Tangled up in Blue

Be careful who you invite into your soul.

Where has she gone, where is the glow Of silver stars that are her eyes?

I once heard a woman speak of her loneliness as if it were a small bird. […] Perhaps longing is just the heart changing its colors.

I am turned into a dream. I feel nothing, or I don’t know what I feel. Yet it seems to me I am happy.

I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I’m me. One day I’ll jump Out of my skin. I’ll shake the sky like a hundred violins.

You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch. Your personality is not set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy. You can change what you want about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on the surface, you can change anytime you like. If it is useful to do so, you must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way.