See what stands long ending fast

Time to think about something. Let's look at one of my favorite poems:

I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing
by Walt Whitman

I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it, and the moss hung down from the branches;
Without any companion it grew there, uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself;
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there, without its friend, its lover
near--for I know I could not;
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away--and I have placed it in sight in my room;
It is not needed to remind to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them;)
Yet it remains to me a curious token--it makes me think of love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana, solitary, in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life, without a friend, a lover, near,
I know very well I could not.
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And I know that I can't either, Mr. Whitman

Time to re-enter the world. I've been too introverted lately, and now I'm ready to "let love in," as the cliche goes. Not just seek new friendships with new people, but forgive and appreciate family and religion too.

If there's anything that Walt Whitman wanted to teach, it was that if we will ever learn anything about ourselves, we must realize that we are transcendently part of something greater, bigger, and more amazing than ourselves. If I'm going to be happy like I used to, I must return my mind and my attention to the community around me.

"It's way too late to be this locked inside ourselves" ~C'mere - Interpol - Antics Album

And so the walls will come down. I'm going to open the doors, and, when dissatisfied with that, rip the doors off their hinges. Life's too short to hide away. The isolated self is a recipe for disaster.

Maybe I'll go back to church...

Soundtrack:
C'mere - Interpol - Antics
Under the Gun - The Killers - Hot Fuss, special edition
Eyes - Rogue Wave - Eyes EP
Fire It Up - Black Label Society - Mafia
Just - Radiohead - The Bends