against mourning

Life is fierce and difficult. There is no life we can live without being subject to grief, loss and heartbreak. Half of every conversation is mediated through disappearance. Thus, there is every reason to want to retreat from life, to carry torches that illuminate only our own view, to make enemies of life and of others, to hate what we cannot unde

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The aloneness I keep referencing refers to a deep acknowledgement of your own brief place in the world, a small luminescent flicker in this great infinite darkness. The light is for you to bear and yours alone. No one is coming to tell you what to want, when to want it, when to leave and when to fight for anything. For some that feels like youth an... See more

It’s the quality of life while you’re alive that matters. If today were your last day on earth, it would only be a tragedy if you hadn’t experienced life properly—if you’d never allowed yourself to experience the sensuality of life, to really live it. What’s the point, if life is just pain, anguish, dysfunction, and worry? But if you’ve managed to

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You know that feeling at the end of the day, when the anxiety of that-which-I-must-do falls away… That moment when you think, Oh God, what have I done with this day? And what am I doing with my life? And how must I change to avoid catastrophic end-of-life regrets?

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At the end of my life, I know I won’t be wishing I’d held more back, been less effu

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“I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work ... See more

We suffer as human beings, but out of that can come enormous joys, and genuine happiness, too. It can run in tandem with this ordinary sense of suffering. Otherwise, joy doesn’t resonate fully. Joy seems to leap forth out of suffering. Regardless of your loss, you see how beautiful, how meaningful, how joyful the world can suddenly be. Human beings... See more