I surf Pinterest in between sips of coffee. My ‘quote habit’ sucks me in.

I reserve this addiction for the same space I save animal videos. Why? I usually can’t stop myself from looking.

I am a writer with writer obsessions, things like pens and pretty paper. In fact, REALLY pretty pens make me as happy as jewelry – well, almost.

Quotes; however, are my magic. Like when you spot something you like so much that you hear choirs of angels sing?

So I confess. I am a quote hoarder.

Just ask my boys. They have witnessed quotes plastered to their bathroom mirrors, tucked inside their lunches, stuck inside their suitcases, and all over their rooms. Correction – all over the house. College doesn’t stop me either. I just plant them in their dorm rooms, text them or mail them. Though I must admit that bathroom mirrors are a bit of my fave since they can’t ignore them there.

So this is what I do for my children when I think they might need words from someone other than their mom.

I gravitate most to a line of cards (www.quotablecards.com)

My kids have observed a plaster of these black and white words since they were old enough to read. I do this to remind them of the gray in life. The part of life where everything is possible. Where the world is multi-colored and anything they dream can happen. I do it to remind them of the gray part of life where the heart lives. Where feelings reside, need to be massaged and let out to play.

I believe that we all need words. We all need quotes – we need this ’emotional currency.’

This morning as I collect the heart’s dinero, moolah, dough, Benjamin’s…via Pinterest – I spot a quote one particular quote.

“When we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, There are only two: An attachment to the past or a fear for the future.” – Marie Kondo

I am reminded that there are the quotes that are not the hope filled gray ones, but rather the black and white ones.

The ones that take out the middle of the road, the rock and a hard place and the in between. The ones that tell it like it is and are so profound in their simplicity that they erase our complexities.

The black and white ones that we have to face before we can be inspired again by the gray ones.

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