Choose your life carefully. It takes time. You will make mistakes and you will have regrets. You will laugh and you will cry. And sickness will come, and sometimes it will pass. These are all steps on a staircase. These are all moments which become memories.

There are always compromises that whittle away at the best of intentions.

They too will come and go. And what we are left with is the moment. And in that moment we will relive those memories and look for new memories to make. Do this consciously. Do not count your days or waste your time. Do not give your self up easily to ease and comfort.

Resist much. Obey little.

Do the best you can. Always look to learn. Be curious. Smile when you can. Know who to take seriously and what to dismiss. Do not sell yourself or the world short. Make instead of buy. Keep instead of sell. Experience instead of watch. Let the batteries run down.

“It is not as much what you are doing but how you are doing it.” (Epictetus)

And one day we will die. Mortality is the future for all. Do not forget this, but live in peace knowing this. Do not wish for fantasies. Do not believe otherwise. And one day, hopefully in the mountains, you can watch the sun set and the cold mountain air surround you.