The greatest bond in creation, and the strongest: friendship.

*

Tonight I sat contemplating my life.

How did I see my life?

A chain, its links tightly wrought, of fears and cares and hopes.

But I also saw: the moments of my happiness shining and sparkling, and nothing — not even despair — can wipe out their radiance and their gleam.

The moments of my happiness — and how few they are.

I saw the years of my life passing swiftly, swiftly; was I dreaming then, that I felt neither the passage of time nor its worth?

And I grieved over the hours I spent bewailing my lot and cursing the day on which I was born.

What good did that do? And what a child I was then!

How shall I make up for those hours I wasted? By spending my days reading and writing and

taking my pleasure in life? But I do all that now.

How then shall I make up for them? And how does one attain happiness?

By doing one's duties? By keeping oneself occupied, body and mind, the whole time through? But do I not do that?

There must be some solution: could it be religion? Or is that a kind of escape?

I am at a loss.