Perhaps what comes next will be far different, and far better, than we can possibly imagine. — When I came home from my first visit to Japan in 2019, it was Christmas Eve and I was a shell of myself. That trip opened my eyes and heart, for I realized while traveling what I truly want to make of my life. I want to be a full-time…

We’re idiots, and while this undeniably makes life painful, it also makes it a heroic adventure full of mountains and valleys worth wholeheartedly embracing. — Socrates. Albert Einstein. Benjamin Franklin. What do these historical figures have in common? They were geniuses, some of the most brilliant human beings to ever walk the face of the earth. Also, I’m sure they’d agree, they were idiots. “We are idiots now, we have been idiots in the past…

Don’t need to be happy all the time; the deepest beauty derives from surviving. Inspired by the Autumn Illuminations of Tō-ji Temple, Kyoto Japan. — I love to see your style on the street at moonrise. Your flair, the fact that you don’t care ‘bout what others do; I love to see people living. Living their life even when it isn’t easy. It’s never easy. If we expect it to be, we remain unsatisfied. Cold.

An angel comes to me with a choice, one that would change the direction of my entire life. — I’ve been thinking about angels this week, messengers of fate. I woke yesterday morning at 5am to the sound of rain softly pouring on the rooftops outside. I opened the window and the balcony door to listen, then grabbed my journal to pen a dream I’d had about my grandpa…

Men, it’s time we step up and be the human beings our world so badly needs. — A couple weeks ago I broke down crying To a brother, a best friend, over FaceTime I’d be lying If I told him it’s all good When he asked me how you doin’? I needed to cry; for days I waited to call Stepped from a precipice Surrendered told it all; I felt ripped up like a…

We mustn’t hit rock bottom to feel profound love, merely existing. Ordinary life is beautiful and it’s fleeting. — I still love you, Japan. I fucking love you. I don’t wanna leave you — not yet. A chapter is turning. It’s scary, but also so incredibly exciting. Caught up thinking about the future, but what about right here? Right now? The city’s cast in shadow. Faraway buildings cling to…

It hurts, yet the heart works in ways we cannot explain; we’re just people, and it’s okay. — There’s poetry in the shoes we wear and the striped shirts which dangle from our shoulders; in tired eyes and aching bones, in loneliness and looking for somebody to hold. I’m alive to convey the poetry in existence, for I see this all as beautiful: the passing train, those at…

It’s been a difficult season; my difficulties have made me fight to be the light. — At the crack of dawn, the sky inky and blue and the buildings beyond my open window awakened by the cool, rising sun, I return to love. Always. I return to the cold empty page, barren like the moon, warmed by the glow of a heart exploring. It’s been a…

And your heart will remain forever young. — No day, no moment, no interaction is trivial. When I’m going through something, I often have my day changed unexpectedly by students at work teaching English in Japan — everyday people I talk to for 40 minutes. Today it was a 64-year-old man who gets up at 3 am, works…