I got asked this question again last night. I suppose I should be flattered by it.

I suppose.

I could close myself off from the world. Steel myself away in the fortress of solitude. Hide from the storms of life.

I can’t hide from my soul.

Therefore, I can’t hide at all.

Good.

Remember science class? That lesson wheere you learned to count a tree’s age by counting a tree’s rings?

Let’s say, you wanted to do the same to me. Cut me open, see what I am made of. What are you going to find?

Scroll through the archives here. And among all the words here, you will find one thing.

My words are my soul.

I have a smile on my face this evening. Probably shouldn’t, given circumstances. But it’s there.

Why? I’m not accepting less of myself. Tres simple.

Remember that poem about the universe? It takes a lot of onions for me to make that claim.

I’ve got a lot of onions.

As I wrote, the universe is my guide, laid out before me in its vast emptiness. Everything I want, everything I am, and everything I can be, right now. My job is to turn the emptiness into fullness.

I’m trying.

Look, I’m in an adverse situation. I’m not in the place I want to be. I’m not going to retreat, hide, lash out. Instead, I’m going to enrich, nurture, nourish. My aim, my sights, my goal–always higher.

Into the heavens.

Follow the example of nature

Sit still

Close your eyes

Breathe

As the great zen masters say, it is what it is.