In spite of how tempting it is to follow my father's lead and give up abstinence...in my mature years, I've always given up coffee. Now that I'm drinking decaf 99% of the time, I have chosen to abstain from eating anything purchased through a window.

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Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.