savage beauty

'The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length. It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.'

- Diane Ackerman

A docile life would be robbed of the real beauty - the savage beauty - that can only be witnessed when all of life's fears and heartbreaks and messy complexities are acknowledged in full.

I don't want a life of constant drama and endless confusion; I do want to find a self-assurance, an anchor in life's storms, an inner peace. But what I really need is a way to ride those rugged waves with salt-stung eyes, strong arms, and a steady heart, feeling the rightful fear of the brutal ocean embraced by that transcendent calm that comes only from beyond me, and only from within.