fully occupy it.” ~ Kristina Dryža
54. “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” ~ Edward Abbey
55. “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” ~ Paul Brandt
56. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” ~Maya Angelou
57. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ~ Gloria Steinem
58. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” ~ Carl Sagan
59. “I have noticed that most people are about as happy as they have made up their minds to be.” ~ Abe Lincoln
60. “You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” ~ Pema Chödrön
61. “Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.'” ~ Yoda
62. “This too shall pass.”

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/02/the-quotes-that-changed-how-elephant-readers-approach-their-lives/

Harnessing the Power of the Full Moon

The full moon is resplendent; her luminous energy is pure, graceful and divine. For millennia she has captured people’s dreams and imaginations, radiating reflective and perceptive intuitive power.

In her stillness, we are guided to trust in and listen to our intuition. She is the sacred essence of our unconscious desires, gently guiding us to create the necessary stillness to hear where we are guided. She reveals secrets to those who are willing to stop and listen to her perceptive and mysterious energy.

When we honor the sacred space that is contained within the full moon, we heighten our creativity and intuitive awareness, which allows for a deeper understanding of our goals, desires and dreams.

The full moon cleanses not only our spirit, but also our sacred tools of divinity. We can place our crystals or Oracle and Tarot cards under her light to allow them to release built up vibrations and become recharged.

The full moon is a powerful healer, too, and her nurturing presence can be harnessed to help us let go of any burdens we have been carrying. This is the perfect time to write our ex-lover’s name on a piece of paper and release the energetic hold they have over us. This can be done by safely burning the paper, or by tearing it up in pieces and allowing the wind to carry the fragments away.

We can also tap into this sacred time by engaging in rituals that celebrate her divine presence in our lives—this can be an elaborate ceremony, or as simple as lighting a white candle in her honor.

The full moon is the cosmic mother that unites human spirit with the divine. Her ability to control earthly cycles renders her a force to be reckoned with. She symbolizes the hidden secrets of life, and her glow speaks of feminine mysteries. She is the veil of light that hides her secrets well until she is ready to reveal them in her splendor.

Her changing cycles give us the opportunity for rebirth, and allow for sadness to be released and creativity expressed. She radiates in our lives with clarity and harmony, allowing us time to reflect and gain access to our intuitive perception. She is the gateway between our unconscious desires and the reality we are yet to manifest in our lives.

She illuminates the darkness and leads the way forward—away from the shadow-scape of darkness and into the light of rebirth.

This is the perfect time to work on connecting with our intuition. It is a highly creative time which allows for reflection on that which we wish to manifest in our life, helping us to create the foundation for further growth.

Journaling is an excellent way to tap into the ideas forming on the edges of our consciousness. Keeping a full moon journal also allows for repressed feelings to be acknowledged and healed, as our writing at this time is particularly vivid and leads to a greater understanding of our emotional states.

There are many ways we can choose to tap into the moon’s guiding light, and this interaction with her receptive feminine energy will pay us “dividends.” We will become clearer, calmer and more balanced, achieving a state of inner equilibrium and allowing for great healing to enter our lives.

It is also common to have vivid dreams and heightened imagination during this time, which is part of harnessing her creative intuitive powers.

The full moon hints of the abundance possible—the cosmic forces of unlimited potentiality available to us. We may celebrate her presence in our lives and open to her healing powers and creative forces as her love and light shine down on us from above.

We are nurtured and supported during this journey of working on the inner self. As such, this is the perfect time to express ourselves fully to those around us and allow her sacred feminine beauty to shine brightly in our lives.

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/02/harnessing-the-power-of-the-full-moon-2/

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Look A Little & Then Leap: 10 Inspirational Quotes About Change, Transition & Transformation.

Via Marthe Weyandton Feb 24, 2013

Photo Credit: singlecupofcoffee on Flickr

Winter lurches slowly, agonizingly, towards an end; we anxiously await the first blooms of spring.

Are you looking to make a big transition in life? Hoping to shake off some dust and cobwebs? Maybe ruffle a few tail feathers in the process?

Transitions are not easy, but they truly are transcendent.

Take a bit of inspiration from these folks:

13.

“Never too old, never too bad, never too late, never too sick to start from scratch once again.”

~ Bikram Choudhury

12.

“The future is called ‘perhaps,’ which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.”

~ Tennessee Williams

11.

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

10.

“To say goodbye is to die a little.”

~ Raymond Chandler

9.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

~ Albert Einstein

8.

“Lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at you.”

~ David Brinkley

7.

“In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad, To suit his theories. But now I know the things I know And do the things I do, And if you do not like me so, To hell, my love, with you.”

~ Dorothy Parker

6.

“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.”

~ Khalil Gibran

5.

“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

4.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically—to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.”

~ Stephen Covey

3.

“20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

~ Mark Twain

2.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

1.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/02/look-a-little-then-leap-10-inspirational-quotes-about-change-transition-transformation/