Do not leave it or course over it, as if it were understood, but instead follow it down until you see it in the mystery of its own specificity and strength.*
Annie Dillard

Before a human being thinks of others, he must have been unapologetically himself; he must have taken the measure of his nature in order to master it and empty it for the benefit of others like himself.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

Part of what it is for me to be alive is to appreciate who I am and what I have. This is what I have spent the last twenty five or more years figuring out so I might make this available to others.

This opportunity to write and doodle every day for the past eight years is an attempt to write myself to a deeper place of understanding.

It’s not about what I find on the surface of my life, but what I am happily surprised to discover deep down. This is more a comment on the lives of those I wander in work with, discoverers of the wonder of their capacity:

Focus on circumstances and you’ll be a consumer. Focus on capacity and you’ll be a creator.^

*Annie Dillard, quoted in David Rose’s Your Body Knows the Answer;
**From Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life;
^Kade Janes, quoted in gapingvoid‘s blog: We all know gratitude is the mother of all virtue. Here’s why.