8/7

For all that is wrong with the world, if we so possess the energy to complain about it, we simultaneously possess the energy to change it.

It is the choice between satiating the ego or being generous.

Be the change you seek to make.

8/6

In the heat of the moment, criticism—thoughtful, constructive, or neither, and judged on the basis of its intrinsic validity alone—feels like an attack on our identity, our values, our conception of truth.

But if we take a mere moment to step back—it's probably the most generous thing someone can ever offer us; they offer a chance to find clarity, revelation, to look beyond the confines of our biased perceptions and the echoing chambers of our mind. How can we turn down such an opportunity? An opportunity that exhorts us to remember that the life that you or I live is not merely what you or I personally make of it; it is what we make of it, how we can live out our best lives, how we can construct meaning, engender love, and craft community.

8/3

Without reason, and we become a slave to our circumstances.

But without emotion, there is no reason to have reason.

8/1

To be happy—the most common answer I’ve received to the question of what’s someone life purpose is.

Yet I find it odd that so many people want something that they don’t understand. What is their definition of “happiness”? Is it merely to maximize the amount of time spent in this capricious emotional state of bliss that comes and goes based on our impulses? Is it the achievement of something we can be proud of? Is it to attain stability and security? Friends and family? To possess freedom?

The truth is that these are the wrong questions to ask; it’s not about achieving, attaining, accomplishing, or possessing anything. These words entail an ending, a conclusion, as if the goal was to simply have something, no matter the means. Indeed, the point of a journey is not to arrive. The point of the journey is to write our story. It is not to avoid suffering. It is not to “achieve” happiness. In the grand scope of things, neither is “good” nor “bad,” as we might define them. They are both necessary components of a life worth living—a life with purpose, with meaning, with intention.

If we can look ourselves in the mirror and declare that this is not what we want—and that what we want is to merely passively drift along in this world, indulging in pleasure when our emotions decide to work in our favor, and drenching ourselves in misery when it doesn’t—then so be it. I won’t hold it against anyone. But for everyone else—this is the only way.

7/31

How rare is it to find someone whose worldview and life purpose—whose innate interests, intrinsic motivations, visions for the future, perceptions of work, happiness, sadness, the human condition—align perfectly with yours? Humans are different—and that’s a feature, not a bug.

Yet it is often an arduous task to constantly remember this in our interactions. Whether in the office, the church, the school, the laboratory, or the bakery, when we’re called upon to do something together this truth suddenly becomes elusive. Most of us are excessively predisposed to selfishly sulk and to bicker, rather than silently observe, learn, and start discourse. Although we can probably acknowledge that most of humanity’s greatest achievements required a collective effort among a group of individuals unified in purpose and in intent, we end up shying, or perhaps cowering, away from greatness because of self-centeredness.

As Seth Godin might say, “I don’t know what you know, I don’t believe what you believe, I don’t feel what you feel, and that’s okay.” It is the courage to move forward because of our differences, not despite them. The key to success in this collective effort is finding a way to capture the hearts of individuals on vastly different walks of life, to tap into the vastly different lessons learned only attainable from a lifetime’s worth of mistakes, to break each other free from the short-sightedness and myopia that often blind us from a greater truth.

7/30

Just remember—to not fight with yourself, to think that your emotions and intuitions are extraneous and dispensable, to believe that the only pathway to truth is through reason.

Let reason and emotion alike serve you as a guide, being subjugated as a slave to neither.

7/29

Fond memories are warm, familiar, and never fail to incur a sense of longing, an indulgence in reminiscence and, in some ways, a profound appreciation and gratitude for both the experience, and life itself.

Yet if we roll back into those moments, we seldom feel the same way in that very moment. Nothing about what happened has changed. All that changed, was us.

Is it because we long to dilute the pain and suffering of the present with a rose-colored past?

Is it because of the necessary consequence of our malleable and transient identity and values?

Is it because time and space has inexplicably warped our perceptions?

What purpose does it serve?

7/25

I will no longer be afraid of nightmares.

They serve as a stark reminder that the current status quo—the expected outcomes, the tireless routines day in and day out, this predictable experience of life that I deem as reality—can and will be warped by time and circumstance, by malevolence and iniquity.

In a very strange way, they ground me; they exhort me to eschew complacency—to not to pretend as if I’m free from adversity and free from visceral fear, to not live as if I was shielded in some protective bubble.

There is far worse, unimaginable evil and terror out there in the world that not even my subconscious can conjure up in dreams. Thus, may I live my days going forward remembering that with genuine seriousness and attentiveness, in every moment recognizing that I can make a difference in that fight.

7/24

Suffering—terrible in the present,

Essential in retrospect.

Nothing changed but the way that we feel.

If we can change our feelings in the present, then we can find the truth within faster.

If we cannot, then all that’s left to do is wait—to allow time and space to warp our perceptions.

What more?

To live our days with intention, with kindness and sensitivity to ourselves and to others,

To be conscious of the role that we each play in each of our stories,

To seek to learn at every moment, ever aware of our ignorance and bias,

To constantly question what is right, what is reasonable, what is good,

So as long as we can do that, what more can be asked of us?