The people who succeed are the ones who think through what they really want from the experience and then work incredibly hard, day after day, to attain their goals. They don’t just flop around like fish out of water. They have a vision, and they work their asses off to make it a reality.

Happily for you, dear girl, that isn’t the case here. You’re perfectly safe. I might hurt you – no, let me amend that, I’m definitely going to hurt you, but I would never harm you.” Jaime.

Then you fail. And you try again. You keep at it, despite failing, or because of failing, if that makes sense. It’s like creating that perfect recipe. You rework and rework and rework it until you get it right.

It's a matter of visualizing what you want and then making it happen.

I’ve come to realize I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring whole chunks of myself. If feelings didn’t fit in with my carefully constructed view of the world and my place in it, I just shut them down. I don’t have anyone or anything to blame, unless you can blame a whole society and the way men are taught to look at and approach the world.

I guess what they say is true—sometimes you have to smack up against a brick wall before you can admit it’s time to change or die. For me the death was an emotional one. It’s taken me this long to figure out I was killing myself by shutting off my true feelings and desires.

Really, we’re just a microcosm of the human condition. Whether we’re here a day, a month, a year, fifty years—our time on this earth is finite.” This time he turned to Brendan. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal, as they say. This is our chance to discover things we might have only dreamed of before.

Since the dawn of humanity, birds have inspired infinite beauty, happiness and wisdom. They're one of our strongest connections to our natural home and so to life and to reality itself.

As you walk, notice expectations you may be holding about what birds you may meet, observe them and let them go. Bring your awareness back to sights and sounds in the landscape. Open up to the unexpected in each moment - and accept the possibility of seeing no birds at all.

Birdwatching will never yield instant gratification. It depends on acceptance and patience...