"Never make people who gave you opportunities , regret what they did for you. That they end up, closing doors in helping others like you.

"Closing The Cycle

I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. I have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. I am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe.

I consider myself a stained-glass window. And this is how I live my life. Closing no doors and covering no windows; I am the multi-colored glass with light filtering through me, in many different shades. Allowing light to shed and fall into many many hues. My job is not to direct anything, but only to filter into many colors. My answer is destiny and my guide is joy. And there you have me.

I've apparently been the victim of growing up, which apparently happens to all of us at one point or another. It's been going on for quite some time now, without me knowing it. I've found that growing up can mean a lot of things. For me, it doesn't mean I should become somebody completely new and stop loving the things I used to love. It means I've just added more things to my list. Like for example, I'm still beyond obsessed with the winter season and I still start putting up strings of lights in September. I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers. But some new things I've fallen in love with -- mismatched everything. Mismatched chairs, mismatched colors, mismatched personalities. I love spraying perfumes I used to wear when I was in high school. It brings me back to the days of trying to get a close parking spot at school, trying to get noticed by soccer players, and trying to figure out how to avoid doing or saying anything uncool, and wishing every minute of every day that one day maybe I'd get a chance to win a Grammy. Or something crazy and out of reach like that. ;) I love old buildings with the paint chipping off the walls and my dad's stories about college. I love the freedom of living alone, but I also love things that make me feel seven again. Back then naivety was the norm and skepticism was a foreign language, and I just think every once in a while you need fries and a chocolate milkshake and your mom. I love picking up a cookbook and closing my eyes and opening it to a random page, then attempting to make that recipe. I've loved my fans from the very first day, but they've said things and done things recently that make me feel like they're my friends -- more now than ever before. I'll never go a day without thinking about our memories together.

I'm bad on Valentine's Day but even worse on Christmas. I go shopping at nine o'clock on December 24th every year. Nobody else is there. I'm in Toys'R'Us all by myself. I get there five minutes before closing.

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts.

The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort - the opening terror. Conversely the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing - the opening a wonderfully joyous moment.

We want to obviously foster a relationship that we're a partner with states that we all share the same goals of closing the achievement gap just as the Congress does and that we're practical and sophisticated enough to understand what they're talking about.

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.

In our own state we came up with I think what was a very novel approach to closing the gap on the uninsured. To harmonize medical records - which was a major step in getting costs out of the system.

At the end of your life you will never regret not having passed one more test not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband a friend a child or a parent.

I do think we know that a teacher who knows what he or she is doing knows their subject matter and knows how to impart knowledge to kids is a critical piece of closing the achievement gap.

I support health care for people. I want people well taken care of. But I also want health care that we can afford as a country. I have people and friends closing down their businesses because of Obamacare.

And time itself? Time was a never-ending medium that stretched into the future and the past - except there was no future and no past but an infinite number of brackets extending either way each bracket enclosing its single phase of the Universe.

In closing I wish to say that while I was sorely beset by a number of white riders in my racing days I have also enjoyed the friendship of countless thousands of white men whom I class as among my closest friends.

These are important reforms. Infrastructure education health hospitals closing the gap with indigenous Australians. Also the Apology to the first Australians. As Prime Minister of the country I am proud of each and every one of these achievements.

The art world is molting - some would say melting. Galleries are closing museums are scaling back.

Palin was a political Hail Mary a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff if that's what it took to win.