This world is far more beautiful and interconnected than my 16 or 20 year old self could have ever imagined.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed over the years. I trust they will hold through the decades.

Love #

1. It all begins with and depends on and ends with love.

2. Self-love makes it possible to love others. It should always take priority.

3. Safety and acceptance are the most beautiful things one can give and be lucky enough to experience.

Stories #

4. Everyone has a story. One full of fears, hopes, dreams, and regrets. Listen to them. Thank them.

5. Art is our expression of beauty and history too visceral for language.

6. Ritual is powerful for cultivating desired mind states. This multiplies with each additional ernest participant.

Rules #

7. No one has it all figured out. People we admire and look up to have and will make mistakes. We all will.

8. Institutions consist of those same fallible people. When one acts as a group, one can expect to be judged as a group.

9. Forgiveness and transparency are essential to any long lasting societal structure.

10. One’s views on morality, rights, and religion change over the course of years. Sometimes in one night. Rarely on Twitter.

11. Society is nothing but the shared norms we all agree too. They can and will change to ensure every person freedom to explore themselves and the world.

Anxiety & Stress #

12. Not all pressure is bad. Most pressure is self-imposed.

13. Productivity should not be confused with purpose.

14. The body is a vessel. The better it’s treated, the better it treats one back.

15. Worrying about worry is a slippery slope into depression.

Friends #

16. Friends are those you support and encourage and celebrate. Through the good times and the bad.

17. Kindness begets kindness and little favors became big favors become mutual cooperation and coordination.

18. Distance changes things. You never know when you’re going to cross paths again so make every visit count.

19. When you’re trying to keep someone from hurting themselves, you can only do so much.

Happiness #

20. Time in nature is looking at organic fractals with soothing sounds and smells to match. Patterns that have been around since before speech.

21. Stars remind me of our smallness and leave me feeling grateful to witness any at all. Much of the universe’s future will be much less exciting.

22. Regular time alone is the foundation of sanity and peace.

23. Reality has a lot more room for beauty.

24. There’s nobody I’d rather be than me.