Surprise! It's you...

It takes a lifetime to know yourself and at least that long to truly know another. This isn't to say don't trust; it's to say don't be fooled on either count. The only guarantee is you will surprise yourself - good and bad - as will others. Decide how much you enjoy surprises and take each one gracefully or graciously. 

-Ronda Rae Franklin

'If you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with.' I respectfully disagree...

You can keep company with a lovely person and feel lonely; you can reside in paradise and live in turmoil. 

Don't fain love towards another because you can't be with the one you do love; that's narcissism from which stems severe heartache. 

Don't go to paradise expecting your mind, heart and soul will follow; that's ignorance in which the bliss will soon subside. 

Everything comes from where you are within. Know where you stand and hold your head up when you fall. 

-Ronda Rae Franklin

Photograph by Ronda Rae Franklin

Playa de Los Muertos, Riviera Nayarit

Lift up a friend today. It's a great gift to give yourself.

‎"If you are looking for a friend who is faultless, you will be friendless." ~ Rumi

Stop looking for the faults; you know they're there and you're bound to find many. When your friends search you for your faults it feels anything but friendly. Be a kind friend; be the kind of friend you want to have that maybe you don't. Seek the good because that is what you want searched out in you. Finding good in others makes you seek a better you. Lend a hand, lift up a friend. 
-Ronda Rae Franklin

Life is rarely the ride you plan to get on each morning as you wake, but will you get on anyway?

At an amusement park you can't ride everything at once. 

If a line is long do you wait? If a ride is shut down do you stand and stare, or move on? Do you try a ride that isn't on your list? 

Live a bit more as if you're at an amusement park. 

You can't do everything at once; use patience when it's called for; gracefully step away when needed; give chance to a ride you never expected to get on. 

-Ronda Rae Franklin