The sun rises and the birds chirp

their sweet melodic song. It's October something, 2021. There's a tightness in my chest. Each beat of my heart encourages it to loosen like the vibration of music shaking away the dust on the speaker from which it plays.
 
I've learned something somewhere along the way that comes to me this morning:
 
the world is a playground of discovery for those with curious eyes, and a field of mines for those who see through fear.
 
Every year I sit in the seat of the optometrist’s office where a futuristic-looking metal device hangs in front of my face.
He flips through two sets of lenses and asks, “Is this one better, or this one?”
 
Then he moves onto the next set, and my answers dictate the prescription of the lenses I’ll wear.
 
Each morning I have to ask myself the same for the way I want to perceive my life. Which one is better? Fear or curiosity? How will I choose to greet the day; to greet my life?
 
My answers write my prescription.
 
What prescription will you write for yourself that will dictate how you perceive the world and therefore the way in which you experience it?
 

 

OTHER NEW BITS FOR YOU

 

 
CHOICES
I've often considered the nature of a scheduled life—one that is projected onto a calendar template full of what you should be doing by whens. There’s a lot of safety and security in the organization of it all, and that makes it appealing in contrast to the chaotic unknown that underlies all things. Somewhere within we’re all aware of the depth of the unknown, and we balance it by trying to control all that we can.
 
But there are a lot of unspoken disappointments to a life pre-planned and auto-piloted. This came up the other day as I spoke to a man in his 60s who looks back with a sense of loss at all the experiences he feels slipped away while he was overworking himself to pay expenses that he had a part in choosing.
There is a price tag on everything, whether that be a mortgage, a vehicle, time spent with loved ones, or travel. Each lifestyle comes with consequences. Whatever we choose to value and prioritize, there’s a sacrifice being made elsewhere to support that priority.
 
If I may remind you that life happens quickly, and so it’s worth taking time–and critical, even–to pause before you’re near the end (the date of which you don't know) to evaluate what choices you’re making and what price you’re paying for them.
 
There are never any right or wrong answers, only awareness of ourselves, and awareness paves the way toward an empowered life.
 

 
PS – I'm writing to you from Alaska where I recently moved. I started work yesterday at the best little coffeehouse in town, and on the side I'm working on a book that has been in the works for a couple years. You may hear from me less in your lil inbox as I direct my energy toward it. There is something to be said for devoting the majority of your energy into one specific thing, like droplets of water coming together to create a mighty river, and I'm currently practicing that art. XO
 

 

QUOTE BANK

“I want to teach women that the three most important words they will ever need to know to get through life are ‘I don’t care.’ I don’t care about a lot of stuff that people want me to care about. There are a few things, and a few people that matter to me, and I have to make those my priority. And if I don’t do that, then I can’t be the effective, happy and relaxed woman that I want to be.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert
 

 

Samantha Case

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