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The Triangle Project

When I was studying literature at the University of Toronto my mom noticed that I was reading many different books at one time. She probably also noticed that I had a bad habit of folding pages into triangles to hold my place. To save the books and my place, Mom cut up a large stack of greeting cards she had saved. The cards made beautiful and sturdy bookmarks, and were a unique way of recycling.

Recently, I noticed that my bad habit of folding triangle bookmarks had started again. I dug out my own giant stack of greeting cards and started slicing. An hour later I wondered to myself, What am I going to do with all of these bookmarks? This is when the idea for The Triangle Project came to me.

Similar to the Bookcrossing concept, The Triangle Project is an earth friendly form of promoting reading. My bookmarks are placed randomly in library books we have borrowed, used books we have outgrown and donated, as well as books we are leaving in random places. I even keep a few in my purse to leave in books or magazines that I find in doctors' offices or lounges. On the back of each bookmark I have written a favourite quote in hopes that the inspiring words will be passed on to the next reader.

"Good quotes are timeless. It's as if someone just ahead of you on the path of life is turning back to give you a helping hand and you come along behind. As we repeat these quotes and pass them along, we in turn are helping those who are following in our footsteps." Rolf Gates

Please join me by participating in The Triangle Project:

1. Slice up the greeting cards you have received and collected (you know you have some) into bookmark sizes.

2. Write your favourite quote on the backs of the bookmarks. (Feel free to choose any you see on this page.)

3. Place your bookmarks in library books and those you bookcross or pass on to second hand stores.

* Reduce Damage to Books * Reuse Greeting Cards * Recycle Inspiring Words

On Writing

"A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories." John Irving

"Voice is the piece of personality you leave on the page." Polly Cambell

"Winners in publishing are like winners in every other field of endeavor. They are absolutely convinced that they're going to achieve their goals, and they'll let nothing stand in their way." Ken Atchity

"What most of us get is the worried advice that if we are thinking about a life in the arts, we'd better plan to have 'something to fall back on'. Would they tell us that if we expressed an interest in banking?" Julia Cameron

"Determine your best character in your idea: 'Best' doesn't mean 'nicest.' It means the 'most fascinating, challenging and complex,' ... The reason you want to tell a story about your best character is that this is where your interest, and the audience's interest, will inevitably go." Amy Mackinnon

"Imagination is your currency."Phil Keagan

"It's bizarre to me that people think that I am prolific and that I must use every spare minute of my time when in fact, as my intimates have always known, I spend most of my time looking out the window. (I recommend it.)" Joyce Carol Oats

"As a writer you should go to a book thirsty and suck it dry." Natalie Goldberg

"A comma is a delicate kink in time, a pause within a sentence, a chance to catch your breath, a curvaceous acrobat, it capers over the page." Karen Elizabeth Gordon

"That's exactly what writing is: to be able to duplicate our original mind on paper, with all its odd, kinky turns." Natalie Goldberg

"We have come to think that duty should come first. I disagree. Duty should be a by-product. Writing, the creative effort, the use of imagination, should come first,-at least for some part of every day of your life." Brenda Ueland

"You see, you've now become an observer of life. It's fun. It's exciting. It's way better than going into a Wal-Mart and buying more stuff." d. Price

"Here's what I like about God: Trees are crooked, mountains are lumpy, a lot of his creatures are funny looking, and he made it all anyway. He didn't let the aardvark convince him he had no business designing creatures. He didn't make a puffer fish and get discouraged-No, the maker made things-and still does." Julia Cameron

Inspiration for Life

"Hunch and intuition are legitimate ways of knowing. Our feelings are often confirmed for us by our body's language. We sigh or take a deep breath, get the chills or shivers. Our stomach gurgles; we yawn, or shift our position. The truth sense often speaks through our body, and we can learn to read its language. Coincidences can help to cement intuition or help us to notice something important. First impressions can be trusted." Peggy O'Mara

"You may not realize it or want to believe it, but your life at this exact moment is a direct result of choices you made once upon a time. Thirty minutes or 30 years ago." Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Love cannot survive if you give it scraps of yourself, scraps of your time, scraps of your thoughts. " Mary O'Hara

"Decide daily to be the agent of your own life--you have nothing to lose and so much to gain." Jennifer Louden

"For now, remember this. Even though you don't have what you want right now, keep your heart open anyway. Later, you'll see more. You'll see how it worked out. How it needed to be just so." Melody Beattie

"Worry is a future tense emotion." Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Every person is born into life as a blank page--and every person leaves life as a full book." Christina Baldwin

"Let the world know you as you are, not as who you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?" Fanny Brice

"The aunthentic self is the soul made visible." Susan Ban Breathnach

"Let me listen to me and not to them." Gertrude Stein

"Use the past as a springboard, not a hammock." Irving Bell

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a long time." Andre Gide

"If you are not the lead elephant, the scenery never changes." From Anna and the King

"Ask and you shall receive. Knock and it shall be opened to you." Jesus Christ

"Take a chance on that ugly fruit at the produce stand." Holly Lisle

"Aching, longing, hungering, and thirsting are the signals by which our authentic selves call us toward our destiny." Martha Beck

"Most of our life we're put in a cage, where we sing the same song day in and day out. But life is not about being caged, life is about flying." John Bacon

"The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. Enough of this self-deprecating, 'I can't do anything.' And enough of its arrogant opposite: 'I have to do everything.' No you don't. You're not God's solution to society, but a solution in society. Imitate Paul, who said, 'Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us' (2 Cor. 10:13). Clarify your contribution." Max Lucado

Motivation

"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." Anon

"You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world." Sheilah Graham

"There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, an emotional, a mental, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. I have tried to go most days into them all--each has its riches." Rumor Goddin

"Our miracles and life's magic don't appear when we're restless and frantic. The miracles and magic happen when we're still, quiet, calm, and trusting." Melody Beattie

"I knew the truth was that while I was waiting on God, God was waiting on me. He was waiting on me to make a decision to either pursue the life that was meant for me or be stifled by the one I was living." Oprah Winfrey

"When you wake up in the morning, start your day with the question, What am I going to enjoy today?" Robert Munsch

"Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action." Stendhal

"I realized when I resigned from my old job just how many people feel trapped and tied to their paychecks. They feel they can't make a change. You sense that their spirits have been crushed." Shana Lang

"Does your calendar reflect your passion?" Max Lucado

"There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness." Charles Baudelaire

"Our critics are likely overly aggressive gardeners busily weeding and heaping on the acid chemicals, unskilled in encouraging the tender green shoots that hold promise to bloom." Julia Cameron