1. It never cuts itself down.

2. After six months, it never gives up hope of budding again and rests in the silence of winter.

3.  When its limbs are severed, something green shoots up where nothing should.

4. When the high wind comes, it stays upright.

5. It grows, never stopping, and rooted, reaches hands first toward the sky.

6. Its only weapons are arms raised high in praise.  

7. Without thinking, sighing branches give shelter; green leaves screen the sunlight and grant dappled shade in high summer.

8. And when it falls, as all things will, the only way to erase its imprint from this world is to rip roots from the earth. Even then, when you look up into the sky, you will still feel its absence.

a child's first exposure to water:
18 months, curious and shivering,
he runs on brown wet sand
under the wide cloudy sky
to the blue gray lake up to his knees, lapping against his legs.
He feels the mud oozing between his toes.
Light glimmers on the waves,
and splashing, he tries to catch it.
Hands in the wind-tossed water, he grins.
When the wind roars and pushes him back,
his hair stands on end.
he stumbles
and turns and sees his mother,
blonde like him,
her hair wrapped up in a knot, windswept
dressed in white
her belly round and soft and full
like the moon--
there like she always is,
waiting and watching with care
even when he can't see her.
Like the tide coming in,
he goes to her.

go and get lost in your art
unearth your deepest desires
show the world your pain
and unleash your fire.
find peace
learn the language of harmony
and let the balance be your natural state
and the heart of your adventure
because the root of your core
is an infinite creation
and you
are an artist
of your very own masterpiece

give up trying to define yourself.
give up trying to define others. if you know your future, then unknow it.
stop trying to define it. you just are and it just is.
stop searching for purpose, because the purpose is you.
life is self discovery.
it is why the concept of time even exists.
it's a division of and why each second is made up from other little seconds. it is about moments.
if you think that you are what you were yesterday, move on
if you think that you know what you will be tomorrow, slow down
realise that life is right now. you take it as it comes. you give it no label, no category, it is free.
you don't have anything to benchmark your successes or losses against,
no routine to fall into,
because in the now you cannot be disappointed
I am not here to define freedom or tell you what is free and what isn't.
but you can
you are the only answer to that question
whatever you do from now is a step into what you become
you are becoming and always will be
here in the now,
each word you read is your first and your last,
an ongoing adventure of
learning, evolving, growing and becoming
life is self discovery
remain true to what you find,
nurture it and help it grow.
the now changes
it will not wait for you. keep to its pace but go gently. life is a process of different nows.
and perhaps we die when
we self discover,
and we die when we realise that life isn't so bad,
and we want nothing more than to do it all over again
and so we start over
reborn
into a new adventure
of self discovery