To quote a few passages from Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart that I read just after journaling the bones of this piece (hello, universe), “We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view of someone who is awake, that’s death. Seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self-contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. We are killing the moment by controlling our experience. Doing this is setting ourselves up for failure, because, sooner or later, we’re going to have an experience we can’t control.”