Locate the self. Pull it all in. You know the person that you are when you collect your thoughts… place them all in a jar and light them on fire.. what burns away are the temporary.. the fleeting material possessions that we are convinced make us better people. I want to learn to live with less… the goal in life is the experience that I wish to create.. the experience that I paint is a piece of art that is being added to.. constantly.. and I am the only one that decides when it is done. But what if the end of the art signifies death and I am left alone again in the darkness? You know, I haven’t really been thinking about that as much lately.. and that’s a good thing.. because I find that I am frozen when consumed by the “what if” .. I can only recognize for a moment that the end of our lives might signify the beginning of something else much greater than we can possibly comprehend.. a soul: recycled.. back to the infinite.. back to the collective.. the universe of thoughts… racing back in on itself.. as we are born we are lost.. and as we die we are found. It is the scariest of adventures and likely to be the one with the greatest trade-off. I love this life so much .. and I love the people that surround me.. we have only to pick and choose how we spend our time.. but getting stuck in the head can cause us to overwhelm our synapses and cause a mental traffic jam. Again, that’s why I think I am insisting that I jump into the writing exercises… trying as quickly as my finger and brain allow.. focused on the repetitive of the essential while ignoring that which causes me to overthink my position.. there is no position.. we are all alone in this world.. as we are on schedule to leave it one day and maybe one day soon. When we comprehend the finiteness of this reality there is something of a fire that we light under our asses. Something that reminds us why it is important to open your eyes when you’ve had less than what we think is enough sleep… we have to be driven by something.. if we don’t know what we are pulling for in the larger sense, we are more prone to burning out well before our time… I think that one of the most difficult things for me to discover has been my larger purpose in life… finding something that is larger than myself that motivates me in a way that I am unable to express through words… pushing forward in small ways.. advancing the cause of something greater than myself has given me purpose and clarity in my own life… it has helped me stay on track these past few weeks and I have faith that this is just the beginning.. the beginning of something much greater than myself.. something that adds value to those that need help.