Lynn Valley

There were 5 things to remember.

The first one was when we were walking back out of the woods ... We followed one after another, the anti-pilgrimmage of our night as we returned from the magic of the crying woods to the sheltered dry house they called home. And one after another we all stepped carefully down the steps in the pouring rain, the scathing darkness, the muddy ledges precariously leading alongside a rushing river in the night. Everything that wasn't a step looked like a roaring river to me, I blinked carefully every step, trying to open my eyes wider for minutes, ages until we reached the concrete outside of the hilly woods where it hit me. It wasn't my eyelids half closed that made it hard to see, but my beanie sliding slowly over my eyes and I lifted my chin to peer down at the road; clarity. Blissed ignorance.
It was that walking, that singing in the dark of the morning with strangers on the road where I realised in that pouring rain that of course wind breakers aren't waterproof. Windbreakers are the opposite of rainproof. Windbreakers are sticking-to-your-body-with-a-clinging-wetness-proof. Woops. So much for grabbing someone else's rainproof coat ... At least it looked like I stole Elmer Fudd's boots, damn those were warm and dry.

We all curled up inside a hidden Narnia-closeted hole of wholeness and space, a dense cube of sarongs and blacklights and wonderfulness. The day was over, the night had succumbed and the morning was breaching us as we sat in a circle, souls overlapping.
Tali

"My birthday's over. It's officially the day after my birthday ... Let's celebrate the day after my birthday! I'm another day older!"

Jessa

"Oh my god, I'm another day older too! Let's celebrate! We should celebrate every day! Every day, surviving the Man, takin' it one day at a time."

Tali

"... We should celebrate every moment, man ... "

Jessa

"Fuck man. That's ... That's ... That's nirvana right there man."

misanthropy

It's just as easy to anticipate the anguish that comes along with pleasure (the loss of it; anticipating the moment the pleasure is gone.)

Let me build you a story before I delve wholly into analysis ...

Lovelovelove *love runs away* hurt hurt hurt. HURT. BIG-GAPING-WOUND. Scab. Healing. Heals.. heals... heals..... healed. New un-hurting feeling. Strength? INVINCIBILITY! ALL-POWERFUL NO ONE CAN HURT ANYMORE WHO NEEDS LOVE .. eh? What's that, who's that, I want to know THEM WHO ARE THEY! Hello .. *empty fluttery feelings fill stomach replacing needs to ever eat or drink or do anything besides spend time with this person* SPEND TIME with this person . ADDICTION. MMmmmmm love. Love. LOVELOVELOVE. *hiccup* Love? *SHIT-FACED on LOVE* Rolling, exhilarating! everything is so fast and fun and *Wheeeeeeeee* go fast go fast down the hill faster FASTER WHO NEEDS CONTROL OUT OF CONTROL *FUCK.*
BIG-F*CKING-GAPING-WOUND.

Back to the analysis. It's just as easy to anticipate the anguish that comes along with pleasure (the loss of it; anticipating the moment the pleasure is gone.)

Because of that, is the stagnancy -or the numbness, or the lack of those wondrous emotions- better? Better not to feel, so as not to hurt?
Is that what we spend our whole lives doing? Starting wide open and closing up gradually as we learn how to better protect ourselves after each situation?
The ones who don't... The ones who break, and hurt and hurt again, worse every time, do we applaud their efforts? Are they braver? Those who dive in dangerous waters, deeper every time in search of nirvana?
Maybe they just haven't figured it out yet.

Cynicism was always less disappointing.

What was that word ... Misanthropic.

quiet

I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes.
~Richard Steele

There is peace in silence ... and there is also anxiety, depression and insanity.

A little overboard? A little extreme? Perhaps.
Let me know that I was wrong when you return from isolation ...

If you are alone long enough to enjoy your own company more than others, congratulations. You've experienced meditation. If you are alone long enough to miss others, congratulations. You've experienced humanity. If you are alone long enough, to know yourself, congratulations. You've found meaning in life. If you are alone long enough to not need to be alone anymore, congratulations. You've conquered introversion. If you've been alone long enough to create a philosophy, congratulations. You can think. If you don't ever want to be alone, congratulations. You have more to learn.

There is a cure to loneliness. Step inside yourself and find it.

the qualifications of today

We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long that we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
-- Mother Teresa

wise words from the doctor

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
Hunter S. Thompson

Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have died so little today, friend, forgive me.

~Thomas Lux