Something I wish I’d learned during my growing up years, and that had been stressed above all at home and in school, is the importance not of proving myself as an individual, but of embracing and cultivating my natural talents in a spirit of contribution and cooperation. Instead, I was caught up in the cult of individuality, wherein I mistakenly equated self-worth with accomplishment on the dead-end terms of a […]
Knowledge, memory, religion, belief, no belief — may they sit lightly upon you, like dew on a dove’s wing. ~ [ 2091 ]
Talking to ourselves in public, under the impression we’re speaking to others, is only one of the funny things we do; imagining others are listening is another; thinking we know the difference, is funniest of all; beautiful, too. ~ [ 2089 ]
Is it something you wish your father had said or done, or your mother, perhaps, had she only known? Or is it just winter, and this bare, thorny rose? ~ [ 2087 ]
If you believe what I believe, you’ll inherit a long series of misunderstandings. Some of these misunderstandings were handed down, others I conjured alone. If you believe what I believe, you’ll believe that you believe nothing — Or that you’ve risen above belief, like the sun on a cold winter morning. But beware, because soon there will be clouds, and you’ll believe in them too. Behold a flight of geese […]
Why spend a precious lifetime trying to be someone, trying to make a name while going it alone, when all you really need is to be unknown and be in tune? ~ [ 2071 ]
As I sit here watching the world go by, I remind myself that those who sign up to terrorize their fellow human beings suffer from a lifetime of anger, fear, loneliness, and trauma. In this way they’re like the wealthy, powerful bullies whose unconscionable bidding they do. Their outlook is beyond sad. Isolated as they are, seeking security and a sense of belonging in numbers, they epitomize the tragedy of […]
I run half a mile more. Sometimes I feel I can run forever. Then I realize I already have, and do, through the mountains, between the stars. I turn a few more pages, tho’ I’ve read all the books, and have been all the characters. And I write a few more words, in this, my present language, Tho’ I’ve already written them all, and said them all, and you’ve read […]
We broke the ice in the birdbaths and filled them with fresh water. The first drink was taken by a squirrel. Then a pair of juncos descended from the bare birches. They hopped around the rim, stopping for very quick small sips — stopping without stopping, you might say. More sun, more cold, not a drop of rain. The dry air inside makes the sinuses ache. My blood pressure was […]
Life’s too precious to spend it in the dread cycle of acquisition and protecting what we own. Still, our societies are based on this, and our nations set to war. The misunderstanding is simple: we’re not what we own. Nothing can be added, and nothing taken away, from a universal song. Yesterday Afternoon Laughing in the dentist’s chair The doctor and his assistant singing His wife reads vampire novels […]
William Michaelian 
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