I must make sure that I am in a good state. So often I feel rushed- 

on the scout for my next binge, the next thing to stimulate my senses- 

that I cannot simply live... 

To go slowly through life, living in the present,

leaning into the idea that the only thing I control is the way I respond-
that is what I would like for myself. 

How much of my reality is shaped by perceptions and expectations? 

As Bernd put it- "If you miss the train because you were reading a book- 

well it must have been a really good book"

-excerpt from my backpacking journal on 9.2.16

As old as Woe

How old is that?

Some Eighteen thousand years

As old as Bliss, Joy

How old is that?

They are of equal years

Together chiefly they are found

But tho seldom side by side

From neither of them tho' he try

May Human Nature hide

-Emily Dickinson