#me

More and more, paddling the Yellowstone feels like that bedside visit, like we are attending to a friend in dire straits, a friend whom we have seen in the full bloom of health, but with whom, now, there is little to say and only our companionship to offer. ↗

— Alan S. Kesselheim

#nature #rivers #nature

Drugs and medical technology can be enormously beneficial when used to take care of real complications, but too often they are abused when applied to women birthing normally. These women are thus subjected to unnecessary risks. The key to this problem is informed consent, an ideal too seldom realized. Informed consent means that no woman during pregnancy or labor should ever be deceived into thinking that any drug or procedure (Demerol, Seconal, spinals, caudals, epidurals, paracervical block, etc.) is guaranteed safe. Not only are there no guaranteed safe drugs, but many of them have well-known, recognized side effects and potential side effects. Informed consent should mean that no woman would ever hear such falsehoods as, “This is harmless,” or, “I only give it in such a small dose that it can’t affect the baby,” or, “This is just a local and won’t reach the baby. ↗

— Susan McCutcheon

#epidural #informed-consent #natural-birth #nature

The contemplation of consciousness—which is the contemplation of no-thing whatsoever—is endlessly fascinating. It’s like staring at a candle in a dark night—you find yourself mesmerized by something that is unchanging yet infinitely compelling. You feel drawn into something you don’t understand rationally but that your heart or soul grasps completely. You are drawn into it, and as you are drawn into it, the only thing you experience as real is the eternal or timeless nature of Being itself. You find yourself in a state of rapture, because the deepest part of yourself has been released from your ego’s endless fears and concerns, and drawn out of the time process altogether. ↗

— Andrew Cohen

#contemplation #meditation #experience

Whether it’s your taste in clothing, your needs in a relationship, or what you do for a living—don’t let anyone else be at the controls. Define yourself. ↗

— Sherry Argov

#love

I avoided one-on-one situations, eye contact, and healthy relationships. Instead I took refuge in drinking too much, cheap sex, and sarcasm. ↗

— Jason Najum

#essay #memoir #pop-culture #relationship

By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish. ↗

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

#old-fashioned #relationships #women #relationship

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#fundamentalism #religion #secularism #separation-of-church-and-state #united-states

Asuka...you're really cute. When I look at you...I start wanting to protect you. ↗

— Aya Kanno

#cute #manga #otomen #romance #ryo

He seems to be supporting her tenderly. But what holds them together is difficult to pin down. In her memoir, she wrote that he once dropped her on her hip very painfully, and she had the distinct impression he’d done it on purpose. What really goes on between two people is very difficult to say. ↗

— Barbara Browning

#dance #merce-cunningham #relationships #relationship

All those night long phone calls! All those secret visits to my house! All those secret walks! And you’re fond of me! You think I’m being over dramatic! How about I break your face open for over dramatics!” ~Becca ↗

— Annabell Cadiz

#becca #lucifer-sons-of-old-trilogy #relationship-quotes #relationship