I Would Rather be Strange

To living an authentic life for achieving greater internal happiness and tranquility.

To those who would call me strange, I say that I would rather be your kind of strange than mine because, to me, strange is denying the truth of our nature.

To me, strange is ignoring the pull of the moon’s tides in our veins simply because we can’t yet measure its influence.

Strange is pretending that our bones aren’t made of the same dust that’s beneath our feet, or that our bodies aren’t filled with the same water that crashes in waves on the shores.

To me, strange would be to deny kinship with the animals, even though we’re born of the same union between the earth and the sky.

What I consider strange is clinging to one identity, like a summer that refuses to concede to the coming autumn.  And stranger still is to reject our responsibility to one another, like a maple tree denying the birds and…

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What is Success?

A must-read article and its accompanying comments section on the definition of success.

Steve Rose PhD

What does it mean to succeed in life? By definition, success refers to achieving a desired aim. But what if your desired aim is to be a world-traveler and you are willing to work odd jobs in random countries for minimal pay? This is not a conventional image of success. We feel the weight of society upon us whenever our personal goals deviate too far from the social norm. Even though we all just want to be happy, our happiness is in constant tension with our need for acceptance.  

When the need for acceptance wins, we give up our own version of success for the conventional definition. Chuck Palahniuk says it best in Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you.” Even though you may still feel like you’re in the driver-seat, you know deep down that you’re driving down the wrong road. As the sense of…

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