Some excerpts of my thoughts

To begin: Thomas Fuller once said, "The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves."
If this is true, my soul is a widely spread one. She is a citizen of The World, refusing to be wrangled by the constraints of one simple country or place.
Life is beautiful. And here we are--we are dropped into the middle of it. We feign a beginning at the start as we enter the world wide eyed and pure when everyone else is far on along... someone has always been there, but never like you.
--
Someone else said, "Let the beauty that you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth."
I search for every way to let the beauty that I love shine through the color-by-number days that dominate. On the first day of classes this semester, a guy said he was there because "I just want to learn anything about everything." I think that's a good life goal. So let's learn anything about everything, astounding ourselves by our capacities to live and to be wondrous creations.
In the end we will find that it is so much easier to open our minds to think and to wander and our hands to keep us on the ground, working through trials together and celebrating victories as one.
--
My life has been blessed with exquisiteness, but never so much as when surrounded by the bluest of ridges. Fire on the mountain with fall, or the purity of snow under the bare trees, I delight in this home and in the honesty of this true love. I love what I learn in them and I love seeing their beauty and majestic glory and the awesome power they hold and release so willingly. Although I am driven and called in so many directions, these rolling graces are my identity and my base of being. Although I know I will have to part from them for a while, I see myself marrying this ancient pureness that teaches me, gives to me, and takes from me. I see myself spending eternity here, even if I must leave for a bit. Time here is short. I savor every moment here and every experience and all I see, do, learn, hear, feel, and all. It's an interesting position to be in--in the beginning of time and I don't have time to do it all. But this world is so big and intricate and small and glorious. And there's so much for us to do and I love this, this overpowering and overwhelming freedom and possibility. Just possibility and freedom.
--
It's the search for Beauty and Goodness that compels me and motivates me. This search will lead me throughout my life, whatever it will bring.
--
I try to embrace the next step of the soul, when finality is on the tip of everyones' minds. We must all embrace it, as scary as it seems to be that lonely. But what counts is how we arrive at this next step, surrounded by and fluent in all dialects of love, or silenced by the lack of the truest tongue? It doesn't matter where you're going--what matters is the journey. And that is so true. Sometimes we get too caught up in being grown-up and "mature," whatever that is, when what we could probably use is a dose of child-like innocence. Let's immerse ourselves in the joyous purity of life, love, and wonder. Family, friends, places and learnings. Let's fill our moments with worthy thoughts and actions and praise for the opportunity to do so.