We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one. "NOTEBOOKS," VOLTAIRE

99 tiles shatter on the floor. To be careful is to be bound, a senseless, self-inflicted harm upon the body is to be hypervigilant of the self relative to others. Are you determined to fight against your ego developing? Are you afraid of getting wet?

home tiles 38-51

TILE 38

tile 38: mein herz. the belt is cool against my back. leather is much like a balm in the sticky sweltering summer. my eyes are rimmed red. i dont have the energy anymore. i am saddened that my belt is hogging the bed.

it lays sprawled out on the better, cushy side of the bed. in a letter to parliament i write that they should keep museums forever. in a letter to my dog i write itd be ok if he got rid of his collar after i die. he wags his tail and licks my face and i smile. in a letter to the oak tree behind my house i write that i hope it does not itch. would its branches help it out then? the belt is cool against my back. dont belts deserve lives too. i hope every belt buckle and wallet chain and mirror is happy with its circumstances. i hope every bill and prescription bottle and ceramic geisha is happy with its circumstances. its hard to glassblow in the sticky sweltering summer.

TILE 39

the 39th tile asks you if you know what you're doing. do you think if you just tell everyone what they are thinking then it'll go away? even if you tell on yourself you can't rid yourself of the rot that sticks to you. slimy, sticky, film that shows that even if you're afraid you look like an attention seeker, a fraud, a liar, a loser, a failure, if you say it before anyone else can, it doesn't go away. wouldnt it be better to confront your own behaviour and change. if you know and are worried you're making a mistake and do it anyway you just tell us about you instead of be someone self-aware and accountable

if it seems so then how can you course correct. if it looks like it how can you change it. if you are so tired and so guilty so remorseful and repenting for your actions for the way you're perceived then why do you persist so in the perception you hate so much? in the one that makes you feel so. why not choose your life

the refusal to change when you know better is slow suicide

TILE 40

tile 40 is about the life outside.

outside in the spring, after the rain of april and right before the growing heat of the end of may, the pastures are greener. in the organic alive world everything is moving like they told you they would. cicadas cry out to the world like newborn babies fresh out the womb of soil. beneath the tree in the shade lies someone who admires the rolling hills and rare, freeing breaths of breeze from the stratosphere. the tree grows peaches, heavy and ripe and glisteningly orangeish pink. peaches so ripe and abundant they bruise just by you holding them. they're so beautiful that it's fragile now. handle with care.

you aren't promised a perfect life. you're promised a tender one. with dirt under your nails and butterflies landing on your hat. you're promised a basket full of strawberries and the salt of ocean air, crisp and clear, swelling around you. you're promised sand between your toes, fruit from trees, smiles so hard they hurt. more blades of grass than people on earth, more freckles on her face than stars in the night sky. the peaches are ripe but the residue begs for ants. what matters is if you throw it all away or wash it instead

TILE 41

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TILE 42

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TILE 43

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home tiles 38-51

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