Embrace the Fleeting...

I found myself tempering my enjoyment of life with the knowledge that everything is temporary. "This too shall pass" was always the dimly lit background restraining whatever joy or sorrow I was experiencing. In retrospect, that's been both a comfort and a curse.

Granted my relative sanity has made my social interactions smoother and more constructive, but at what cost? Limiting my emotions now seems self-defeating and I avoid it if I can. You offer sadness? I'll experience misery. You offer friendship? I'll experience love. You offer indifference? I don't know you.

One small word change in perspective made this possible. 

Loneliness became solitude. 

When in loneliness, I couldn't stop taking. When in solitude, I can't stop giving. Simple as that. That's my rush, that's my thrill, that's my go-to life nowadays... 

... which again is only temporary.

I wondered if tempering and temporary came from the same root word. Answer is: No