Say hello! ⤑ ourworldoftext.com/jakewelch ◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆ 9.23.25 Tonight I finished Swann's Way by Marcel Proust which feels like a huge accomplishment. It was painfully beautiful and excruciatingly drawn-out. I'm so glad I read it, and I'm so glad to be finished. Read what I thought about it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7410582839 9.22.25 If I had to place a bet on the meaning of life, I'd say that it's balance ... We don't talk enough about the Butterfly Effect. Everything exists because of borrowed energy from something before it. Consider how your own energy is being put out into the world because it will have massive consequences, for good or bad. 9.19.25 Thinking about the first time I saw this painting https://www.are.na/block/29917717 I had been learning about El Greco in an art history class, then one day I was visiting The Met and walked up the stairs and just stumbled on it. This is one of my favorite paintings of all time. The figures, the angles, the colors, it's so modern for being over 400 years old. I'm also extremely fascinated by paintings of heavenly visions and dreams. 9.17.25 I recently read "The End" by Borges. In the story a man encounters the stranger who killed his brother 7 years before. In their meeting, he finally has his chance to enact his revenge. They duel, and the stranger is killed. "His righteous task accomplished, he was nobody. More accurately, he became the stranger: he had no further mission on earth, but he had killed a man." I think this story pairs well with this other quote from Borges: “I don't speak of vengeance, nor of forgiving; forgetting is the only revenge and the only forgiveness”. 9.15.25 Something I read & liked from: laotzu.xyz/chapter/display?id=8 True goodness is like water Bringing benefit and giving life to the 10,000 things. It doesn’t compete but like the Tao Immediately flows to the lowest place. Everyone else always wants to be first But the wise only want to be last, To live on solid ground, To think deeply, To be gentle and kind, To speak with honesty, To govern with peace and order, To work with skill, To act at only the best time.