346

Tired? Yes.

Dejected? Hopeless? Directionless? Not at all.

You should be glad that your solution is not complicated; just rest, and move on.

Nothing more to think about.

345

We deceive and betray ourselves every time we presume there is a better moment to celebrate, to be grateful, or to find fulfillment. Every set of challenges that you face now will inevitably be replaced by another set of challenges, and if it in any way follows the pattern of the human condition, those future challenges will be even more difficult and even more numerous. Not only that, but our minds, our corporeal flesh degrades by the day.

With how fast life passes us by in our perception of it,

with how wayward the circumstances of this world are,

and with how endless our suffering and toil is,

how can now—yes, right now—not be the best time to be happy?

344

Embrace the spontaneity of life; it is the only reason you are able to escape the confines of your mind.

343

All these things that occupy your mind now—soon they will be forgotten. For every moment that you believe that what you have now is not enough, you waste away precious moments from this life—this only life you were given.

Don’t postpone gratitude. Don’t postpone happiness. You’ve found your peace; why, then, are you not embracing it? It is not an excuse to be lazy, not an excuse to be complacent, and most certainly not an excuse to not be brave. You always have something to do—and not merely anything to do, but something you can do with all your heart—and for that, you should be eternally thankful. But to do it with all your heart does not necessitate that you burden your soul over it.

Work hard, rest easy, and, above all, maintain gratitude in all of it.

342

For every fragment of mental energy you expend being afraid of the judgment from people that least understand who you are, you are failing everyone else that actually matters—the people that will be there to observe what you could be.

341

For as much as I want to romanticize the idea of soulmates—this fascination with a kind of sameness that persists within all of our souls that allows us to love each other unconditionally—it couldn’t be farther from the reality of human social interaction. One of the most important realizations of my life is that our best and most fulfilling lives operate both by the mind and the heart—not equally, not more or less in either direction, but they are inextricable from one another. Just because we think in our minds that we can be with someone, does not mean our heart will be compelled to do so. And so often is the case that we piece together something in our minds, and when we go to do it in reality, our heart balks and resists.

There are many things that we consider vain and shallow—judgments pertaining to physical attractiveness, social awkwardness, or social status. While some of these judgments vary in validity within the scope of humanity and in the questions of asking ourselves what we should do, they do not vary in validity to the heart; they are all the same. If it feels wrong, it usually is wrong, at least for ourselves. This is most certainly not to say that there aren’t critical moments in our lives where overriding emotion with reason is the best thing we can do for ourselves; after all, it is where all of the tension of life, and thus the meaning of life, comes from. But, as we understand from free will and the human condition, the will of the mind—the origin of what to do and why—has to come from somewhere, and conversely, the direction of the heart—the fate which our emotions lead us toward—has to come from somewhere.

So, no. We can’t just be friends or romantic partners with literally anyone we want in life; in fact, there is no choice. We are all inextricably intertwined by both fate—the chance we will cross paths in this life—and by compatibility—the circumstances that have shaped who we are and thus, our attraction, our ability to socialize with one another, and whether or not we can find comfort or solace in one another.

Do not waste your mind and heart away in lamenting the natural course of the world. I have a responsibility to focus my energy where it matters most, and I will not ignore it any longer.

340

A need for philosophy does not predicate a need for complexity.

Many can live a simple, beautiful life, but it is nonetheless a life lived with sound philosophy, whether the person living it admitted to it or not.

The need for complexity in our thought is precipitated by the need for complexity in the modern world. Surely, if we could do away with it, we would have already.

But it’s not going away. And as the lines become ever blurred between right and wrong, we must ready our minds for the moment it matters most.

339

In thinking that there was something you had to prove to others, you failed to prove yourself to the one person who actually mattered to prove yourself to—yourself.

338

It is the most paradoxical sensation to be afraid of nothing in the mind—not suffering, not failure, not uncertainty, not loss nor death—and yet, at the same time, to still feel the fear itself.

I am so hyper-aware of the fear and how it can prey upon me, while also being unable to wrest it from this tender heart.

Remember to embrace this feeling, and remember also to embrace the concern. Stop thinking that they are disparate, or in need of fixing; they are something in need of union.

337

Thank you.

That’s all that needs to be said. For now.