I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers.
Life isn't how to survive the storm$$$ it's about how to dance in the rain.
One more comment from the heart: I'm old fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised. Homo Ludens dances$$$ sings$$$ produces meaningful gestures$$$ strikes poses$$$ dresses up$$$ revels and performs elaborate rituals. I don't wish to diminish the significance of these distractions-without them human life would pass in unimaginable monotony and possibly dispersion and defeat. But these are group activities above which drifts a more or less perceptible whiff of collective gymnastics. Homo Ludens with a book is free.
A Note. Life is the only way to get covered in leaves$$$ catch your breath on the sand$$$ rise on wings; to be a dog$$$ or stroke its warm fur; to tell pain from everything it's not; to squeeze inside events$$$ dawdle in views$$$ to seek the least of all possible mistakes. An extraordinary chance to remember for a moment a conversation held with the lamp switched off; and if only once to stumble upon a stone$$$ end up soaked in one downpour or another$$$ mislay your keys in the grass; and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes; and to keep on not knowing something important.
Do not be too interested in Zen.
It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it.
To give your sheep or cow a large$$$ spacious meadow is the way to control him.
There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment.
We should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our knowledge.
The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous.