Each morning, before we get up, Maria and I lie in bed and talk. At one point, Maria said, “Oh, I wish I didn’t have to get up…” Then, a few minutes late, she said, “I can’t wait to get up and get to work.” I said I felt the same, I say that to myself every morning when I wake up.

I told Maria that was it, right there, the two ways to look at the world each day. I wonder if it’s a choice.  Is it a grind to get up and face the world every day, can one choose to see it as an opportunity to  be in the world, to be fulfilled? Can we decide? There were many days in my life when I did not wish to get up in the morning and face my life, and then I decided to change my life, so that I would be eager to face the world and do my work. That was true of Maria as well.

Maria and I both love our work, and our lives. I am committed to never again living a life where I can’t bear to get up and face it each day. After breakfast we went for a walk, and I came across this empty old signpost on the edge of a farm. Right there, right in front of me, the blank slate, the choice. Do I see my life as one eternal struggle story, or am I eager to get up and live it. The blank slate had a powerful and reinforcing message for me. It’s for me to say.