“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”

Preface to Leaves of Grass, -Walt Whitman (1855)

Having time to myself, time to me, for me: 
My thoughts, my feelings, my breath. 
My doubts, for tides of desperation, the burning feeling of impatience and anxiety.
For melting-heart-moments of tenderness and baby smells.
For the terrifying-shaking instances of insecurities, and the painful occasions where I find myself lost, alone.  

 Stillness can bring so much insight.  In a world where movement is becoming a definition of action and productivity, i can now say--from experience-- that it's not necessarily true.  
Experience.  There is only so much that can be understood through theory, study.  Experience adds the "heart-beat" element, the key ingredient that makes it all bind together.  Just as our bodies: the heart pumps and blood circulates, making it all follows its course. 
The image that comes to mind is that of someone whose lost its breath, and suddenly with one thump at its chest, grasps for air, inhales to the last corner of its lungs...comprehending breath.  Comprehension. 

I'm right there.  Grasping for air.  My body laying horizontal, mouth open, tracheae expanding, diaphragm rising, conveying air to my lungs. Back and neck back-bending smoothly.  Eyes open. Ribs expand, lungs full.  
Expiration, exhalation.  
Breath.
Tears.  

I'm right there.  The basic.  The essential of life.  
Experiencing, comprehending and being witness of change--for this breath might be similar to that of a new born, but not the same. Not the same for i'm not new, my vulnerability lies somewhere else, i have history. 
As much as i believe that we come to this world not new, but continuing a journey that started long before this century, this is another awakening...a new color of participation. 

Walt Whitman suggests life participation so beautifully. 
I call for a life of comprehension, not understanding.  It's the world of ideas and world of experiences colliding.  
Action.