Our ability to love and create — that alone makes this entire experiment worthwhile.

He knew himself. The opinions of another, unless they were truly close to him, didn’t matter. He had lived life the way he wanted to. That’s the most any of us can ask.

Knowledge is never enough. Even action, if it’s just following a prescribed way, will never fully express your potential. But to dive in, test each theory out, kick the tires, keep what works, discard the rest, add your own — that’s where magic happens.

Love, pain, fears, hopes, dreams, desires. All arise from the mind. We’re stuck in our heads, walking around, reliving old stories and patterns and beliefs. The ever constant human drama. I don’t know why our brains are wired that way, they just are.

The truth: I live my days as if I will live forever. Putting off so much, expecting there to be more time, another chance. If I accepted my mortality to my core, never knowing when the chain snaps, then how would I live? More on my terms. A free man. I’d write more, I’d love more, I’d laugh more.

The desire was to write down what I know that works — what makes me healthy, what makes me productive, what fulfills me, the basics of what makes my life zing — and then live it.

If there’s a definition of freedom, I think it’s this: living life on your terms. And Werner was the freest man I’ve known. I miss him terribly.

knowing that helps me immensely. I know that regardless of the situation or whatever the external experience is, I choose who to be in this moment. I choose what to feel in this moment. Often it feels like we’re on autopilot, but if you examine your thoughts closely, you’ll know that not to be true. It is always a choice.

I walk around, a man in this society, big strong adult mask on. Seeming to have it all together. Sometimes true. Sometimes far from it. There are times that even my best isn’t enough. I will stumble, I will fall. And those times, the best thing I can do is reach out to someone who truly loves me, ask them for help, to hold out their hand.