The ‘daily hot! quote’ has been breathing since June 2012. As of today, there are 760 hot! quotes, with 651 being originals (meaning, written by me, Amy Larson, aka. AmyJalapeño!) And I am on a mission. Here’s why…

1. I have received a lot of feedback.

On-liners have sent messages stating they enjoy the “daily hot! quote” and that they have bookmarked the site. I had one woman say she sent a facebook quote pic to her husband after days of marital turmoil and arguing. She was sitting across from me when his reply came through. She glanced down at her phone to view it, then looked up at me and said, “You just saved my marriage.”  She relayed the events of the previous few days, sharing that divorce had been on the table. Tears fill her eyes and she held up the phone up for me to see his response:

“Okay. I’m in.”

I was speechless. Honestly, I really didn’t do anything. I simply happened to witness a really cool reconciliation.

I have also had feedback that wasn’t so great. Some have pointed out spelling and grammatical errors. Others have expressed that my ideas are too abstract and difficult to follow and (like the hot! quotes are some Chinese puzzle box) they don’t have time to stop and figure them out.

Honestly, I am grateful for every bit of it (feedback). It has challenged me and caused me to look honestly at how my ideas are received and perceived. All of this has made me a better writer and clearer communicator.

2. My understanding of inner freedom has evolved.

I spent the earlier part of my life allowing others to dictate what I believed. I adopted the religious beliefs of my parents, teachers and adults of my childhood, eventually taking those beliefs to a fundamentalist extreme.

At the time I thought the testimony I held was my own. I could not see that the first two decades of my life I sought answers within the box of a religious mythology.

Breaking free of that immense belief system was excruciatingly painful. And it destroyed many of my close relationships, mostly because they did not understand why I would choose to think of a life outside of a mythological bliss. I was lost to them and they viewed me as a covenant breaker, as someone to be pitied and prayed over.

Ironically, I considered my choice liberating. Enthusiasm and passion for philosophical exploration filled my life. All of the sudden making mistakes became significant steps of learning, instead of signs I was on the path to hell. And time with the people I cared for became valuable, instead of looking to some distant Celestial future where I could make up for not appreciating them now. Love became my religion, and being honest with myself and my actions became an obsession.

From the point I broke free – the moment I committed to being the best human being I could be – I knew it meant a future of surrendering my most cherished beliefs again and again and relinquishing who I thought I was over and over. What I also knew was that at every turning over, whatever was lasting would remain. But I had to be willing to give it up first, to give up all the assumptions, all fantasies and fictions I had attached to what I thought was real for it to mean anything.

That idea of personal evolution and non-attachment to ever-evolving ideas and beliefs has been the premise of the daily hot! quote. My understanding of inner freedom and the quality of my writing have evolved over the past two-and-a-half years and most of the early quotes are out-dated or abstract or poorly written.

And so I am on a mission. I am revamping many of the earlier daily hot! quotes. They will be re-posted with the title “daily hot! quote rehab”. I hope you don’t mind and I hope you find them more relate-able and more useful to you.

There will still be new daily hot! quotes. However, they will not be every day and will be sandwiched in between the rehabs.

I hope you enjoy the evolution.