For as long as I can remember, my mind has been a vast and restless sea, where thoughts rise and fall in waves, sometimes calm, other times stormy and relentless. I have always carried within me the tendency to overthink; to over analyze, dissect, and replay events in an endless mental cycle, trying to extract meaning or anticipate what lies ahead. Recognizing this as an essential part of who I am, I have nonetheless devoted myself to learning how to temper its weight.

In time, I have found that the journey to inner stillness begins with presence; the realization that true peace resides solely in the passing moment, a truth both elemental and profound. Rather than letting the mind pull me into hypothetical futures or past regrets, there is a lesson to savor the stillness found in today; a simplicity that both shelters and liberates me. This self-discipline of anchoring myself to the present frees me from the prison of my own thoughts; a notion that I, as a lifelong seeker of self-betterment, find humbling; and frees me from the confines of a mind otherwise driven toward ceaseless questioning.

Through this pursuit, I have also learned a gentler approach toward myself. I no longer try to control or reshape every thought; instead, I watch them as they arise, holding them in compassion, allowing each one to pass, like clouds drifting through an open sky. In a life marked by losses, heartbreaks, and personal challenges, I’ve learned that my thoughts are neither adversaries nor burdens, merely travelers in my mind’s landscape, appearing and departing in their own time.

Another insight is the understanding that not all problems demand an immediate solution. This is one I’ve wrestled with deeply, as I tend to seek resolution and order. But in realizing that some answers reveal themselves in time, I’ve found an unexpected strength in patience. Accepting uncertainty, even discomfort, has been liberating, a quiet revolution of spirit, inviting me to embrace life’s unknowns.

In the end, I see that the path to peace is unending, an ongoing practice of becoming. Each day, I am reminded that I am not my thoughts but the quiet awareness beneath them, a space of stillness untouched by any turmoil. In accepting this, I’ve uncovered a quiet strength in patience; a willingness to reside within life’s uncertainties and to welcome even discomfort as part of the whole. Through all my efforts, I am learning to hold onto this wisdom, a steadying hand in a world that never stops churning.

—

I sit and spin the web of “why”
Tugging threads that cloud my mind,
Of could-have-beens and might-have-seens,
Where echoes haunt the in-betweens.

I parse each word, rewind each breath,
Reframe the scene; of an endless quest.
But truth slips by like morning mist,

Lost in the maze my mind has kissed.
And still, I loop, around, again;
Bound to a past that won’t unbend.

— Sincerely, Boris

Over the wide fields

of collected memories --


the past strides about.

Ornate iron bars that twist and swirl
on windows of a stone Baroque house:
Their billowing lines flow and unfurl
like the linen of a wan lady’s blouse.

Late sun casts her umbra on the stone wall,
a dark bramble of shadowy vines
that cling to the plaster in ways that recall
hung forests of lost memory and time.

Into this dark wood I walk with my mind
to retreat into the past of this place
and see how far the clock I can unwind
for to pass through its pale numbered face.

There faces now greet me, spirits of old
who once walked this very same street.
They look astonished at how I was so bold
as to travel there to warmly them greet.

To be remembered and seen once again
is a gift for which they’ve waited a year.
For as this day fades, the dark windowpanes
between our two worlds turn into a gauzy frontier.

And so the veil of the quick and the dead
turns thinner for just a brief night
while the faces of those who’ve gone on ahead
to the other side shine their dim light.

I'm from a small two-story house on Heatherwood Circle
from mild Summers and freezing Winters
from snow days and hot chocolate to bike rides every morning and evening

I'm from Olmsted Falls ISD where there are four different schools for elementary school here
from Helping Hands and computer lab
from everyone in the class is invited to birthday parties
from a surprise visit from Ronald McDonald

I'm from Kids First Daycare
from Summers of fun and field trips
from taking the wagon to the other grades to collect their leftover food
from the best lunches I've ever received from a school; Buttered Noodles, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs
from kind teachers and amazing friends I'd watch movies with while we waited for our parents to pick us up. We never got to finish Wall-E

I'm from change
from moving
from new friends, new house, new school
I’m from new
I’m from restarting

I'm from not-so-happy endings
from ups and downs that made me a better person
from learning how to make the most of my current situation
I'm from New Beginnings

I thought I saw you walking
I say it casually but that's a lie
Gave me a heart attack
But it wasn't one, no
It felt like a lightning strike
Sent from the heavens
Like some sort of divine torture I'm not meant to understand
Could you make it stop??

I chased life

I chased dreams
I chased hopes

I chased pleasures
I chased desires
Across clear streams
And through bright forests

I lived for the future
I lived in the past
In that I denied the present

I lived on what I will be tomorrow
I lived on what I was yesterday
In that I rejected who I am today

I lived on what I will have
I lived on what I had

In all I forgot to be grateful
For all that I am

It never served me
But fed my ego
Fed my mind
Fed my emotions
Fed my insecurities
Fed my fears
Fed the notion I was not enough

I have been driven by others
I have been driven by life
I have been driven by everything around me

Now I choose to be
Driven by Theïkós
Now I choose to be
Guided by Illahi

Now I choose to allow
The soul to speak
Now I choose to allow
The soul to lead

I no longer want what they have

I no longer want to become what they are
I no longer want to become what I am not

I am no longer attached to my past
I am no longer attached to my future

I am no longer attached to the known
As I seek to find myself in the unknown

Their parameters
Are no longer my measure of success
Their labels
Are no longer my self-identity
Their conditions
No longer form my reality
Their successes
No longer dictate my purpose

Now
Infinite possibilities
Infinite opportunities
Infinite blessings
Open
I accept myself

Thank you for being here!
By NwK

When AI is making babies, the best
we may imagine is
some sense of attraction and repulsion,

is there imbalance inherent in this scheme?
Say we wish we knew where wishing, the idea
forms from.
Were you taught to wish,
were you taught to pray, did they seem the same,
if, on the other end some thing
had to
had to, no question, had to happen for the answer
to be the
actual change of everything involved,

reality, every little thing matters, thus the rule
account for every idle word.
Because they are not empty, everything has been thought,

go Goethe "Think them all again." as it comes to you,

this is a-an ah musing idea, as a bubble of thought come
to being realized, in your mind. You understood that.

Nothing in the tree of knowledge is illegal if you know
the story has a moral, made from words you
wrestle with,
very trickster ladder-like Eschering blessed progress
a word to the wise
is enough.
That is a thought hermits use
to prevent repetition
of I don't know.
Enough.

So, what is my life:

my existence, being there --


plus my history.