"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." ~Richard Bach

Those of us who are lucky experience the complete unraveling of our lives. A life turned upside down creates the opportunity for radical change. Whether it's a divorce, death of a loved one, sudden poverty, or life changing illness, we may find ourselves forced to reevaluate identity, meaning, reality.

Corneal dystrophy has been the empowering experience of my life. I lost access to visual beauty, but discovered that we swim in a sea of unnoticed yet exquisitely beautiful sounds, textures, smells, and motion. The disease was crushingly cruel and my organ donor gave me the purest form of unconditional kindness. I lost the illusion of control, and tasted serenity and freedom. I gave up the future I had planned, and experienced the richness of the present moment.

Life became an infinite playground- with a little help from Lao Tsu.

Stuff I Wish I Had Learned A Long Time Ago



~Before you complain about being cold, look down at your feet to see if you are wearing socks. 

~Make sure you have toilet paper in hand before you sit.  And when you’re a grown up don’t mess up something you can't clean up.

~What ever you are called to do, you can do it better if you eat right and get enough sleep.

~Make sure you are on time.  It’s a matter of respect.

~Good stuff is real.  Like love, happiness, kindness.  Bad stuff is only the absence of the good stuff.

~If you want to dance well, you have to dance a lot.

~You can train your mind to be miserable, and you can train your mind to be happy.  Every minute you’re awake, you are doing one or the other.

~People who are kind and grateful are also happy.  Don’t know why, but each one of the three affects the other two.

~Don’t try to do too many things in one day.  Make time to think quietly.

~It never hurts to show respect to your enemy.  Just insist that they show you respect too.

~If you can’t make friends with them, at least make them partners.

~People are nicer when they trust you.

~It’s harder to keep your room clean if you have too much stuff.

~Try to do these things every day
  1. Sweat a little (or a lot).
  2. Spend some time outside.
  3. Smile and look somebody in the eye.

~Before you let a puppy dog or strange boy kiss you, make sure you know where his mouth has been.

~As a general rule, the world really is harder on women and girls.  As long as he knows knows that's the way of the world, don't hold what the world does against the boy who loves you.

~Girls tend to grow into womanhood in thousands of small steps.  Boys seem usually to go from piddling around to being responsible in one giant leap. 

~Fall asleep listing every kindness shown to you in that day and thinking about every beautiful sound, smell, motion, texture, and sight you enjoyed.

~Freedom isn’t free.  It’s a garden that you weed diligently.  Happiness is the same.

~You don’t have to scratch every itch.

~Know where your food comes from.

~Open your heart before you open your eyes in the morning.  Get ready to welcome the day’s adventures and the unexpected friends that may walk into your life.

~Don’t believe every thought you think.

~You shouldn't try to do everything well, but you should decide to do a few things well.

~Bad moods happen.  They're like gas.  You're better off not making a big deal out of them.  Just let it float on out the door on the breeze. Don't fight with it, but don’t chase after it either.
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