Oscar Wilde said: ‘Each man kills the thing he loves.’ And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. I’m reading The Alchemist again. Every time I do I get something else from it, relevant to what I’m going through at the time. I [...]

Quote of the Day

It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock In flint like layers, as the ore lies, alone;I am such a long way in I see no way through,And no space: everything is close to my face,And everything close to my face is stone. Rainer Maria Rilke I feel like this a lot lately. Like I [...]

Quote of the day

The endless self-improvement project, fueled by self-loathing and foiled by the realities of the human condition, has only reinforced the illusion that you are separate from your Source. Mirabai Starr The pressure to be a certain way. Look a certain way. Perform. Produce. Consume. All under the guise of “living your best life,” it’s not [...]

Quote of the day

What breaks our hearts is also what connects us: the exquisite impermanence of the phenomenal world; our longing to keep what we love the same forever; and our desire for that which we can’t stand to go away and never come back. Mirabai Starr It’s interesting to contemplate this. Everyone does want to feel good, [...]

Quote of the Day

In the midst of a world that is begging you to distract yourself … you have glimpsed the face of the Divine where you least expected it. Mirabai Starr I have found this to be true. For all the pressure I have felt to experience fellowship in certain places, like church, I have felt closest [...]

Quote of the Day

It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.Albus Dumbledore I finished the 7th book today. I have my thoughts about how things ended... did feel a bit rushed in some ways, and I was wanting more, but. It is what it [...]

Quotes of the Day

She’d lost tons of time looking for a travel companion, a whole bunch of frightened little boys who were only prepared to explore what they already knew— for them, even Latin America must have posed a threat. They liked to pretend they were free as long as they were within safe range of their mothers’ [...]

Quote of the Day

Karla needed to take a radical step, discover a country within herself or without that she'd never explored before and find a way past the tedium that she could feel draining her strength with each passing dayPaulo Coelho - Hippie This is exactly my feeling surrounding travel. Sometimes it feels like the only way I [...]

Cold Mountain Review (yes, spoilers)

I just finished this. Haven’t seen the movie. First and foremost, the descriptions of the scenery and interactions with nature are an otherworldly beautiful. There is no denying that. It was a pleasure to read. I guess... my main issue with the story was that I found the “relationship,” if you could call it that, [...]

Blogust 13

The idea that one's essential being will ultimately be reunited with some vague, ethereal universal life force offers me zero comfort. If there is no persistence of consciousness, what possible solace could I draw from that? My thoughts exactly. Even in my self-loathing I've grown rather attached to myself... the essence of me. My consciousness, [...]