WE HAVE NO SAY whether time moves forward.

The only choice we have is how we spend it. This is a beautiful thing, but it’s also scary. New responsibilities, thoughts, and dreams become who we are. We learn with that person; we grow with them and decide how to act.

It’s a lot of responsibility — but there’s guidance. We have models, things to pursue, lessons to learn.

We explore and learn to love who we are, who we might be, and then act in accordance with that vision. How do we act then? How do we know if what we’re doing is enough, if it’s the correct path?

We act on faith, that we’re giving whatever it is in the moment our full attention. And that’s what life is, seeing the beauty in the moment, no matter what it is. In the days of darkness we discover what we might overcome, which is a lot more than we realize.

These moments are often the most profound — the facade lifts and our essence shines. The moment is all we have — ours to mold through action.

Sometimes it seems too simple. Pursue what you love with everything you have. But maybe it’s not. If there’s one thing I want to pursue, it’s what’s good. A courageous life. Standing up for people, for us. We.

What scares me is not standing up, for who I am, what I love, for us.

Books are like fragments of time, stories that remind me of a slice of life. I wonder what they’ll mean to me as I get older.

I look around, and they make me happy. Endless ideas that sit there like relics. Reading a book a second time provides a fresh experience, as we’re attuned to the details that slipped through the cracks before.

Take time, life, in seasons.

Seek the beauty in each, the meaning made manifest by the book that was read — perhaps a story of adventure or a story that makes me dig within myself as I stroll under the night sky.

Writing captures a moment in time — that’s what I love about it. A summer day, a winter night, the ways the flowers change. Last night, the sky was fierce.

I went down to the beach and the water drifted under the bridge into the lagoon in rolling waves. It blew me away — the color of the sky, the water, a moment seen that would have taken place regardless of my knowing.

The evening gave way to a midnight rain and today, it rained all day.

I’m happy on a rainy day.

When I don’t see it coming, rain comes as a gift. I burn candles and incense and find gratitude in the warm, rainy, summer day.

The sound of rain becomes background noise as I go about my business. What’s better than that?

Meditating to the sound of rain; sipping coffee, writing — I know this is what I love by the way it makes me feel. Sometimes this is the best way to find answers to questions of what we should do, how we should act, who we should strive to be.

How does it make you feel? Is a weight lifted, are you joyful, do you feel free with what you’re doing?

What surrounds me makes me happy, photos of travel, colors.

What I’m doing — asking questions, seeking answers, surrendering to now — this stage will one day be a memory like those that line the walls of a space I call my own.

Memories. Fragments of time like this one.