DECLARATIONS OF A HEALTHY ADULTHOOD 

“We have in fact only two certainties in this world — that we are not everything and that we will die. To be conscious of not being everything, as one is of being mortal, is nothing. But if we are without a narcotic, an unbreathable void reveals itself. I wanted to be everything, so that falling into this void, I might summon my courage and say to myself: “I am ashamed of having wanted to be everything, for I see now that it was to sleep.” From that moment begins a singular experience. The mind moves in a strange world where anguish and ecstasy coexist.”

“It’s summer, which means my skin is all honey before noon. Which means I’m celebrating the anniversaries of lovers I never kissed and bodies I never loved. Which means the air is humid as an open mouth with all this wanting.”

I feel more vulnerable in the spring than in the fall. That’s why I’m so damp. This isn’t sweat. It’s something the sun has wrung from my heart.