PROMPT: Principles

What principles define how you live?

Before traveling, empty my cup. Before returning home, empty my cup.

Collect experiences, not geegaws.

Wishing for the world to be some other way is a grand waste of time.

If there is a river flowing toward where I want to be, surrender to it.

See humor everywhere, especially in myself.

Be content with who I am at the moment, while struggling to be a better version in future editions.

Strive to find the non-adversarial path.

Keep looking until I see what is beautiful in all things and creatures.

Don’t attempt to construct anyone else’s list of principles to live by.

Feel the sensations that arise without letting the mind amplify them out of proportion.

Seek only simple pleasures, enjoy them fully, and then move on.

PROMPT: 30 Things

Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.

1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.