Thank You

Thank you music
Thank you to all the poets, singers, artists
All the creative minds ever imagined and brought to past
Thank you Picasso, Raphael, Da Vinci, Michael Angelo…
Thank you Plato, Socrates, Aristotle….
Thank you Sparta and Athens
The 300 warriors at Thermoplyae
Thank you to Shelley and her Frankenstein
Thank you Shakespeare and his Hamlet
Thank you Emily Dickinson
Thank you Jane Austen
Thank you to the monks who kept records
Wrote stories and history preserved
In their faithful monastery walls
Thank you Achilles, Athena, and Thor….
Thank you all constitution signers
Thank you Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson…
Thank you Bill Gates and IBM
Thank you to Gray’s Anatomy and healers
Thank you to those who stand up for what is right and true
Thank you Gandhi
Thank you Martin Luther King Jr.
Thank you to those who defend freedom and the right to live
Thank you to warm showers, clean water, and plentiful food
Thank you to warm or light clothes
Thank you to teachers and educators and researchers
Thank you to health care and insurance
Thank you to those who listen, smile, or make others laugh
Thank you to strangers that compliment or comment
Thank you to strangers that help a dead car or person in the ditch
Thank you libraries and cafes
Thank you Lara Croft and Indiana Jones
The countries and cultures I have discovered
The adventurous spirit I have gained
Thank you dance instructors and coaches
Thank you to yoga and treadmills
Thank you to paper, my means of venting, recording
Sets my imagination and heart free
Thank you to those who broke my heart or rejected me
I am a lot better without them
Yet stronger and wiser because of them
Thank you pain receptors and emotional reactions
I can feel and experience and my heart grows bigger
Thank you to the liars and users
I can better avoid the manipulators and cold ones
Or act ignorant but still be civil
Thank you to those who dared me or pushed me
Thank you Mother Nature
The peace and inspiration I have gained on her mountains
In her woods and on her trails
Thank you to God
Who gave me life and a family
For answering my prayers, showering me with blessings
Thank you to my King and Savior
For forgiving me, holding me up, and healing me
Helping me through the worst of times
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
And the list goes on!
Just a few things
I cannot imagine myself without or the world without
By: Amara Van Orden

“Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for the gift.” - Unknown

“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears.” -Anthony Robbins

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.” - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Fighting for Me

Letting go
A long patient time energy taking process
I am learning to let go
I am learning
There will be up and downs
There will be moments of self-assuredness
Then others of hesitance, uncertainty
But what is most important
Is that I stick by me
I stand by me
Because in the end all I have is me
I am a fighter
I am an open learner
I never ever give up
Because I am the instigator of my own destiny
I am the result of my consequences
I will take responsibility
I don’t hide or run
Even if it hurts
In the end I will only be
Stronger and wiser
Mistakes, weaknesses
Don’t hold me back
Don’t scare me
Because I break the mirror
And make my own luck
I jump a few stairs, faith
And land on my own two feet balanced
I sing at the top of my lungs
And let the music blare
I am not ashamed
It’s just how I cope
I am not ashamed of my love
And its failed attempts
Because those failures gave me gumption
Gave me self-reliance and confidence
Because when I realize
All I really have is me
You learn to accept your independence and place
You learn to love yourself more than anyone else could
You learn to fight for yourself first
Fighting for me
By: Amara Van Orden

To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. -Unknown

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance? -Abdul Kalam

Help yourself, and Heaven will help you. -Jean de la Fontaine

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. - Bruce Barton