Three Lessons from a Gobi Desert Train Ride

Last weekend I was able to travel to the Gobi Desert with Jonathan and Tunga so that Jonathan could renew his visa and continue working here in Mongolia. On our way down there were a couple wonderful things that we were able to experience beyond the beautiful Mongolian landscape and the fact that, after my first train ride ever, this is definitely my new favorite form of transportation.

Friends Are The Best Company

Trips are always more fun when you're travel with people you love. On the train ride we were in a small cabin and since it only fit four people we almost had the whole thing to ourselves. With one new friend each way, the four of us stayed up late playing cards, games, talking, laughing, shooting video and eating tons of random snacks we had gathered for the 17-hour trip. What could've been a very long ride seemed to fly by and it was one of the best trips I have ever had.

We Are All Part of A Legacy

This trip reminded me that all of us are part of a legacy (several usually). When we arrived at the station, at the border town of Zamin Uud between Mongolian and China, we were greeted by my fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Cameron who was kind enough to meet us at seven o'clock in the morning when we arrived. He took us to a wonderful little hotel that we never would've found on our own, which was the perfect price for three of us, very comfortable and very close to the small ger that he lives in next to his host family. Later in the day after lunch he showed us around his ger, a traditional Mongolian home, introduced us to some of his Mongolian friends and really made us feel at home. Being part of the Peace Corps legacy allowed all of this to happen - connecting us together even at the edge of the Gobi Desert. But then an unexpected legacy connected us together while we were visiting Cameron's ger. Looking around I noticed several Boy Scout books that he had on his shelf and asked if he was a Boy Scout back in America. Not only was Cameron involved but so was Ben, another Volunteer who happened to be visiting. Boy Scouts has made a huge impact on my life and it turns out it was a big part of their lives too. After some great conversations, a few days later we were all back in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, meeting with my friends at the National Mongolian Scouting Association. We have already gotten several other Peace Corps Volunteers involved in the past week and it looks like it's going to be a great year helping a great organization. You never know how you'll connect to others, how the legacies of organizations you are part of interweave and link you to your past, present and future.

We Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Legacy is a very interesting word in English. It means looking back to where we come from and honoring the traditions that have brought us to where we are, and it also means looking at what we're doing now and how that is going to impact us later in our lives. I love that Chris uses the words legacy project to refer to what he does at The Art of Non-Conformity. I feel similarly that Advance Humanity is my legacy project, the thing that I want to define in my lifetime and then have continue after I'm gone. That's the third thing this trip helped me remember - trips go by quickly. Great memories, videos, pictures and writings help us remember wonderful times, but whether it's a trip into the Gobi Desert or a journey anywhere else on the planet, our time is short. As Stephen Grellet famously said, "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

I hope you're having a wonderful time on your journey right now, wherever you are.

Have you checked out our growing Advance Humanity community on Facebook?

The Greatness of Simplicity

I have found that one of my worst habits is complicating my life. Things are simple, but I complicate them. I have one beautiful thing, but I want five more. I have fifteen great books unread, but I collect more. I have a simple, awesome idea and I add layers of complication on top of it. Instead of just appreciating what I have, I overlook it trying to find the next thing. “Life is really simple," wrote Confucius, "but we insist on making it complicated.” I agree.

Here is a really awesome excerpt from Self Control, Its Kingship and Majesty by William George Jordan (1905) which was posted on ArtofManliness.com...

Say What You Need To Say

I am afraid to write what I really think. I used to say that I was afraid because I didn’t think people were ready to hear what I had to say, but that wasn’t true. The only person not ready was me. I was afraid of what people might think of me and how my relationships with people might change. I was afraid I wouldn’t live up to expectations. Life is too short. Too short for me not to be myself. I am still afraid, but I want to say what I think. I might not always be right but I want to be honest.

When we are honest with our emotions, however dark they may be,
We invite others to be real and to face their own pain.
And then real transformation can occur – that’s how we are going to fix this planet.


But when we suppress, when we are fake, we send a message out to others
that they need to be fake too and hold in their truth.
This is how things will remain the same.


Today, be real. You don’t need to be anyone else but who you are.
Being honest helps the rest of us find our truth.

Yehuda Berg

Annoying

The idea of happy and waiting might seem easy, until you have to do it. Learning this skill, this art, takes me to the edge of my sanity. Someone tells me something will happen at a certain time. I wait. The time comes. Nothing. I wait. One hour. Nothing. Two hours. Nothing. I get angry because I want something. I want something different than what I have and I get angry, upset, confused, and quite annoying to the people around me. I can say from personal experience that suffering and desire go hand in hand.

But it makes sense doesn't it? Why the happiest people in the world aren't the ones with the most money. Or the biggest stuff. Or, more basically, the people who have gotten what they wanted the most times in a row. The happiest people seem to have very little. They don't have much and they don't want much. Buddha took it further and I want to as well. The point of life is not enjoying pleasure or avoiding pain. Both will come, you can't stop that. The point of life is not permanence or things that seem permanent like fame, power or wealth. They will go, you can't stop that. Happiness comes from somewhere else more fundamental. You can choose to be right where you are, appreciate it for what it is, fully accept it, and do your best. You can choose to love, to give, to hope, to do what you know is right, especially when it is hard.

Ultimately it's up to you. I accept that. I know that whatever happens, I chose how I act. If I am unhappy, I can change what I am thinking, I can change what I am doing. The problem is not "out there." Out there is only an extension of "in here." When I get angry, upset, confused, and annoying to the people around me, I am trying harder and harder to remember that I can choose a different path. After all, it's annoying to me too.

Opportunities

Things in life can get difficult. Experiences. Changes. Surprises. Difficulties. But when I wonder how things could be better, I always realize that things are very, very good. No matter what. No matter how bad things get, my life is still very, very good. My work. Friends. Surroundings. Hobbies. Free Time. Relationship. Love. So good in fact that when I consider even one of these good things by themselves, just one of my close friends for instance, I realize just having that one person with me makes my life incredible. I choose to be positive about my life, through all of its ups and downs, because I have thought out the alternatives, considered other paths, and realized that things right now are way better that I could have ever predicted or (more importantly) could have ever planned out. Every moment seems to bring something incredible into my life and the more I choose to see those moments as opportunities the more I enjoy them.

Discover Your World

Living in line with truth is the point of meditation, truth about the world and the way things really are. Buddha said, “Your work is to discover your world and then with all of your heart give yourself to it.” Those two things are in order because you need to understand your world and yourself first before you can give yourself to it or anything for that matter. Who are you, really, deep down? What are the ways of the world, the kinds of truth that will always be and principles that will never fail? I have a long way to go but with some time, patience, and meditation, I think I know a little.

Everything Changes

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln, “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!” At the smallest level we can observe particles constantly in motion at incredible speeds. At the largest level galaxies flying away from each other in our enormous universe. Somewhere in between civilizations flourish, mountains crumble, life ends and life begins. All around us our world tells us that everything changes and yet...we act surprised. Not my body. Not my car. Not my life. Surely something must stay the same. Just this: everything changes.

Let Go

When we meditate on this fact, when we apply it to our lives, we are forced to let go of our preconceived notions of how things will go or how our lives should or shouldn’t be. Life isn’t meant to be permanent, it is meant to be experienced. Love and let go. Laugh and let go. Meditation is about truly seeing the world as it really is, in this moment, experiencing it and then letting it go. Moment to moment awareness, of this repetition, this kiss, this smile, this beauty, allows us to truly give ourselves to it. Whether it’s your first or your last is irrelevant. In fact, if you truly experience your life moment to moment and let go of expectation, you will do what many people hope to do: the popular and often sung idea of “living every day like it’s your last.”

The nice thing about truth, about life, is that everyone can experience it for themselves. Actually, everyone has to experience it for themselves. Meditation and enlightenment rest entirely on the shoulders of the person doing it. No one can do it for you and all the words in the world will mean nothing if they don’t live out through your experiences. As you grow stronger in your body and your mind, be sure to grow stronger in your understanding of the world around you. Then, when you are ready, give yourself to it with all of your heart. At least that’s what I think. And Buddha too.

Quiet the Holiday Noise

This morning I read some great advice from ZenHabits, one of my favorite email subscriptions:

During these holidays, think about what’s most important to you. That might be your loved ones, or a loved one, whether that’s a spouse or friends or kids or parents or whatever. It might be your work — what you create and are passionate about. It might be something else. Focus on that during these holidays, and remember that the rest is just noise. It’s not important. Fully experience what’s important to you, and let the rest fade away.

It's great advice. I know the holidays can be stressful, especially the further we move away from being the young people who get presents and become the older people who give them. But don't feel pressured by others. Be honest with them and with yourself. If something feels like too much, take a step back and try to simplify your involvement and your life. It's better for everyone if you give yourself to what you really care about rather than spreading yourself thin, or trying to be everything to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and focus on the things you love the most, the rest really is just noise.

A New Space

After three weeks of waiting and working, I will be sleeping in my new apartment tonight. This experience has taught me a lot of things that I needed to learn: patience, flexibility, optimism and lightheartedness. Coming to Mongolia over a year ago I was much better at all four of those things, however, over the course of that year here I got more and more comfortable and set in my ways. I liked my apartment, I liked my life and I was beginning to get attached to things in a way that was making my experiences with them more expectation-based and less appreciation-based. It’s the difference between getting a brand new computer and getting tired of it, loving your new car and wanting a newer one; enjoying getting new stuff and having a bunch of stuff I "sort of" like. The stuff hadn’t changed, just me. I have wonderful things and am experiencing a wonderful life, but I just forget that. I am really grateful to have had this reminder, that what I really need is very little and what I have is more than enough. This goes for the things in my life, but especially it goes for the people. I want to make more space in my new apartment and in my schedule for the incredible people in my life.

Minimalism

I recently came across some very good articles and websites on minimalism and found them very motivating. Simplicity is about taking life down to its bare essentials and making sure we are spending our time (the only thing we ever truly have) on what we believe and love. Being in Peace Corps I have few belongings and commitments, yet still I have far too many. I want to live a simple and meaningful life. It's nice to have some inspiration and help along the way.

Dalai Quotes

I'm very excited to announce that the Dalai Quotes application for the iPhone and iPod Touch has finally been released! It is a collection of 400+ quotes from the Dalai Lama available through the iTunes App Store for $0.99 and all net proceeds are going to support the Dalai Lama's Foundation for Universal Responsibility, which he established with the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 1989. The application is a collaboration between myself and James at SoftwareX who has been a great partner. I have been collecting Quotes from the Dalai Lama for years and am really excited to be able to share them with others.



This is only the first version of the application and we will be making lots of improvements with your suggestions. In fact to say thanks for great suggestions we will be giving away free copies of the application so please share your thoughts with us at any time. We hope people enjoy Dalai Quotes and we look forward to making it better and better! Thanks!

• Dalai Quotes in the iTunes App Store
• Dalai Quotes Fan Page on Facebook
  

A Developing World

Many aspects of American life are taken as is with little question. Speed. Productivity. Work. Time. Money. Success. There is a latent feeling that we have to be doing something, all the time. We can choose to live this way, certainly, but it’s important to realize that it is exactly that: one choice. There are others.

Oh The Places You’ll Go
Imagine wanting a ride somewhere several miles away. You find a taxi driver and ask him if he can take you. “Sure,” he says, “Give me your phone number and I’ll call you when I’m ready to go.” When you ask when he will leave he says, “Margash.” In Mongolian this means “later,” but it also means any time in the future, including tomorrow. The entire country operates on this system, so you will need to be patient. Things happen, but not in any sort of rush. Why rush anyway? What’s the point?

The point is I have places to be, people to see, and important stuff to do…right? Maybe. It’s good to have plans, to feel driven to be a good person and achieve great things, but what if you could do that now? What if your happiness didn’t rely on future events? It was a huge adjustment for me, but Mongolia culture opened my mind to the possibility that my happiness doesn’t have to be placed at sometime in the future. Whether or not I get a taxi ride, or get to any future destination, I can be happy right now.

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There
Mindfulness Meditation is based on the awareness of reality as it exists right now. It is not interested in the past or the future. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us, as Emerson said. When we take a moment to catch our breath, to feel our hearts beating, to be with the people around us rather than just do something with them, we find a sort of peace that can’t be found by doing. Mindfulness is about being.

Eventually you will likely get your taxi ride and arrive at your destination, but the neat thing about Mongolian life is that everything in between is just as enjoyable as getting wherever you are going. People laugh, play, kid, enjoy each other’s company and stop for drinks and snacks all along the way. This goes for a walk across town or a trip across country. They are naturally very good at being exactly where they are and appreciating their life as it moves along. Maybe this comes from thousands of years of nomadic living and the flexibility that comes with living in such an ever-changing climate, but it also serves them well in the ever-changing world culture we all find ourselves in today.

The “developing world” may be expanding their horizons technologically, but spiritually and psychologically they have quite a few things to teach the “developed world.” We don’t need the newest, greatest things to make us happy. We don’t really need any thing. I may have come from a developed country to this developing country, but I can tell you one thing: I am the one that’s developing.

"A Developing World" was recently featured in Mindful Muscle

Two Years and Change

Two years and two months, that’s how long Thoreau was at Walden Pond. I’m not the first nor will I be the last Peace Corps Volunteer to see a correlation between what Henry David did and what many of us are doing in our service:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” he writes to start his book, “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

We spend two years and three months of our lives facing life in a much more raw way than many Americans ever choose to. We do it deliberately because we believe in it and we hope to come out the other end wiser and better as people. In Peace Corps there is an incredible amount of time for introspection into who we are, what is important in life and what the world has to teach us if we are awake to it.

“I have never met a man who was quite awake,” Thoreau writes in his closing lines, “Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” The question is then, of course, how do we become awake?

Voluntary Simplicity

Jon Kabat-Zinn speaks of Voluntary Simplicity in Wherever You Go There You Are:

“Voluntary Simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more…It involves intentionally doing only one thing at a time and making sure I am here for it…I practice saying no to keep my life simple, and I find I never do it enough…You don’t get to control it all. But choosing simplicity whenever possible adds to life an element of deepest freedom which so easily eludes us, and many opportunities to discover that less may actually be more.”

What in this moment is truly worth my time? Being where I am, with who I am with, loving people important to me, being honest, kind and helpful and enjoying my life is far better than worrying, watching advertising or talking just to talk. Truly enjoying my life doesn’t involve wishing for some other moment to replace this one or trying to fit as many things into this moment as possible. It involves being present, appreciating where I am and making the most of it.

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” wrote Thoreau in Walden, “I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen…In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and the thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, Simplify.”

Indeed.

To Change Often

The biggest reason I was scared of coming to America was my fear of change. Things were going so well in Mongolia for me and I was so happy that I didn't want that to change. I was even a little sick to my stomach sometimes, wondering what being gone for five weeks would mean. I know that might sound silly, but think back to when you left home for school, or when you left a loved one for a long period of time. What would coming back be like? Better? How could it be better if things were already wonderful?

I think things can improve beyond wonderful for three reasons: (1) things had to change in order for you to get to the wonderful place you are at currently, (2) things always change, wonderful is a perspective and (3) you can control how you respond to your situation, that's it. I didn't learn all of this at once, and especially not on my own. Some things I hoped would be true (and they were) and some things my friends reminded me of as I was up at night wondering why my stomach hurt.

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." I had never thought about being perfect in that way, but you have to adapt, grow, and be better constantly. It is easy to forget, but if things are wonderful right now that means you had to give up where you were before to be where you are now. You had to leave home to go to school, you had to leave your country to go overseas, you had to leave your old ideas of who you were to become someone you had never been before. If you are happy now, imagine how happy you will be tomorrow, and the next day. Keep growing and improving and you will blow your flippin' mind.

The fact is that everything is always changing, from the smallest subatomic particles to the largest galaxies. Whether we see that as wonderful or not actually tells us more about ourselves than anything else. We see the world as we are. Do we want it to be wonderful, full of opportunities, love and fun? That's a choice we can make ourselves. We are, and the world will be, what we think about day in and day out.

So once I really thought about what I could control I realized that the things that worried me regarding my five weeks away from Mongolia were the same things that worried me about leaving America over a year ago. I wanted to maintain close relationships, let people know I loved them and cared about them, and stay true to the things I believed in. I have learned that there are always ways to do those things no matter where you are, including sending cards, making calls, taking pictures (with other miniature ones even), taking time for reflection, and living in moment to moment awareness. At this level change becomes manageable, almost a day-to-day check list in my mind about the people and things I love and care about. Do my loved ones know I care about them? Did I show them that today? Am I living out what I believe in? If yes, perfect. If no, improve. Simple enough.

Needless to say, my worries about returning to a less wonderful Mongolia (or America for that matter) were unfounded. I have been completely astounded by how wonderful all of you are in both places. I am a very lucky person to know each of you and to be enjoying my life with you. Thank you for teaching me that change is nothing to be afraid of.

Think About The Box

Think outside about the box. That's what it said, the little piece of paper I picked up in the store. If I had to sum up everything I am thinking about in America, that would be it; it's the box.

It's the box that tells us success is achievable through some jobs but not through others, that happiness is comparable and purchasable, that celebrities are more valuable that everyone else, that doing is better than being, and that we have to have running water, electricity and bills.

Why don't we pursue happiness in all of our jobs regardless of how "prestigious" that job may appear? Why aren't we happy with what we have, not what we will have or when we have what someone else has? Why don't we turn off the news, movies and shows forever and start making our own lives so incredible that it makes all those things look silly? Why can't we just be happy with sitting in silence, with ourselves and others? Why must we always have something to do, somewhere to go, something to play, or else we get bored? Why have we forgotten that in almost all of the countries of the world, people live every day with no running water, no electricity and no bills? Why do we pity these people when we should pity ourselves?

There are people in the world who love their jobs, love what they have, don't want, don't covet, don't follow the media, live incredible lives, are never bored, love silence, can be with others and be alone and love them both, can do something or nothing and be content, and live every day fetching just enough water to live, use solar or self-powered utilities and don't have possessions that require any bills at all.

We shouldn't pity these people because if paradise is an idyllic place or state, they are living in it everyday. We have been inside the box so long we forgot what we have always wanted.

Slowing Down

I am in the habit of only putting up blog posts that are press release style, with a positive spin and a lesson learned. This is mostly how I live my life, especially when I’m in the zone. But I’m not always in the zone, sometimes life comes at me faster than I can take it and it feels like I barely have time to breathe. That’s hard for me right now, especially after being in Mongolia for a year. There I can breathe, look around, smile and then breathe some more.

I tried to hit the ground running here in America, with a full itinerary (maybe busting at the seams, as Carrie so eloquently put it) and a lot of people I wanted to visit with and hug. I tried not to fill my schedule with too much, just a few highlights. But even so it has still felt like a lot to me. I still can’t tell if that means I need to step it up and get better at doing more things in a day or slow it down and just take on less each day. In Mongolia I do very few things each day and I am able to put a lot of focus and care into each of them. Things are grouped into hours usually, an hour for lunch here, an hour for class there, an hour for a meeting, an hour for working out and so on. This makes it easy to keep track of things and makes for a very relaxed lifestyle. If the length of our lives were all equal in the number of heartbeats, I think Mongolians would live longer because their hearts have calmer, slowly beats on a regular basis. We live fast in America that’s for sure, but I think that increased heart rate of ours might cost us in the end. I feel like it’s just all a bit too much too fast.

Henry David Thoreau said, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.” I think I agree with him.

Always

My most wonderful sister in the world gets married in just a few hours and I could not be happier or more excited for her. She and her new husband (my new brother) Chess have been waiting for this day for a very long time and I am very glad to be here experiencing it with both of them. It is an occasion that has brought together everyone in our family, from grandparents to distant uncles, aunts and cousins, as well as friends that have been with us since kindergarten. We have all grown a lot since then, especially my sister who has grown from a sweet wonderful girl into a sweet wonderful woman. I'm sure a lot of thoughts will be going through the minds of everyone during the wedding tomorrow morning, but I think I can say with confidence what will be going through mine. As I stand next to our brother and fellow groomsman Elias, watching my sister and Chess join their hands in marriage, I will be about thinking this: how much I love her, how much I support her and how much I hope she will always be happy.

So You Are Happy?

I haven't been in America more than two days, but it feels like I have been here for a week. It's crazy! Things move so fast here and there is just so much going on. Everything in the media is like an action movie: commercials, television shows, radio, whatever. BAM! BOOM! YEAH! AWESOME! BUY IT! NOW! YOU'LL BE HAPPY! HI YAH!

I'll tell you what I think, life is far more interesting than the drama. Life is far more satisfying in small ways than big and a life filled with love and simplicity is way better than anything on a screen.

Alex, my wonderful Peace Corps sitemate (we live together in the same city) in Mongolia, caught me on Google Chat this morning and asked how I was. I said I was doing good and then she said, "So you are happy?" I thought to myself, yeah, well, I think so, right? Hahaha The fact is in Mongolia it's easier to answer that question day to day. Life is simple and it's much easier to keep track of the fact you are happy. Plus no one tells you that you aren't happy or that you could be happier (like the media?), which helps a lot. I smiled and said back to her, "That's a really good question Alex." Probably the most important question I have heard in a long time. I think the more I ask that of myself and everyone around me everyday, the better off we all will be.

Right Speech

Right Speech is one of the elements of the Buddhist Eightfold Path and deals with a person making the best use of their words. It is amazing what power our words have, to hurt or heal, to upset or inspire, or to break us apart or bring us together. Right Speech is about taking care to always speak the truth and to make sure what you have to say is beneficial to everyone who hears it. Here are some pointers that I think are helpful:

• Abandon false speech : Speak the truth, hold to the truth, be firm, reliable, and deceive no one
• Abandon divisive speech : Do not tell what you have heard to break apart people. Reconcile those who have broken apart and cement those who are united, speak things that create concord
• Abandon abusive speech : Speak words that are soothing to the ear, that are affectionate, that go to the heart, that are polite, appealing and pleasing to people at large
• Abandon idle chatter : Speak in season, speak what is factual, what is worth treasuring, and what is reasonable
  

• If your words are unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, unendearing and disagreeable to others, don't say them.
• If your words are factual, true, unbeneficial, unendearing and disagreeable to others, don't say them.
• If your words are factual, true, beneficial, but unendearing and disagreeable to others, have a sense of the proper time for saying them.
• If your words are unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing and agreeable to others, don't say them.
• If your words are factual, true, unbeneficial, but endearing and agreeable to others, don't say them.
• If your words are factual, true, beneficial, and endearing and agreeable to others, have a sense of the proper time for saying them

Bored

Do you know that I have never once, in all this time in Mongolia, been bored? It shocked me when I thought about it, but it's true. In America I thought or said out loud that I was bored quite often. Even around my best friends I would be bored, which now just seems ridiculous. How could I have been bored when I was around my favorite people in the entire world?

I think it has a lot to do with our distractions, our saturation with stimulus in America. We have a never-ending amount of things to fill our senses and we hope that they will make us happier. Video games fill our screens, food fills our stomachs, and maybe most of all random people fill our ears with nonsense: celebrities, pundits, experts, professionals, whoever. Even though our lives are incredible, many media sources would have us believe that our lives are unremarkable. When characters on the screen have such interesting lives how can we compare? We don't compare. We shouldn't. The comparison is unreasonable. Reality is far different, much deeper, and more full than all of that. A simple life of love, friends, family, and adventures is enough to fill many wonderful years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. It might just be that the moment we realize that is the moment we stop being bored.

One can dream of something more terrible than a hell where one suffers;
it's a hell where one would get bored. Victor Hugo