• Give yourself permission to care for yourself like you care for a friend. With empathy, compassion, and patience.
• You have a deep sense of responsibility for other people. This will exhaust you and eat you up, so boundaries and travel is a must to remind you that no matter how embodied you feel in your situation, these are all temporary. Travel is a death rehearsal. You are insignificant in the scale of the world.
• By hook or by crook, take vacations to do nothing. "--to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream."
• Be selfish and schedule a vacation earlier than midyear. You usually have a mini or major burn out by June.
• On vacations, play Nina Simone. I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.
• Rehearse death in little ways as when you allow yourself to feel empty after a big accomplishment. As when a friend leaves you and you simply say I'll miss you, good luck. We only miss the people we love. Emptiness after a big feat reflects all the parts of you you put in.
• "Whatever arises, contemplate upon it." The examined life is painful but it's the only way to live. It is what allows you to make real choices.
• Practice pleasure. You know the type of life you want to lead. It has always been about coffee, books, alak, good company and food, and art.
• You are an artist at heart. Honor this mode of being. Make time for it in your lifetime. Unlike nature, when it comes to humans, anything beautiful is hard won. Don't forget to make it beautiful!
• From your history home girl, Eleanor Roosevelt: "The greatest thing I have learned is how good it is to come home again." Leave in order to come home another way.

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” (Annie Dillard)