Connections..... We may spend most of our days trying to satisfy our physical needs. But sometimes you just have to stop and ponder the mysteries of life and our connections to the energies around us. Why is it that some places feel like home and others make you long for it? Why are there people you instantly recognize as compliments to your life’s journey while others conjure a sense of dread? Sometimes fate will crisscross paths until you meet those you’re destined to touch. But, maybe we’re responsible for taking some of the initiative. I love to travel. I love to socialize. I love to venture into the unknown knowing not everything or everyone will set a song inside my soul. Probably it’s mostly for that reason....to cast a net as far and wide as energy will allow, to catch some fireflies, and unicorns and angel dust, love songs, wind chimes. Summer scents and starry skies. But, I can’t fully reprimand the hermit. For the net also welcomes slugs and sludge, dark holes and sharp teeth, disease and despair, soul eaters and parasites. In the moment, the course of the fully lived life is an unsettling roller coaster of highs and lows. The secret to joy just might lie at day’s end, when the wisdom to separate the sand from gold is gleaned. That is the beauty of free will. That is the power of choice. That is the key to joy. Recognize the things that steal your light. And, treasuring the things that fill you from with in. Keep just one slug in a bag of perfect apples and decay takes root. But filter out the sediment and you will always drink the sweetest wine. The hermit thinks he has no worries with the world for he knows it not. But the richer man is he who’s lived and lost and learned to chose his tools and jewels along the path. The pace is really unimportant in the end. But, not choosing is not living. Not recognizing how you connect to the things around you is like stumbling through life blind. I was never one to close a door. I never knew which one to close. The choices have become easier with time. Who knew how easy it can be to delete the darkness, stop the decay? Who knew how easy it could be to accept the gift of angels in our midst? For me, a journal seems to help to clarify how to separate the seed from stone. So too, does a long and unscripted walk. I hope these words wash up in your net. Decide later what to keep or throw. And, I hope yours continue to drift into mine. I’ve slammed a few doors shut today. Feels good. As for coffee, tea or me....? that’s a choice for another day. Today, I’ll sleep with fireflies and unicorns and angel dust, the net washed clean. Dream where random thoughts make sense again. Because of time spent pondering the path ahead, the connections to the things close by and the choices made to leave the weight of worthlessness behind.