“The trick at every turn was to endure the test of living for as long as possible. The odds of survival were punishingly slim, for the world was naught by a school of calamity and an endless burning furnace of tribulation. But those who survived the world shaped it--even as the world, simultaneously, shaped them.” 

-The Signature of All Things

"As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can." 

John Muir

where things are.

we often think joy lives somewhere
here or there-
often, not where you stand. 
but joy is a gift inside of you,
waiting for a Christmas morning
to be opened up and spread out
like sunlight off the endless sea.