Sometimes without conscious realization, our thoughts, our faith and our interests are entered into the past. We talk about other times, other places, other persons, and lose our living hold on to the present. Sometimes we think if we could just go back in time we would be happy. But anyone who attempts to reenter the past is sure to be disappointed. Anyone who has ever revisited the place of his birth after years of absence is shocked by the differences between the way the place actually is, and the way he has remembered it. He may walk along old familiar streets and roads, but he is a stranger in a strange land. He has thought of this place as home, but he finds he is no longer here even in spirit. He has gone on to a new and different life, and in thinking longingly of the past, he has been giving thought and interest to something that no longer really exists...(250-251) "The Color of Water"- James McBride

Fear.  There are so many ways to begin writing this entry.  But now I realize it isn’t how you begin; it is what you convey- the content.  So..

Suddenly, this feels too personal to share on something so very public.

Here are some interesting quotes that caught my eye though:

#1. “ We do not change as we get older, but rather, we become more clearly ourselves.”

-Unknown

#2.“ She might have seen that what had bowed her head so profoundly- the thought of the world’s concern at her situation- was founded on an illusion…To all humankind besides, Tess was only a passing thought...Most of the misery had been generated by her conventional aspect, and not by her innate sensations.”

-Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

#3. “ Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”

-Buddha