i sometimes feel like i am a cat trying to hold myself in my own arms

nothing is scary when you're directly confronted with it

the scary parts of the exorcist aren't when she's possessed. it's when she's becoming possessed

all struggle comes from rejecting an emotion or parts of yourself

apparently alex honnold's strategy before climbing is to visualize everything that could go wrong. apparently when you die while climbing, you don’t just fall and die. you bounce until you hit a tree or something and then you pop.

(but alex honnold's brain is also a biological anomaly – he's incapable of feeling fear)

perhaps my relationship to my fear could be a sort of kayfabe. i recognize my fear and move away from it.

joan of arc: "i am not afraid. i was born to do this."

there's a fascinating card trick that happens when i think of those more courageous than me. i naturally begin to think about the areas in my own life where i could benefit greatly from accessing more of those people's courage.

in fact, the literal definition of courage: the ability to do something that frightens one.

proust's narrator learns not to fear death b/c each time he loves, he becomes someone different, and thus he dies as many times as he lives.

joan again: "watch! when the wind blows my banner against the bulwark, you shall take it." fear as tailwind, not headwind.

you just have to do the most alive thing you can, and keep doing it

if i am at a crossroads, then i am at a crossroads. if i am grieving, then i grieve. if i am afraid, then i am afraid. if the unthinkable has happened, then it has happened. if i have the opportunity to love, i will always love