If you're an Atheist, what comforts you?

[Seraphina]

What brings you comfort when life is hard? I'm especially interested in any book recommendations or videos that I can turn to repeatedly when times are tough. They don't have to be by atheists or about atheism. Any secular source will do. 

thanks

Any book that helps me escape everyday pressures and pain is a good book. My personal tastes might be different than yours but here are few I've read recently:
In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hariri
Any book by Junot Diaz

I also listen to my favorite violinists on youtube - Arabella Steinbacher (Bach and Tchaikovsky) and Jascha Heifetz (Bach). I always feel better after listening to them.

I've read this poem over and over when I've been going through bad times. At one point I was reading it so much I almost knew it by heart. And there are lots of other great poems out there waiting to be discovered by those of us who need a boost.

The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life that you could save.


-Teresa